Mrs. Clinton's Eavesdropping Problem

No doubt her boys from Media Matters will issue a press release (once they get it from her) decrying this as old news.

In their book about Clinton’s rise to power, Her Way, Don Van Natta Jr., an investigative reporter at The New York Times, and Jeff Gerth, who spent 30 years as an investigative reporter at the paper, wrote: “Hillary’s defense activities ranged from the inspirational to the microscopic to the down and dirty. She received memos about the status of various press inquiries; she vetted senior campaign aides; and she listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack.

“The tape contained discussions of another woman who might surface with allegations about an affair with Bill,” Gerth and Van Natta wrote in reference to Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. “Bill’s supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions.”

A GOP official said, “Hillary Clinton’s campaign hypocrisy continues to know no bounds. It is rather unbelievable that Clinton would listen in to conversations being conducted by political opponents, but refuse to allow our intelligence agencies to listen in to conversations being conducted by terrorists as they plot and plan to kill us. Team Clinton can expect to see and hear this over and over again over the course of the next year.”

Gerth told The Hill that he learned of the incident in 2006 when he interviewed a former campaign aide present at the tape playing. He has not revealed the aide’s identity. Clinton’s campaign has not disputed any facts reported in the final version of his book, which became public this spring, he said.

Of course, expect little coverage of this from the Washington press corps.

Her chief strategist and Blackwater USA rep Mark Penn also had a little eavesdropping problem of his own. I detect a pattern, and therefore, we must have an investigation.

If it were a Republican accused of eavesdropping, it would be 24/7 coverage. Let's see where this goes.

Meanwhile, her Norman Hsu problem isn't quite going away, as reported by Suitably Flip. You just knew this greedy woman wasn't going to willingly part with her shady cash.

UPDATE: More from Allahpundit.

Hypocritical Democrats Want More Eavesdropping Powers

Forget about pandering to the kook fringe nutroots base and their masters at the ACLU, it's all about appearances for the Democrats. Since they obviously are pathetically weak on national security and fighting terrorism, they need to pretend to be tough. So there goes another principle out the window.

Democrats Scrambling to Expand Eavesdropping

WASHINGTON, July 31 -- Under pressure from President Bush, Democratic leaders in Congress are scrambling to pass legislation this week to expand the government?s electronic wiretapping powers.

Democratic leaders have expressed a new willingness to work with the White House to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it easier for the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on some purely foreign telephone calls and e-mail. Such a step now requires court approval.

Of course, they're all for domestic eavesdropping when they're in power. Just ask Newt Gingrich and John Boehner about that.

Of course, now that they're scrambling to appear tough, Mr. 19%, Dingy Harry, is seeking comity and bipartisanship.

“We hope our Republican counterparts will work together with us to fix the problem, rather than try again to gain partisan political advantage at the expense of our national security,” Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said in a statement Monday night.

Naturally, the terrorist supporters at the ACLU won't stand for any of it.

Some civil liberties groups oppose the proposed changes, expressing concern that there might be far-reaching consequences.

“Congress needs to take its time before it implements another piece of antiterrorism legislation it will regret, like the Patriot Act,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The Bush administration clearly has abused the FISA powers it already has and clearly wants to go back to the good old days of warrantless wiretapping and domestic spying. Congress must stop this bill in its tracks.”

Sorry, not going to happen.

As a sidenote, the paper of record ought to do a better job proofreading, as they misspell the name of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales three times.

Pantsuit Strategist Accused of Eavesdropping

This could be good. Let's see how the Clinton War Machine spins this one.

Clinton's Chief Strategist Is Accused of Illegal Eavesdropping

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief strategist is being accused of illegal eavesdropping in a lawsuit that alleges he and his polling firm monitored the personal e-mails of a former associate who started a rival company.

Mitchell E. Markel, a former vice president at Penn, Schoen & Berland, claims in the lawsuit that the firm began monitoring all messages sent from his personal BlackBerry device nearly a month after he had resigned and become president of his new business. The suit claims that Mark Penn, who is Clinton's chief strategist and pollster, knew about and approved of the monitoring, which the suit says violates federal wiretapping laws.

Penn, Schoen & Berland, which has helped elect clients such as former president Bill Clinton and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is accused of hacking into Markel's BlackBerry and rigging his e-mail accounts to send copies of his e-mail to another account that the firm had set up. The suit says the BlackBerry that Markel used was always his own, never the property of his former employer.

Wow, Democrats accused of sneaky, underhanded tactics.

Whodathunkit?