Oct 30, 2007 2:27 am US/Eastern
Anti-Clinton Video Draws Web Audience
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
First came the Orwellian mash up YouTube video that portrayed
Hillary Rodham Clinton as Big Brother. Then came a clip of her off-key
rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Now, a stinging 13-minute
video by a bitter Clinton foe is finding its own Internet audience.
The clip, a preview of a longer film by one-time Clinton donor Peter
Paul, has scored more than 1.4 million hits on Google Video and about
350,000 on YouTube during the past week. Its popularity has driven it
to the top spot on Google Video over the past two weeks.
Paul is a Hollywood entrepreneur, former partner of Spider-Man
creator Stan Lee and convicted felon who has sued the Clintons in
connection with a celebrity-packed fundraiser he helped organize for
her 2000 Senate race. A California appeals court earlier this month
ruled that Sen. Clinton should be dismissed from the suit.
But Paul has devoted a Web site to the case and his film, "Hillary
Uncensored," in recent days has been touring New England College
campuses. On Tuesday, the film is scheduled to be screened at the
Metropolitan Club in New York City.
The Clintons have long argued that Paul's criminal record discredits
him and in court pleadings have denied Paul's claims against them.
"Peter Paul is a professional liar who has four separate criminal
convictions, two for fraud. His video repackages a series of
seven-year-old false claims about Senator Clinton that have already
been rejected by the California state courts, the Justice Department,
the Federal Election Commission, and the Senate Ethics Committee," the
Clinton campaign said in a statement.
Paul's anti-Clinton effort is getting help from two technical
producers who set up the Web site for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,
the 2004 campaign that went after Democratic presidential nominee John
Kerry by raising questions about his decorated military service in
Vietnam.
Robert Hahn and Scott Swett operate http://www.HillCAP.org, the Web
site that Paul set up in 2005 to showcase court documents, videos and
news articles related to his lawsuit. The video trailer "Hillary
Uncensored," and the schedule for the movie are prominently displayed
on the site.
Among those featured in the video speaking in support of Paul is
David Schippers, who served as chief investigative counsel for the
House Judiciary Committee during President Clinton's 1998 impeachment
hearings.
In his lawsuit and in the film, Paul says he spent $1.9 million for
the August 2000 Hollywood fundraiser that featured such stars as Brad
Pitt, Diana Ross and Cher. Paul maintains he organized the event
because President Clinton falsely agreed to assist him in a new venture
with Stan Lee after leaving the presidency in January 2001.
Campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission
estimated the cost of the event at about $500,000. An ensuing criminal
trial of Clinton's former national finance director, David Rosen, on
charges that he lied to the FEC about the fundraiser resulted in an
acquittal. At the time, Rosen's lawyer said Paul concealed the actual
cost of the event from Rosen, a claim Paul denies.
The film also includes a tape recording recently obtained by Paul of
Sen. Clinton thanking him in advance for staging the event, which he
says is proof that she illegally coordinated the fundraiser with him.
The appellate court ruling that dismissed her from the case concluded
the call did not amount to new evidence.
The complexities of the case are all fodder for the video clip and the movie, spiced with clips of Hollywood performers.
"Her abuse of her power as reflected in my case should make
everybody pause about entrusting her with the reins of government,"
Paul said in an interview.
Paul is awaiting sentencing on his 2005 guilty plea to charges of
stock fraud involving Stan Lee Media, the company Paul had wanted
Clinton to join. In the 1970s, he was convicted of cocaine possession
and of attempting to defraud the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
Swett, who is running Paul's HillCAP Web site, said the video has
helped drive more traffic to the Web site, but that the activity is far
less frequent than it was on the site he operated for Swift Boat
Veterans in 2004.
"Then it was in the final months before the election and we're a
year out at this point," he said. "There's a lot of complexity to the
Peter Paul lawsuit. You have to read through some of the documents to
get a handle on it. That was less the case with the charges that the
Swift Boat Veterans and POWs were making against John Kerry."
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