Subject: CTR 7.11.14 Weekend TPs
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 14:59:42 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

Hi all,

Here are Correct The Record's weekend talking points. Have a great one!

*7.11.14 Weekend Package*

1.       “Hard Choices” is a Success!
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2#14726c2bc33c7916_success>

2.       New Benghazi House Select Committee Will Cost Taxpayers $3 Million
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2#14726c2bc33c7916_select>

3.       The Right Wing Shamefully Attacks Clinton’s Charitable Work
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2#14726c2bc33c7916_shamefully>

4.       Attacking Hillary Clinton’s Legal Career
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2#14726c2bc33c7916_legal>

*“Hard Choices” is a Success!*

*The reviews are in and the statistics are clear - Hillary Clinton’s
memoir, “Hard Choices,” is a SUCCESS!*

*ATTACK:* The right wing launched an attacked that Hillary Clinton’s
memoir, “Hard Choices,” has not been successful.

*FACTS:*

·         Hard Choices remains on track to be one of the bestselling
political books of the year, spending its first three weeks at number one
on the New York Times’ Bestsellers List and now landing at number 2 in its
fourth week.

·         “Hard Choices” is among the year’s most popular nonfiction books,
reportedly selling more than 177,000 copies so far, according to BookScan
estimates.

·         “Hard Choices” spent three weeks at #1 on the New York Times’
Best Sellers List for Hardcover Nonfiction Books, making it one of only a
few political books from this century to reach that milestone.

·         Secretary Clinton’s “Hard Choices” spent more weeks at #1 than
any of her recent predecessors, including Condoleezza Rice’s “No Higher
Honor,” Colin Powell’s “It Worked for Me,” Madeleine Albright’s “Madam
Secretary,” and Warren Christopher’s “Chances of a Lifetime.”

·         “Hard Choices” has far outpaced all of the books by potential
Republican presidential contenders – none of which ever made it to #1 –
including Marco Rubio’s “An American Son,” Scott Walker’s “Unintimidated,”
Jeb Bush’s “Immigration Wars,” Rand Paul’s “Government Bullies,” and Rick
Perry’s “Fed Up!”

·         Hillary Clinton’s “Hard Choices” has one of the highest records
at #1 in the opening weeks of all recent political memoirs, beating out
Dick Cheney’s “In My Time,” Mitt Romney’s “No Apology,” Elizabeth Warren’s
“A Fighting Chance,” and even her husband Bill Clinton’s “Giving.”

·         “Hard Choices” debuted on the New York Times’ Best Sellers list
as the No. 1 “Nonfiction Print Hardcover,” No. 1 “Nonfiction E-Book,” and
No. 1 “Nonfiction Combined Print & E-Book.”

·         In its first week, “Hard Choices” topped a number of best seller
lists and was ranked:

o   “Easily” the No. 1 adult hardcover nonfiction
<http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/62925-hard-choices-print-sales-top-85-000-in-first-week.html>
bestseller
according to Publishers Weekly
<http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/62925-hard-choices-print-sales-top-85-000-in-first-week.html>
;

o   No. 1 on the Nielson BookScan
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/hillary-clintons-book-is-no-2-hardcover-in-first-week>
nonfiction
list;

o   No. 1 bestselling nonfiction iBook
<http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/62921-ibooks-bestsellers-hard-choices-hits-6.html>
;

o   No. 1 on Barnes & Noble’s
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/hillary-clintons-book-tops-barnes-noble-sales-in-first-week>
hardcover
bestseller list, which includes both fiction and nonfiction; and

o   No. 1 bestseller at independent bookstores.
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/hillary-clinton-book-107959.html>

·         “Hard Choices” is an international bestseller. According to
Publishers
Weekly
<http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/international-book-news/article/63028-s-s-touts-hard-choices-sales-performance.html>
:

o   In the U.K., Hard Choices was #2 on the Sunday Times bestseller list;

o   In Australia, it has appeared high on the top ten state and regional
bestseller lists;

o   In Canada, the publisher said the memoir was a #1 bestseller;

o   In Germany and France, even accounting for only a “partial week of
sales,” the book landed on bestseller lists in those countries;

o   In India, “Hard Choices” is currently on Amazon and Flipkart’s top ten
lists.

·         “Hard Choices” has “far outsold” recent political books during
their first week, according to the Daily Beast
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/18/what-do-hillary-s-so-so-book-sales-portend-for-a-clinton-candidacy.html>
.

·         In its first week, “Hard Choices” outsold the combined TOTAL
sales of books
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/killing-conservative-books-the-shocking-end-of-a-publishing>
by
5 potential GOP presidential candidates, including Scott Walker (16,156),
Rand Paul (10,261), Rick Perry (27,260), Paul Ryan (14,727), and Jeb Bush
(4,599).

·         According to first week sales data
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/18/what-do-hillary-s-so-so-book-sales-portend-for-a-clinton-candidacy.html>,
“Hard Choices” is a more successful follow-up than Bill Clinton’s “Giving”
(47,000+ copies first week) or Sarah Palin’s “America By Heart” (57,000+
copies first week).

*NEW BENGHAZI HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE WILL COST TAXPAYERS $3 MILLION*

Want to talk about wasting the money of hardworking Americans who pay
taxes? Republicans want to use 3 million dollars of taxpayers’ money for
partisan political purposes.

Republicans are planning to spend $3 million for a House Select Committee
after eight other congressional committees have already carried out
investigations into the Benghazi tragedy, which have
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/mission-improbable-trey-gowdy-gets-into-benghazi-106326.html>
 included
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/06/us-usa-politics-benghazi-house-idUSBREA440O820140506>
more
than 50 senior level staff briefings, 13 public hearings, at least 3
independent/bipartisan reports, dozens of interviews, and the disclosure of
more than 25,000 pages of documents.

Secretary Clinton took responsibility, was fully transparent and took
action – appointing a fully nonpartisan investigative board resulting in 29
recommendations, all of which she initiated prior to leaving her post. And,
our soldiers have captured and the American judicial system is bringing to
justice Ahmed Abu Khattala, the ringleader of this attack against fellow
Americans.

Enough of the partisan political games with an American tragedy.

*THE RIGHT WING SHAMEFULLY ATTACKS CLINTON’S CHARITABLE WORK*

*America prides itself on being a philanthropic nation, helping those in
need. Yet the right wing has been relentlessly attacking Hillary Clinton
for raising money for universities, such as the University of Nevada Las
Vegas, and donating her university speaking fees to the Clinton Foundation.*

It has already been reported that Hillary Clinton’s speech at a fundraiser
for the UNLV Foundation has already helped raise $353,000 for the
university’s nonprofit foundation, even though the event is many months
away and individual tickets aren’t yet available for sale.

·         “The University of Nevada, Las Vegas Foundation can afford
Hillary Clinton’s much-debated $225,000 fee to speak at its annual
fundraising dinner, having sold out the Oct. 13 event’s best tables at
$20,000-a-pop.”  [Las Vegas Review-Journal, 7/9/14
<https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/unlv-foundation-clinton-fee-pencils-out>
]

·         “The foundation has already sold $353,000 in high-dollar seats
and expects to make a profit from the event at Bellagio for only the third
time in its history, UNLV spokesman Tony Allen said Wednesday.”[Las Vegas
Review-Journal, 7/9/14
<https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/unlv-foundation-clinton-fee-pencils-out>
]

·         Secretary Clinton’s speech “has done exactly what the UNLV
Foundation hoped it would: generate interest in the dinner and sell
tables.” [Steve Sebelius, Las Vegas Review-Journal column, 7/4/14
<https://www.reviewjournal.com/columns-blogs/steve-sebelius/clinton-name-already-drawing-big-bucks-unlv-dinner>
]

*Hillary Clinton donates her university speaking fees to the Clinton
Foundation, a philanthropic organization that funds programs to help people
throughout this great nation and all over the world.*

Here are just a few examples of the life-changing programs funded by the
Clinton Foundation:

·         Job One: helps young people find jobs.

·         Too Small To Fail: helps improve the health and well-being of
children ages zero to five.

·         No Ceilings: helps encourage the full participation for women and
girls in the 21st century.

·         Clinton Health Access Initiative: works to expand access to
HIV/AIDS medications throughout the world.

*The world is a better place because of philanthropic programs like these.
Instead of criticizing philanthropy, the right wing should be encouraging
it.*

*ATTACKING HILLARY CLINTON’S LEGAL CAREER*

*BACKGROUND:* The right wing is trying with presumption, assertion, and
misleading information to rehash old news of a legal case Hillary Clinton
tried as an attorney 39 years ago.  In the case, Clinton was assigned by a
judge to defend an indigent client accused of child-rape.  The right wing
is speculating that Clinton chose to take the case, even though that myth
has been widely debunked, as a simple check of the facts reveals.

*“This is the case of a young attorney who was appointed by a judge to
defend an indigent client accused of a crime. She not only carried out her
legal and ethical responsibility to defend her client, but she went on to
lead historic action in the fight against rape and to bring rapists to
justice.” – Adrienne Elrod*

*The story and those involved deserve an honest telling.  Here:*

·         Hillary Clinton was appointed by a judge 39 years ago to defend
an indigent client accused of a crime.

·         Attorneys take an oath to defend their clients to the fullest
extent of the law and are ethically and legally bound to do so.

·         Hillary Clinton upheld this oath, defending her client as she was
ethically and legally required.

·         After the case, as a young attorney, Hillary Clinton led historic
action in the fight against rape and to bring rapists to justice by
starting Arkansas’s first rape hotline.

·         Hillary Clinton addressed this head on over the weekend, once
again clarifying that she was appointed by the Judge to represent the
defendant in this case and that she asked to be relieved of that
responsibility.

o   *Sec. Clinton, on the 1975 Taylor rape case: “I asked to be relieved of
that responsibility [defending Taylor] but I was not and I had a
professional duty to represent my client to the best of my ability, which I
did.”* According to CNN, “In 1975, Clinton, a 27-year-old attorney, was
appointed by a judge to represent Thomas Alfred Taylor, a 41-year-old man
accused of raping a young girl, for free while working at the legal aid
clinic at the University of Arkansas. ‘I asked to be relieved of that
responsibility but I was not and I had a professional duty to represent my
client to the best of my ability, which I did,’ Clinton told Mumsnet, a
British-based online parenting network, in an interview published Saturday.”
[CNN, 7/7/14
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/07/clinton-explains-defense-in-controversial-rape-case/>
]

*INTERVIEWS WITH PROSECUTING ATTORNEY:*

·         As much media attention as this story has gotten, few reporters
have taken the time to interview Hillary Clinton’s opposing counsel on that
case, former prosecuting attorney Mahlon Gibson – one of the only people
living who can attest to the facts – who Hillary referenced when she wrote
about this case in her 2003 book, “Living History.”

·         While the right wing has tried to paint Hillary’s involvement in
this case as an attack on women’s rights, they have completely missed the
fact that she was appointed by the Judge and did not want to take on the
case.

·         According to Arkansas political writer/online columnist Michael
Cook, who interviewed
<http://talkbusiness.net/2014/06/cook-media-misses-major-fact-1975-hillary-clinton-legal-case/>
Gibson,
“Clinton was appointed by the court to handle the rape case and legally had
to represent Taylor to the best of her ability, regardless of his guilt or
innocence.”

·         In an interview with CNN, Gibson confirmed
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/25/prosecutor-in-controversial-case-says-clinton-had-no-choice-but-to-defend-rapist/>
that
Hillary Clinton “got appointed to represent this guy.”

·         Cook writes
<http://talkbusiness.net/2014/06/cook-media-misses-major-fact-1975-hillary-clinton-legal-case/>
that,
“According to Gibson, it was common practice at the time in Washington
County for judges to appoint attorneys to handle the cases of indigent
prisoners who could not afford legal counsel.”

·         Gibson said
<http://talkbusiness.net/2014/06/cook-media-misses-major-fact-1975-hillary-clinton-legal-case/>
that
there were 3-4 female attorneys in the county at the time and only one
public defender, a male. The defendant reportedly requested a female
attorney.

·         According to Gibson in an interview with CNN
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/25/prosecutor-in-controversial-case-says-clinton-had-no-choice-but-to-defend-rapist/>,
Clinton said, “’I don't want to represent this guy. I just can't stand
this. I don't want to get involved. Can you get me off?’ [Gibson] told her,
‘Well contact the judge and see what he says about it,’ but I also said
don't jump on him and make him mad. She contacted the judge and the judge
didn't remove her and she stayed on the case.”

·         Since she wasn’t removed from the case, “She [Hillary] had a
legal and ethical obligation to do the very best she could do for her
client, appointed or not appointed,” said
<http://talkbusiness.net/2014/06/cook-media-misses-major-fact-1975-hillary-clinton-legal-case/>
 Gibson.

·         As Cook concludes
<http://talkbusiness.net/2014/06/cook-media-misses-major-fact-1975-hillary-clinton-legal-case/>,
“With former Prosecutor Mahlon Gibson now on record about this 1975 rape
case, all future retelling of this time in Hillary Clinton’s career must
note that she was appointed by a court to handle this tough case. It’s an
indisputable fact.”

·         Gibson’s interviews corroborate Hillary Clinton’s  recount of all
of this, written in her own words in her 2003 book, “Living History”:

“One day, the Washington County prosecuting attorney, Mahlon Gibson, called
to tell me an indigent prisoner accused of raping a twelve-year-old girl
wanted a woman lawyer. Gibson had recommended that the criminal court
judge, Maupin Cummings, appoint me. I told Mahlon I really didn’t feel
comfortable taking on such a client, but Mahlon gently reminded me that I
couldn’t very well refuse the judge’s request. When I visited the alleged
rapist in the county jail, I learned that he was an uneducated ‘chicken
catcher.’ His job was to collect chickens from the large warehouse farms
for one of the local processing plants. He denied the charges against him
and insisted that the girl, a distant relative, had made up her story. I
conducted a thorough investigation and obtained expert testimony from an
eminent scientist from New York, who cast doubt on the evidentiary value of
the blood and semen the prosecutor claimed proved the defendant’s guilt in
the rape. Because of that testimony, I negotiated with the prosecutor for
the defendant to plead guilty to sexual abuse. When I appeared with my
client before Judge Cummings to present that plea, he asked me to leave the
courtroom while he conducted the necessary examination to determine the
factual basis for the plea. I said, ‘Judge, I can’t leave. I’m his lawyer.’
‘Well,’ said the judge, ‘I can’t talk about these things in front of a
lady.’ ‘Judge,’ I reassured him, ‘don’t think of me as anything but a
lawyer.’ The judge walked the defendant through his plea and then sentenced
him. It was shortly after this experience that Ann Henry and I discussed
setting up Arkansas’s first rape hot line.” [Living History, pg. 72-73,
2003]

###