Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
Encyclopedia
"Vast right-wing conspiracy" was a conspiracy theory
advanced by then United States First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
in 1998 in defense of her husband, President Bill Clinton
, and his administration during the Lewinsky scandal
, characterizing the Lewinsky charges as the latest in a long, organized, collaborative series of charges by Clinton's political enemies. The Starr investigation
found that the Lewinsky affair had not been fabricated. The term has been used since, including in a question posed to Bill Clinton in 2009 to describe attacks on Barack Obama
during his early presidency
.
An AP
story in 1995 also used the phrase, relating an official's guess that the Oklahoma City bombing
was the work of "maybe five malcontents" and not "some kind of vast right-wing conspiracy."
in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Clinton's Attorney General Janet Reno
had appointed an independent counsel, Kenneth Starr
, to investigate those accusations in 1994. Starr's investigation began to branch out into a variety of unrelated issues, from Filegate to Travelgate to allegations that Bill Clinton had an affair with Paula Jones
prior to his presidency. White House
intern Monica Lewinsky
signed an affidavit that she had not had a relationship with Clinton, but Lewinsky's confidant Linda Tripp
had been recording their phone conversations and offered Starr tapes of Lewinsky describing her feelings for, and alleging encounters with, the president. The president was asked to give a deposition, and accusations that he lied about an affair under oath first made national headlines on January 17, 1998, when the story was picked up by the conservative-right e-mail newsletter The Drudge Report. Despite swift denials from President Clinton, the media attention grew.
On January 27, 1998, Hillary Clinton appeared on NBC
's The Today Show, in an interview with Matt Lauer
.
Clinton elaborated by decrying the tactics "and the kind of intense political agenda at work here". Bob Woodward
recounts in his book The Agenda (1994) that the then-first lady recalled that when her husband was making his decision to run for the presidency in 1991, he reported receiving "a direct threat from someone in the Bush White House, warning that if he ran, the Republicans would go after him. 'We will do everything we can to destroy you personally,' she recalled that the Bush White House man had said."
, a conservative-turned-liberal pundit
, has said he was once a part of an effort to dredge up a scandal against Clinton. In 1993 Brock, then of the American Spectator, was the first to report Paula Jones' claims. As Brock explained in Blinded by the Right
, after learning more about the events and conservative payments surrounding Paula Jones
he personally apologized to the Clintons. He documented his experience in Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative
, wherein he alleged that Arkansas state troopers had taken money in exchange for testimony against Clinton which Brock had published in a previous book. Adam Curtis
also discusses the concept in his documentary series The Power of Nightmares
. Brock has confirmed Clinton's claim that there was a "Right wing conspiracy" to smear her husband, quibbling only with the characterization of it as "vast", since Brock contends that it was orchestrated mainly by a few powerful people.
Some analysts have identified the "vast right wing conspiracy" with a broader move by wealthy conservatives to use their economic power to establish an interlocking network of foundations that funded conservative scholarship, national and regional think tanks and advocacy groups, talk radio media outlets, and conservative law firms through which they pushed their agenda to move the Republican Party to the right. Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman
supports this interpretation, concluding "Yes, Virginia, there is a vast right-wing conspiracy."
Specific claims of such funding have been made against conservative Republican supporter and billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife
. Scaife played a major role in funding the Arkansas Project
investigating President Clinton; former Clinton White House Counsel
Lanny Davis
claimed Scaife was using his money "to destroy a president of the United States." Scaife claims to be public about his political spending (q.v.). CNN stated in a study the news outlet conducted on Scaife, "If it's a conspiracy, it's a pretty open one."
Hillary Clinton said in her 2003 autobiography that, "Looking back, I see that I might have phrased my point more artfully, but I stand by the characterization of Starr's investigation [regardless of the truth about Lewinsky]." By 2007 her experiences caused Clinton to say in presidential campaign appearances that the vast right-wing conspiracy was back, citing such cases as the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal
. On the stump
for Al Franken
's 2008 Senate campaign, Clinton acknowledged his Air America Radio
show by quipping that he had been taking on the "vast right wing conspiracy before others even acknowledged that it existed".
Former President Clinton, when asked on Meet the Press
(September 27, 2009) whether the vast right wing conspiracy was involved in the attacks on President Barack Obama
, said "Oh, you bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was, because America's changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was ... when they accused me of murder and all that stuff."
revealed the Lewinsky affair
, and precipitated a deposition wherein it was suggested that Bill Clinton may have committed perjury
, some conservatives began to mock the VRWC phrase. Others took that mockery full circle to promote such a movement, making "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" into a reclaimed term. In 2004, conservative lawyer Mark W. Smith
wrote the New York Times Best Seller
Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
, which came with a "membership card" that made its owner an "official member of the VRWC." A number of entrepreneurs are selling VRWC merchandise. Similarly, a number of newspaper, magazine, and website articles have used the phrase to report on left-wing politics
.
Media coverage
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
advanced by then United States First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
in 1998 in defense of her husband, President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, and his administration during the Lewinsky scandal
Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging in 1998 from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 25-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
, characterizing the Lewinsky charges as the latest in a long, organized, collaborative series of charges by Clinton's political enemies. The Starr investigation
Starr Report
The Starr Report was an investigative account of United States President Bill Clinton by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and released on September 11, 1998.-Background:...
found that the Lewinsky affair had not been fabricated. The term has been used since, including in a question posed to Bill Clinton in 2009 to describe attacks on Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
during his early presidency
Presidency of Barack Obama
The Presidency of Barack Obama began at noon EST on January 20, 2009 when he became the 44th President of the United States. Obama was a United States Senator from Illinois at the time of his victory over Arizona Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election...
.
Earlier uses
While popularized by Mrs. Clinton in her 1998 interview, the phrase did not originate with her. In 1991 the Detroit News wrote:- ThatcherMargaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
-era Britain produced its own crop of paranoid left-liberal films. ... All posited a vast right-wing conspiracy propping up a reactionary government ruthlessly crushing all efforts at opposition under the guise of parliamentary democracy.
An AP
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
story in 1995 also used the phrase, relating an official's guess that the Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...
was the work of "maybe five malcontents" and not "some kind of vast right-wing conspiracy."
The Today Show interview
In response to ongoing accusations surrounding the Clintons' investment in a real estate development known as WhitewaterWhitewater controversy
The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...
in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Clinton's Attorney General Janet Reno
Janet Reno
Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...
had appointed an independent counsel, Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....
, to investigate those accusations in 1994. Starr's investigation began to branch out into a variety of unrelated issues, from Filegate to Travelgate to allegations that Bill Clinton had an affair with Paula Jones
Paula Jones
Paula Corbin Jones is a former Arkansas state employee who sued U.S. President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. The lawsuit was dismissed before trial on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages...
prior to his presidency. White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
intern Monica Lewinsky
Monica Lewinsky
Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
signed an affidavit that she had not had a relationship with Clinton, but Lewinsky's confidant Linda Tripp
Linda Tripp
Linda Rose Tripp was a central figure in the Lewinsky scandal of 1998 and 1999 that led to the impeachment and subsequent acquittal of U.S. President Bill Clinton.-Early life and government employment:...
had been recording their phone conversations and offered Starr tapes of Lewinsky describing her feelings for, and alleging encounters with, the president. The president was asked to give a deposition, and accusations that he lied about an affair under oath first made national headlines on January 17, 1998, when the story was picked up by the conservative-right e-mail newsletter The Drudge Report. Despite swift denials from President Clinton, the media attention grew.
On January 27, 1998, Hillary Clinton appeared on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's The Today Show, in an interview with Matt Lauer
Matt Lauer
Matthew Todd "Matt" Lauer . is an American television journalist best known as the host of NBC's The Today Show since 1997. He was previously a news anchor in New York and a local talk-show host in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence and Richmond...
.
- Matt Lauer: "You have said, I understand, to some close friends, that this is the last great battle, and that one side or the other is going down here."
- Hillary Clinton: "Well, I don't know if I've been that dramatic. That would sound like a good line from a movie. But I do believe that this is a battle. I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this — they have popped up in other settings. This is — the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."
Clinton elaborated by decrying the tactics "and the kind of intense political agenda at work here". Bob Woodward
Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....
recounts in his book The Agenda (1994) that the then-first lady recalled that when her husband was making his decision to run for the presidency in 1991, he reported receiving "a direct threat from someone in the Bush White House, warning that if he ran, the Republicans would go after him. 'We will do everything we can to destroy you personally,' she recalled that the Bush White House man had said."
Later interpretations
David BrockDavid Brock
David Brock is an American journalist and author, the founder of the media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, and a Democratic political operative...
, a conservative-turned-liberal pundit
Pundit (politics)
A pundit is someone who offers to mass media his or her opinion or commentary on a particular subject area on which they are knowledgeable. The term has been increasingly applied to popular media personalities...
, has said he was once a part of an effort to dredge up a scandal against Clinton. In 1993 Brock, then of the American Spectator, was the first to report Paula Jones' claims. As Brock explained in Blinded by the Right
Blinded by the Right
Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative is a 2002 book written by former conservative journalist David Brock detailing his departure from the conservative movement. It is also the story of his coming out as a gay man. In the book, he states that he visited gay bars with Matt...
, after learning more about the events and conservative payments surrounding Paula Jones
Paula Jones
Paula Corbin Jones is a former Arkansas state employee who sued U.S. President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. The lawsuit was dismissed before trial on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages...
he personally apologized to the Clintons. He documented his experience in Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative
Blinded by the Right
Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative is a 2002 book written by former conservative journalist David Brock detailing his departure from the conservative movement. It is also the story of his coming out as a gay man. In the book, he states that he visited gay bars with Matt...
, wherein he alleged that Arkansas state troopers had taken money in exchange for testimony against Clinton which Brock had published in a previous book. Adam Curtis
Adam Curtis
Adam Curtis is a British BAFTA winning documentarian and a writer, television producer, director and narrator. He works for BBC Current Affairs.-Early life and education:Curtis was born in 1955...
also discusses the concept in his documentary series The Power of Nightmares
The Power of Nightmares
The Power of Nightmares, subtitled The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a BBC documentary film series, written and produced by Adam Curtis. Its three one-hour parts consist mostly of a montage of archive footage with Curtis's narration...
. Brock has confirmed Clinton's claim that there was a "Right wing conspiracy" to smear her husband, quibbling only with the characterization of it as "vast", since Brock contends that it was orchestrated mainly by a few powerful people.
Some analysts have identified the "vast right wing conspiracy" with a broader move by wealthy conservatives to use their economic power to establish an interlocking network of foundations that funded conservative scholarship, national and regional think tanks and advocacy groups, talk radio media outlets, and conservative law firms through which they pushed their agenda to move the Republican Party to the right. Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times...
supports this interpretation, concluding "Yes, Virginia, there is a vast right-wing conspiracy."
Specific claims of such funding have been made against conservative Republican supporter and billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife
Richard Mellon Scaife
Richard Mellon Scaife is an American newspaper publisher and billionaire. Scaife owns and publishes the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. With $1.2 billion, Scaife, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, is No...
. Scaife played a major role in funding the Arkansas Project
Arkansas Project
The Arkansas Project was a series of investigations that were initiated with the intent of damaging and ending the presidency of Bill Clinton...
investigating President Clinton; former Clinton White House Counsel
White House Counsel
The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...
Lanny Davis
Lanny Davis
Lanny J. Davis is an American lawyer and lobbyist. From 1996 to 1998, he served as a special counsel to President Bill Clinton.-Background:...
claimed Scaife was using his money "to destroy a president of the United States." Scaife claims to be public about his political spending (q.v.). CNN stated in a study the news outlet conducted on Scaife, "If it's a conspiracy, it's a pretty open one."
Hillary Clinton said in her 2003 autobiography that, "Looking back, I see that I might have phrased my point more artfully, but I stand by the characterization of Starr's investigation [regardless of the truth about Lewinsky]." By 2007 her experiences caused Clinton to say in presidential campaign appearances that the vast right-wing conspiracy was back, citing such cases as the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal
2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal
The 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal involves the use of a telemarketing firm hired by that state's Republican Party for election tampering. The tampering involved using a call center to jam the phone lines of a Get Out the Vote operation...
. On the stump
Stump speech (politics)
A political stump speech is a standard speech used by a politician running for office. The term derives from the custom in 19th century America for political candidates campaigning from town to town to stand upon a sawed off tree stump to deliver a standard speech...
for Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
's 2008 Senate campaign, Clinton acknowledged his Air America Radio
Air America Radio
Air America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...
show by quipping that he had been taking on the "vast right wing conspiracy before others even acknowledged that it existed".
Former President Clinton, when asked on Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
(September 27, 2009) whether the vast right wing conspiracy was involved in the attacks on President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, said "Oh, you bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was, because America's changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was ... when they accused me of murder and all that stuff."
Use in popular culture
After the Starr investigationStarr Report
The Starr Report was an investigative account of United States President Bill Clinton by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and released on September 11, 1998.-Background:...
revealed the Lewinsky affair
Monica Lewinsky
Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
, and precipitated a deposition wherein it was suggested that Bill Clinton may have committed perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
, some conservatives began to mock the VRWC phrase. Others took that mockery full circle to promote such a movement, making "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" into a reclaimed term. In 2004, conservative lawyer Mark W. Smith
Mark W. Smith
Mark W. Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, a former professor of law, and the founding partner of a Madison Avenue-based law firm in New York City...
wrote the New York Times Best Seller
New York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
The Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy is a 2004 book written by Mark W. Smith. This book was mainly written to advocate some of the political ideas of American Republicans. It provides controversial arguments on important issues such as the war on terror, taxes, abortion, the...
, which came with a "membership card" that made its owner an "official member of the VRWC." A number of entrepreneurs are selling VRWC merchandise. Similarly, a number of newspaper, magazine, and website articles have used the phrase to report on left-wing politics
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
.
External links
Media coverage
- Hillary Clinton: 'This Is A Battle', CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, January 27, 1998 - First Lady Launches Counterattack, The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, January 28, 1998 - Caught In The Whitewater Net, CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
, May 19, 1998 - It's no accident that Coors is the right beer in America, undated
- The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy 2011: Less Vast- More Powerful, Rick Ungar, ForbesForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, March 21, 2011 - Why Not Occupy Newsrooms?, October 24, 2011