Communists to the Ash Heap of History!

Please don't let this woman become president.

Makes perfect sense-- the political leanings of a couple of partners can obviously be attributed to every associate, including summers, at the firm, right? Oddly, I used to work for Gibson Dunn yet I don't seem to have adopted Ted Olson's political perspective.

How is this surprising? Everyone knows she was a lefty many years ago. She wrote her honors thesis paper on Saul Alinsky for crying out loud.

12:17 - Different when you work for a boutique vs. a Biglaw.

How many conservatives are there at Altschuler Berzon? Or how many liberals are there at Cooper & Kirk?

Do you think if she became president her communist ties would lead to a more conducive relationship with China? I sure hope so; it would ensure an influx in lead painted toys. Yeah!

Is this a website for associates or a front for the Federalist society? or both?

You filling out the correct paperwork for time donated to a party or campaign for this little piece of opposition research there Latty boy? Cause you're doing a heckuva job! Who'da thunk anyone would sling pinko commie "Are you now, or have you ever been" type mud in this day and age? Man, you're retro!

The 25th Anny FedSuk party must've gotten your GOP juices flowing again.

Wow... A known neocon newspaper, one which ran an editorial suggesting that Iraq war critics be prosecuted for treason, runs an article suggesting that Hillary once worked with Communists. What incisive reporting!

Someone, anyone, get on the horn with HUAC, quick - we've got a live one here. Where's Joe McCarthy when you need him?

Seriously, the "Hillary is a Commie" line is so 1994 it's not funny. But this is all the more reason she shouldn't be president: if she wins, the nation will once again be subjected to at least four more years of Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

Vote Colbert/Colbert in '08

Lat, you fucking partisan hack douche. Who gives a shit where someone summered during law school? I fucking hate Hillary, but this is not why.

Go back to covering bonuses, everyone hates your political commentary.

Think Eleanor Roosevelt. But elected.

Wow, I haven't heard somebody denounced for their association with somebody else who was once accused by the *gasp* House Un-American Activities Committee of being a *gasp* "subversive" Communist for I don't know how long.

OMFGHIJKLMNOP, someone is casting a negative light on leftist activity! Circle the wagons, rally the troops, dredge up the specter of McCarthyism, commence accusations of partisanship, FOR GOD'S SAKE, GO ON THE OFFENSIVE! ANYTHING TO AVOID RATIONALLY DISCUSSING A POLITICAL ISSUE

Maybe Hillary had no better job offers...which may scare me even more. Further, since when did a firm's views factor into a Sum. Assoc. decision to take a job...they just want any job.

Whole story is irrelevant...

It's like the 1950s/1980s all over again. You'd think commie-bashing paranoia would have died out with communism.

12:43, you don't get it. If we wanted partisan political screeds, we'd go to Kos, or Powerline, or {insert name of political hack blog here}. This is supposed to be a legal blog about things like associate salaries. Sure, it's Lat's creation, so he can write about anything he wants, but he's so much better when writing about actual LEGAL issues (or legal gossip) than regurgitating junk like this. Partisan haranguing is getting old; that's why I don't visit the political blogs.

Ah so what.

12:45,

Why is it "scary" that a female law student in 1971 might have had relatively few job offers? She was doing a hell of a lot better than Justice O'Connor did a generation earlier, the relative lack of gender diversity in law firms even today makes it relatively unsurprising that only a far-left firm was willing to hire female summers back in the early 70s. Good for Treuhaft!

"Might the Daily Kos krowd warm up to her, if they knew about her time as a fellow traveler?"

[This post has been reported in violation of the federal election laws that limit the political contributions of unregistered Political Action Committees.]

Lat's article was not a "political screed" or some sort of hack job; it was merely reporting something that had been known before and has not gotten play in the MSM (hmm, wonder why?).
The fact that Clinton worked for an avowedly-Communist law firm is a relevant factor in making a decision as to whether or not to vote for her. Some will think it doesn't matter; others will. Neither decision is correct or incorrect by itself.

This is pretty gross. I can't believe the NY Sun is getting play here. And the slam at Daily Kos is really lame. I agree with the commenter who said Lat should stick to covering bonuses and keeping his weird politics off of this blog.

PS There is no way I would ever vote for Hildog. I just don't like finding this kind of slime when I come to a blog for some light-hearted reading.

where the hell did that photo come from? it totally trips me out...

"shocking" ... "radical ideaology" ... is this a joke? Where she summered over 30 years ago is a good clue to her current ideology ... as opposed to a decanda and a half in Washington and even more inpublic life before that. Come on ... this is really really dumb Lat. Rock bottom, piss poor journalism. Even for a "tabloid."

12:34, we almost have something in common! You said "I fucking hate Hillary, but this is not why."

Whereas I say, I hate fucking Hillary, but this is not why.

12:57, the issue isn't the article. The issue is tying it to a political strategy/defense for the Clinton campaign. Wanna gossip about Clinton's time at the firm? Go for it. Wanna try to explain how her left-wing affiliations should make her a palatable candidate for the primary? Save it for hacks like Kos.

I think the better question is what was she on, and do they still make it?

@1:02 -I agree that Lat's last sentence of the piece is a little out of line. However, the rest of the piece is perfectly normal journalism. The question is valid: "Why doesn't Hillary make more of her time at this ultra-liberal law firm, and embrace her past as a radical leftist?"

Also, those who state that Lat shouldn't quote the NY Sun because of its ideology would obviously agree that Lat shouldn't quote the NY Times or the WSJ either. After all, both papers definitely have a "slant" in one direction or another.

The fact is this is a legal "tabloid" and Clinton is a lawyer and a presidential candidate. This story is fair game.

Indeed, when you discuss the background of a democratic candidate you are automatically a partisan hack. Lefties are so sensitive. Anyone need a hug?

the ny sun is a partisan hack newspaper. it makes no money, like the wash. times, and survives only on the benevolence of its founders, who lose millions every year on it. no one takes it seriously. because it doesn't need to even have a pretense of being profitable, its reporters are encouraged to undertake such "daring" articles as dredging up clinton's summer, 36 years ago, in order to throw half-baked guilt-by-association darts to score some political points against clinton. everything you need to know about the probably underlying reasons for clinton's decision and the integrity of the reporter in evaluating whether questioning this decision is merely a politically-oriented exercise is perfectly summed up by the quotation at the bottom of the first page:

"Ms. Ramey said the Treuhaft firm also drew the notice of female Yale students for a simple reason: it hired women and took them on as interns at a time many white-shoe firms and government offices would not. "Even in the public interest world, it was hard to find a job," Ms. Ramey recalled. "At that time, the Oakland public defender wouldn't hire women. The federal public defender wouldn't hire women.""

for shame.

"Senator Clinton tends to be tight-lipped about Treuhaft."

Uh, she was a summer intern there for a couple months 36 years ago. Don't you think it'd be pretty odd if she spent much time talking about the place? I don't spend any time talking about where I summered as a law student and I was there only two years ago!

12:54,

Point taken. I cannot say that I know much about the summer clerk hiring trends in 1971. My point was more that what job a law student takes often has very little, if not anything, to do with a firm's political or social views.

But since you mentioned it, I do take exception to your implied statement that females do not get a "fair shake" in the current law firm hiring department. From what I have seen, most summer classes nowadays are "more female" than male (with exceptions...NY).

The lack of female presence at a law firm certainly can be attributed to other factors than not getting a "fair shake" in hiring. Personal decisions of the female comes to mind to me - the attrition rate just isn't as high for female attorneys. Attribute that to whatever your mind fancies.

1:10, I don't think anyone said Lat shouldn't quote the NY Sun. It's his blog and he can do as he wishes. But that doesn't mean we can't express surprise that Lat decided to inject some raw partisan politics into today's offerings.

What is it about the Clintons that drives certain elements of the right so crazy?

Lat, honestly - don't peddle this nonsense sleaze to your readers. No one wants to see it and you'll kill your blog with this hack politico BS.

1:10 I hope you can see the difference between the New York Sun and the NYT or WSJ. The latter two, whatever the political bent of their editorial pages, have standards (though perhaps not exacting as they should be). The Sun is just a shade above the Enquirer and below the New York Post.

This was beneath the drudgereport.

Did the Saturday Night Live spoof of "Sex and the City" starring Christina Aguilera cross anyone else's mind when they read this?

"I have Stalin-graduated from that relationship. He was a red square!"

A little Monday humor for you all...

Do you think any partners in the law firm stained Hillary's dress while she was an intern?

when is Lat going to cover someone with whom he is likely much more familiar than clinton as a result of Lat's living and working in a city of which this man was mayor? when is Lat going to base a post on a left-leaning magazine or newspaper's investigation into a spicy tidbit of the deep past of a republican presidential candidate or other conservative?

the answer, sadly, is never.

1:14, lat is a partisan hack not because he discussed clinton, but rather because he will never do the same for a conservative.

1:26 -- The answer: they win.

First to say first.

yawn

1:31 - Yes.

Go back to covering bonuses, everyone hates your political commentary.

This is absolutely fair game for Lat. It's a news story published about where one of the candidates summered as a law student. I like and support Hillary, but a politically involved Yale law student (even a female one in the 70s) would only travel across the country to work for a tiny ultra-liberal law firm in Oakland if the student identified with the firm's politics. That said, it's certainly not a big deal. The firm was probably recommended to her by a professor or someone she trusted. It's not like she could have googled the partners or run some sort of background search from the law school library.

She's pink, right down to her underwear!

Truly astonishing. If Romney had spent his HLS 2L summer working at a law firm that counted among its partnership active supporters of the American Nazi Party or the Christian Identity movement, does anyone doubt that this would be all over the news? What if Romney had worked at a firm that not only consistently represents bombers of abortion clinics or white supremacists, but also seemed to agree with their agenda?

Of course, today even "respectable" NYC law firms like S&C represent Guantanamo terrorists, so the Black Panthers seem downright mainstream by comparison.

The comparison with Gibson is absurd. Gibson counts as many Democrats as Republicans among its partnership. Olson is a mainstream Republican, who is about as conservative as the average Cravath, S&C or Davis Polk partner is liberal. Based on campaign contributions, among other factors, Gibson is not as conservative as any V10 firm is liberal; this is a far cry from the conservative equivalent of Treuhaft, where virtually every partner is a hardcore leftist and some are outright socialists or communists.

Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein to 190 (rubles)!

Fed Soc, to quote the guy who is probably one of your heroes, "There you go again."

You and your ilk consistently whine that liberals are treated more favorably in the media than are so-called conservatives, yet you consistently fail to provide concrete examples of such favoritism. But it is from such tripe that the Rush Limbaughs, Laura Ingrahams, Glenn Becks, Ann Coulters and innumerable other flapping-headed conservative commentators of our era have been born.

Was the firm still considered "communist" in the 1970s when Clinton worked there?

Was the misspelling of crowd in the last sentence intentional?

Lat,

How can you not mention the following paragraph?

""Ms. Ramey said the Treuhaft firm also drew the notice of female Yale students for a simple reason: it hired women and took them on as interns at a time many white-shoe firms and government offices would not. "Even in the public interest world, it was hard to find a job," Ms. Ramey recalled. "At that time, the Oakland public defender wouldn't hire women. The federal public defender wouldn't hire women.""

Hill was pretty hot back in the day, in a geeky kind of way.

5:04, see 1:15

Treuhaft wasn't a communist in the Stalin/Lenin sense but a civil rights activist and advocate. Like a lot of people in the post-war years, Treuhaft was drawn to the CPA for its seemingly progressive and liberal aspects, and like many other members he disclaimed the organization in later years. The work that Treuhaft's firm did not only in civil rights but in consumer affairs was ground-breaking. Treuhaft's wife was the Honorable Jessica Mitford, the muckraking journalist, who wrote The American Way of Death and Hons and Rebels, among other works. I think that this sheds a bit more light on Senator Clinton's decision to work at the firm and to keep in touch with Mitford and Treuhaft over the years. (It's worth reading the correspondence between them.)

Hillary is hot. Very nice ankles.

Can we stop with the serious political commentary and just come up with captions for that picture of Hillary?

"Bill is this big."

shit, no wonder she didn't leave him.

Can Hilary be made an official X-Summer, maybe attribute her a superpower?

i hope hillary wins so that she can salvage this country begin. republicans and the bush administration have utterly destroyed this country as well as some others in the process.

4:30: How can you say that we fail to provide example of such favoritism, when the whole point here is an example of this very favoritism -- the fact that Clinton could get away with working at a radical organization, home of partners who are openly socialist or even Communist. I don't think even the leftists in this thread would disagree that a Republican candidate for president would not have gotten away with spending a 2L summer working at a far-right law firm whose partnership includes members of the Nazi Party, white supremacists, etc.

If my favored candidate for President had ties with the KKK or Christian Identity (a white supremacist pseudo-Christian movement), I would be the first to admit that this is a concern. Yet the liberals here do not even seem to care about Clinton's Communist connections.

Are people seriously concerned about this? It was the 70s, people who were leftist radicals are now forgiven. The best point ever made was regarding the lack of opportunities available for women. Women, blacks and others treated unequally by this country were drawn to commies, who were more socially conscious than non-radical groups. Why expect a member of a group oppressed by the mainstream to accept mainstream politics, views, and institutions (especially when those institutions won't hire you)? If one of the few orgs giving a Yale woman opportunity is a firm with communists so be it. It's not like they lynched people, damn.

Next, anytime the government called anyone pre-1980 "dangerously subversive" please take it worth a grain of salt. (e.g. MLK was considered by the FBI the most dangerous threat to the U.S. - we're not auto-comparing him to the KKK or Nazi Party.)

People need to calm their arses down and focus on the issues. I have way more serious concerns about Hillary than her slightly controversial clerkship. If she apologizes for this crap, me and her are finished for good! I'm convinced that the Family guy episode where Lois won by simply answering "9-11" to every debate question pretty much has today's politics right. Argh!

Hillary clerked for a commie firm: STFW? She is SO obviously a capitalist get over it.

Personally I think it would be a great honor for the government to label me one of the country's most "dangerously subversive" lawyers. Means you must be doing something right.

It's official... no need to tune in to ATL anymore.

Bob Treuhaft was married to Jessica Mitford. I think that's cool.

4:30: For evidence of liberal bias in the media, see the blog at www.newsbusters.org for MANY daily examples.

After all the smack talk summers get around here this is perfect. Where did Bill go? Any stories of her getting drunk and kissing an assistant? Hot action is hot action. BTW calm down clowns. No lawyer worth their salt should even be involved with the election, billing billing billing. And grades don't matter.

Bias is in the eye of the beholder. One can also go to mediamatters.org to find examples of *conservative* bias in the news.

The fact is that something Hillary did 30 years ago as a summer associate has very little to do with her qualifications to be President. (There's a lot of other stuff in her portfolio that has much to do with her qualifications, or lack thereof, but that's for another time.)

Hillary is a Republican in virtually all ways - this episode in her life is refreshing, but she is a sell out now.

But then again, most Democrats are almost the same as republicans when it comes to policy.

Americans don't seem to realize that our political spectrum is only a tiny right wing slice of the political spectrum that exists in the rest of the world (and this is also true if you look at other developed countries - I'm not just talking about Cuba etc). For example, someone like Dennis Kucinich would be considered a centrist or at least mainstream politician in most western democracies. Where as here he is ignored cos he isn't a corporate sell out.

It is ironic that defending the basic rights of those who the mainstream disagrees with is considered bad by the very group of professional people who should applaud it as one of the most American of values.

William Kristol head of the NeoCon movement was a communist as were his parents, guess he changed his mind or maybe not! Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men...

William Kristol head of the NeoCon movement was a communist as were his parents, guess he changed his mind or maybe not! Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men...