"Hillary haters" marshal forces for campaign

DALLAS — Richard Collins, a wealthy Texas philanthropist, businessman and political aficionado, heaps praise on the woman he has set out to destroy, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

"She looks like a winner," said Collins. "She's run a good campaign, very consistent, no mistakes."

But make no mistake: Collins is just one in a vast army of professional "Hillary haters" banking on Clinton becoming the Democratic nominee. Like the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" in the 2004 election who denigrated John Kerry's military service in Vietnam, Collins and others are searching for the thing that will crystallize the way voters think and feel about her.

And not in a good way.

Armed with new technologies and fueled by animus, they are bent on preventing "four more years" of Clintonism. Every old charge, it seems, is being repackaged and sold as new. Every rumor is given a new, blog-stoked currency.

The rise of the Internet has meant that more people are getting their message out without the expense of paper, postage or staffing. Anyone with a laptop can weigh in on the political debate and alter a candidate's course, and Clinton opponents have started early.

Collins, 60, is the force behind StopHerNow.com, a snarky Web site, and a group dedicated to stopping Clinton's march to the White House. His efforts have included flying a "StopHerNow.com" banner over the site of the South Carolina Democratic debate and an animated cartoon, "The Hillary Show," a "Jetsons"-like satire.

"This is not personal," said Collins, a Republican who has donated money to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "It's about her policies. We think they would be wrong for the country."

Not every Democratic presidential candidate, however, draws such venomous opposition. Ever since she uttered those famous words about staying home, baking cookies and holding teas rather than fulfilling her professional goals, Clinton has been a magnet for passionate criticism.

Documentary planned

This fall, Citizens United, a conservative organization that claims 500,000 members, will release a documentary about the life and times of Hillary Clinton. It's being made with the help of Dick Morris, the fired former adviser to Bill Clinton who has turned criticizing both Clintons into a crusade.

"I think once people see this film, I don't know how she would be able to get their vote," said David Bossie, the group's chairman and president, who once worked as the chief investigator for the House committee investigating the Clinton-era Whitewater scandals before he was fired.

Clinton said she knows the attacks will come and she knows how to fight back.

"I've been through it and I understand their tactics," Clinton said last week in Concord, N.H. "And I have been subjected to them for 15 years and I have survived them. And there is something to be said for that."

Democratic strategists said the right's obsession with both Clintons is more intense than it ever was toward Kerry.

"There's clearly a sliver of the right wing in the country that's unhinged over both of the Clintons. Their hatred is simply pathological," said Jim Jordan, who is advising Sen. Chris Dodd's presidential bid. "I'm sure some of these kooks look back at the Clinton White House as the good ol' days; they were energized and relevant then."

What is unclear is whether voters are numb to the charges that Clinton's legion of detractors offers or whether those charges will help to reinforce negative feelings.

Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, said voters have almost become immune. "For most Americans, not only has the page turned, but the book is closed on that kind of thing," he said.

John Pitney Jr., a political-science professor at Claremont McKenna College, thinks anti-Hillary Clinton groups will face a steep battle undermining Clinton the same way they harmed Kerry.

"If there's one thing Hillary Clinton knows about politics, it's that she has some enemies," Pitney said. "You're not going to catch her off-guard. The question is whether they can persuade anybody beyond their Republican base."

Turning people off?

Even Paul Weyrich, the conservative activist, wonders whether the attacks will work.

"Assuming she gets the nomination, the question for the general election is, do these people contribute to the dialogue, or do they turn people off?" he said. "I haven't made up my mind yet."

Turning people off is what Collins is trying to avoid with StopHerNow.com. "What we're trying to do with our site is define Hillary with humor," he said.

For example, Collins has three rules to guide the writing on his site: Chelsea Clinton is off-limits; no gay-bashing allowed; and Bill Clinton's womanizing is OK, but no naming names.

He thinks the key to undoing Clinton's candidacy lies with exposing what he thinks is her true character. For example, his Web site has sharply criticized Clinton for not releasing documents relating to her time as first lady.

"She's hiding something," said Collins, who describes himself as a mainstream Republican and said he has Democratic friends who don't like her, either. "This sort of thing is the defining character issue that will cause her to lose."

He admires the work of a renegade worker for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who spoofed an Apple Computer television ad by depicting Clinton as an Orwellian, dictatorial figure speaking in a monotone to a hall full of robotic humans.

When a female athlete tosses a hammer at the screen, destroying Clinton's image, this line appears: "On Jan. 14th, the Democratic primary will begin. And you will see why 2008 isn't going to be like '1984.' "

The ad was watched more than 1 million times on YouTube. And that's what Collins is hoping to replicate.

"The goal is to do something that everybody will watch," he said.

$4 million budget

His site gets about 3,000 hits a day, and his overall budget for the cycle could reach $4 million. He's spent about $400,000 so far — most of it his own money — building StopHerNow.com and hiring workers, including actors to do the voice-overs for "The Hillary Show" cartoons.

Those cartoons are frequently conceived by Arthur Finkelstein, the reclusive Republican political consultant who became famous for constantly defining Democrats as liberals.

He started StopHerNow.com and calls the animator to dictate ideas for new scripts. Collins calls him "an old friend" and said Finkelstein serves as an adviser to him on several things, including Clinton.

A managing editor based in Ohio, Kevin Holtsberry, is working to beef up the site's content, tapping into his relationships with conservative bloggers. He said they are trying to get the truth out about Clinton.

"She's going to try to redefine herself as a nice, charming, friendly centrist-type person, competent, the kind of person who can get things done," he said. "Our job is to bring out the past and her real history."

Collins heads two foundations, both of which give away money, primarily for historic preservation and education. One of the foundations has given about $4 million toward private-school vouchers.

But politics is his passion, and he's proud his mother was the first woman to serve on the Dallas City Council and his uncle was once a member of Congress. His grandfather, he said, was a "kingmaker" when it came to Texas politics, and his great-grandfather was once a member of the state Senate.

His hoped-for contribution? Stopping Clinton.