Republicans attack Clinton from every angle
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Hillary Clinton couldn't make it to the Conservative Political Action Conference because "we couldn't find a foreign nation to foot the bill." Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, insisted Clinton "likes hashtags, but she doesn't know what leadership means." And former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush knocked her on conflict of interest claims involving her family's foundation.
It was amply clear at the annual conservative confab this week that Clinton has eclipsed Barack Obama as the Republican residential hopefuls' main punching bag. But it is the sheer number of distinct anti-Clinton attack lines that is raising eyebrows.
Whether onstage or off, Republicans derided Clinton from every angle. They cast the 67-year-old as yesterday's news, brought up her husband Bill Clinton's 1990s scandals, questioned the rationale for her expected run for the White House, criticized her high-dollar speaking fees, and, of course, lashed her over the Benghazi attacks.
Republicans eager to derail a Clinton 2016 campaign, like those flooding the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center here, see the panoply of critiques as a show of force against a candidate they insist is more vulnerable than her allies realize. Watching warily from afar, however, Democrats eager to see a Clinton presidency cast the attacks as a sign of confusion in the GOP, predicting the mish-mash of arguments will fail to jell and dent the former secretary of state's image.
Both sides could agree on one thing: that the brewing questions about the Clinton Foundation's funding -- the theme gaining most attention at CPAC and among national political operatives in recent weeks -- pose special danger for her. "The foundation stuff is real," said a Democrat in Clinton's orbit. "That's hurting."
Clinton has stayed relatively low-key in recent months, appearing in public within the United States for the first time just this week. She is expected to take a formal step toward a presidential run before the end of April, and her allies expect she and her campaign team will engage with such criticisms once she does. Republicans, however, cite her aides' unwillingness to take on the critics now as evidence that Clinton is "hiding" because she doesn't have a good response.
"Hillary barely comes out in public these days," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said on stage. "If there's not a private luxury jet and a quarter million-dollar speaking fee waiting for her, you can forget about it."
Republicans' intense and long-standing focus on Clinton suggest many of them expect her to be a formidable candidate. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, for instance, warned a packed hotel suite of about 100 college students that Clinton has strategic advantages because she is a woman and could make history by winning the White House.
But as White House aspirants paraded through the convention center halls this week and riled up conservative activists from the stage, fellow Republicans brushed off the notion that there were too many arguments against Clinton floating around, pointing out that 2016 hopefuls aren't expected to coordinate their messages.
"Democrats have a real problem if they are complaining about Hillary Clinton having too many vulnerabilities for Republicans to exploit. This is further proof of how flawed their candidate is and why she won't come out of hiding to talk with voters," RNC spokeswoman Allison Moore said.
Democrats pointed out that Clinton, a public figure for decades, has weathered numerous controversies in the past, and that it will be hard for any one issue to change perceptions of her so far ahead of the election, especially when Republicans are hitting her with so many separate criticisms.
"It's more important to get [the campaign launch] right than to be out there to deal with all these one-offs," said former Bill Clinton White House aide Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist.
The anti-Clinton messages were not limited to the main speakers' stage at CPAC: posters trashing the former first lady line the walls; college-age Republicans frequently refer to Clinton as the enemy as they stroll the hallways; and the official schedule included a screening of an anti-Clinton documentary.
Republican 2016 hopefuls speaking at the convention center aren't trying to sway independents; they're trying to excite the GOP base, and a stinger of a line about Clinton is worth the barrage of attention it will get.
Speaking on Friday afternoon, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul fumed over the 2012 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, whose victims included U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. He called on Clinton to "permanently retire."
"Hillary's war made us less safe," Paul said. "As Hillary was declaring victory in Libya, Ambassador Stevens was pleading for more security."
Asked by conservative media personality Sean Hannity for a one-word description of Clinton a few hours later, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said, "foreign fundraising."
Some of the harshest attacks of the week against Clinton have come from Fiorina, the sole woman in the emerging GOP presidential field, who appears to be positioning herself as its top Clinton antagonist.
Fiorina zeroed in on the Clinton Foundation and its relationships with foreign governments: "Please explain why we should accept that the millions and millions of dollars that have flowed into the Clinton Global Initiative from foreign governments doesn't represent a conflict of interest," Fiorina implored an energized crowd on Thursday.
Speaking next that afternoon, Cruz went a similar route, saying Clinton "embodies the corruption of Washington." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, continued his tactic of painting Clinton as a candidate of "yesterday."
But amid the deluge of anti-Clinton talk, one unexpected argument in particular caught CPAC's attention and set the crowd abuzz.
The notion was offered up by popular conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, who was tasked with helping rouse the sleepy activists on Friday morning.
"Why don't we just call it quits?" she asked. "Jeb and Hillary can run on the same ticket."
Katie Glueck contributed to this report.
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