First came the Orwellian mash up YouTube video that portrayed Hillary Rodham Clinton as Big Brother. Then came a clip of her off-key rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Now, a stinging 13-minute video by a bitter Clinton foe is finding its own Internet audience.
The clip, a preview of a longer film by one-time Clinton donor Peter Paul, has scored more than 1.4 million hits on Google Video and about 350,000 on YouTube during the past week. Its popularity has driven it to the top spot on Google Video over the past two weeks.
Paul is a Hollywood entrepreneur, former partner of Spider-Man creator Stan Lee and convicted felon who has sued the Clintons in connection with a celebrity-packed fundraiser he helped organize for her 2000 Senate race. A California appeals court earlier this month ruled that Sen. Clinton should be dismissed from the suit.
‘Hillary Uncensored’
But Paul has devoted a Web site to the case and his film, "Hillary Uncensored," in recent days has been touring New England College campuses. On Tuesday, the film is scheduled to be screened at the Metropolitan Club in New York City.
The Clintons have long argued that Paul's criminal record discredits him and in court pleadings have denied Paul's claims against them.
Paul's anti-Clinton effort is getting help from two technical producers who set up the Web site for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the 2004 campaign that went after Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry by raising questions about his decorated military service in Vietnam.
Robert Hahn and Scott Swett operate The Hillary Clinton Accountability Project, the Web site that Paul set up in 2005 to showcase court documents, videos and news articles related to his lawsuit. The video trailer "Hillary Uncensored," and the schedule for the movie are prominently displayed on the site.
Case should ‘make everybody pause’
Among those featured in the video speaking in support of Paul is David Schippers, who served as chief investigative counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during President Clinton's 1998 impeachment hearings.
In his lawsuit and in the film, Paul says he spent $1.9 million for the August 2000 Hollywood fundraiser that featured such stars as Brad Pitt, Diana Ross and Cher. Paul maintains he organized the event because President Clinton falsely agreed to assist him in a new venture with Stan Lee after leaving the presidency in January 2001.
Campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission estimated the cost of the event at about $500,000. An ensuing criminal trial of Clinton's former national finance director, David Rosen, on charges that he lied to the FEC about the fundraiser resulted in an acquittal. At the time, Rosen's lawyer said Paul concealed the actual cost of the event from Rosen, a claim Paul denies.
The film also includes a tape recording recently obtained by Paul of Sen. Clinton thanking him in advance for staging the event, which he says is proof that she illegally coordinated the fundraiser with him. The appellate court ruling that dismissed her from the case concluded the call did not amount to new evidence.
The complexities of the case are all fodder for the video clip and the movie, spiced with clips of Hollywood performers.
"Her abuse of her power as reflected in my case should make everybody pause about entrusting her with the reins of government," Paul said in an interview.
Paul is awaiting sentencing on his 2005 guilty plea to charges of stock fraud involving Stan Lee Media, the company Paul had wanted Clinton to join. In the 1970s, he was convicted of cocaine possession and of attempting to defraud the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
Swett, who is running Paul's HillCAP Web site, said the video has helped drive more traffic to the Web site, but that the activity is far less frequent than it was on the site he operated for Swift Boat Veterans in 2004.
"Then it was in the final months before the election and we're a year out at this point," he said. "There's a lot of complexity to the Peter Paul lawsuit. You have to read through some of the documents to get a handle on it. That was less the case with the charges that the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs were making against John Kerry."