Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
| Some dare call it |
| Secrets revealed! |
| The revealers |
The "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" was a somewhat overblown (though not entirely inaccurate) snarl word created by Hillary Clinton during the ongoing investigation of her husband's improprieties (alleged and real) during his administration. It was also known under the somewhat more sober codename the "Arkansas Project[wp]".
The term referred to a loosely-aligned group of conservative lawyers and journalists, some neoconservatives, and some of the Religious Right, whose primary mission seemed to be the premature end of Bill Clinton's term in office by any means necessary. Insofar as there was truly a conspiracy in the accepted sense of the word, rather than a mere confluence of obvious interest, it centered around the funding activities of conservative banking heir Richard Mellon Scaife, political pressure groups such as Newt Gingrich's GOPAC, and conservative media outlets such as Matt Drudge's online Drudge Report, the Scaife-funded American Spectator magazine and talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.
However, there was considerable independent pressure from other conservative voices, and despite the defection of prominent supporters such as Arianna Huffington (admittedly a class act even as a Newt Gingrich supporter) and David Brock[1] (one of its slimiest perpetrators, turned liberal media activist), much "VRWC" spin continues unabated today,[2] keeping alive a period in American politics which many, both inside and outside the United States, consider highly distasteful and even dangerous.
The term is occasionally seen as so ridiculous that some people who identify with the right actually use the term for themselves.
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[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Having a change of heart, he authored Blinded by the Right[wp], switched sides and is now the proprietor of Media Matters for America.
- ↑ The Trouble With Hillary, New York Magazine