This time, it’s not about fake sniper fire in Bosnia, but a dead woman and her dead baby:
Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee.
The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured.
“We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story,” said Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O’Bleness Health System.
Linda M. Weiss, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit hospital, said the Clinton campaign had never contacted the hospital to check the accuracy of the story, which Mrs. Clinton had first heard from a Meigs County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputy in late February.
A Clinton spokesman, Mo Elleithee, said candidates would frequently retell stories relayed to them, vetting them when possible. “In this case, we did try but were not able to fully vet it,” Mr. Elleithee said. “If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that.”
Apparently, to the Clinton campaign, vetting consists of two guys sitting around asking “Does it sound true to you ?” Because all they had to do was call this hospital and find out what the real story was.
That would have been inconvenient, though, because Clinton seemingly liked her version of the narrative:
[S]aying that the story haunted her, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly offered it as a dire example of a broken health care system. At one March rally in Wyoming, for instance, she referred to Ms. Bachtel, a 35-year-old who managed a Pizza Hut, as a young, uninsured minimum-wage worker, saying, “It hurts me that in our country, as rich and good of a country as we are, this young woman and her baby died because she couldn’t come up with $100 to see the doctor.”
Mrs. Clinton does not name Ms. Bachtel or the hospital in her speeches. As she tells it, the woman was turned away twice by a local hospital when she was experiencing difficulty with her pregnancy. “The hospital said, ‘Well, you don’t have insurance.’ She said, ‘No, I don’t.’ They said, ‘Well, we can’t see you until you give $100.’ She said, ‘Where am I going to get $100?’
“The next time she came back to the hospital, she came in an ambulance,” Mrs. Clinton continued. “She was in distress. The doctors and the nurses worked on her and couldn’t save the baby.”
Since Ms. Bachtel’s baby died at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, the story implicitly and inaccurately accuses that hospital of turning her away, said Ms. Weiss, the spokeswoman for O’Bleness Memorial said. Instead, the O’Bleness health care system treated her, both at the hospital and at the affiliated River Rose Obstetrics and Gynecology practice, Ms. Weiss said.
But character assassination is just part of the Clinton playbook.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Why in the hell isn’t the MSM all over this?
One more brick in the lying foundation of Hillary Clinton!
And why isn’t the MSM all over the fact that Hillary was
fired from the HJC for lying when she was a 27-year old
staff lawyer?
She started out her career lying, and continues to this day!
Where’s the MSM reporting!
April 5th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
This is such a ridiculous attack on Senator Clinton! What nerve they have going and “vetting” a story - who in America doubts things like this happen everyday?? So maybe the deputy exaggerated the story and Hillary (unknowingly) relayed it to make a point. The point is that everyone needs insurance and that’s what she is trying to do! This article proves nothing more than that people everywhere are ready to try and take down the strongest, most resiliant woman we’ve been lucky enough to have working for our country and our world to make it a better place. Amazing there are SO many perfect people out there - who have never made mistakes and feel compelled to be so judgmental. Yeah - The “Clinton” camp is the negative one - what a joke! Wake up and talk issues people!!
April 6th, 2008 at 12:46 am
What I simply cannot comprehend is WHY the entire nation is not APPALLED and horrified at her continual LYING. She NEVER owns up to WHAT she says; HER EXCUSES are so lame, it’s embarrassing. NO ONE has ever (yet) truly PINNED HER DOWN and demanded to know WHY she’s always LYING.
Her STAFF lies FOR HER. In the face of irrefutable EVIDENCE contrary to WHATEVER she’s saying. I cannot bear to LISTEN to her continual fabrications that are nothing SHORT OF insulting to the intelligence of the American people.
April 6th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I think everyone of her supporters and followers should have been insulted when she appeared on the Jay Leno show and made a joke of her lying, “I almost didn’t make it because I was caught in sniper fire (ha,ha)” By making it a joke she is literally laughing in the faces of anyone who is gullible enough to continue to excuse her lies.
April 12th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
At the risk of sounding redundant, I believe this account and accompanying link to be so significant, with the blog owner’s permission, here’s a repost:
In a recent Pennsylvania political ad, 3 year-old Hillary Rodham, arms extended, toddles toward the home-movie camera. Hillary’s present day voice-over explains the Rodham family cottage, down by the lake, lacked indoor plumbing. It was hardship borne from the start. Yet, more telling events seem to fall by the wayside. Take twenty-seven year old Hillary’s first real job. The upshot: Jerry Zeifman fired Hillary for unethical practices during the Watergate Investigation. Why was Hillary fired? “Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in a recent interview. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”
Not only does Mr. Zeifman’s story go to character, it goes to a lifelong pattern of lying and obfuscation. And, it took Zeifman twelve years to get it aired. After Watergate, Zeifman could not recommend Hillary for any subsequent position of public or private trust, nor furnish her with a letter of recommendation. After that, Hillary Clinton’s employment record is one of strict nepotism, cronyism, and amnesia. Although few suspected the lengths to which Hillary would go, a leopard never changes her spots. Again, Hillary Clinton is a bold-faced liar, who will stop at nothing. Should anyone doubt Mr. Zeifman’s veracity regarding the Clintons: http://theseedsof9-11.com
According to Mr. Zeifman, it’s not just Hillary’s dishonesty; that’s a fact not in dispute. As important: the actual time span she has behaved in a fraudulent manner. “The Clintons corrupted the soul of the Democratic Party.” -Henry Ruth, lead Watergate courtroom prosecutor.
April 13th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Worse than hilly’s lying, is the gullible people who vote for this woman. She is pathetic! When she lies, her eyes roll around to the ceiling. She looks at the ceiling, alot!
She is a liar. Now, billy is trying to help her lie and he has made her look like an even bigger fool. The story about the woman losing the baby was not hilly’s story to tell. It was the property of her estate. Hilly should have had her people ask if it were ok or would it cause embarrassment for the deceased’s family. Hilly is so desperate to outdo Obama, who has a real life horror medical story relating to his mother, that she is willing to grab a hold to anything. As a lawyer, she knows medical history is private property. Why would she not stop the sheriff (in other tales it was a deputy or a security guard) from telling her this story. But, she tells the story so matter-of-factly; as if firsthand. She always pimps out someone else’s life. The sniper thing was not a joking matter. There are men and women being maimed for their country and that (then wife of a President) would lie and make a joke of it. This makes her presidential material? The HillBillarys should save the public shame and go into hiding. They have divided the Democratic Party, anyway. Bill blames it on being sixty!