Clinton Defender Takes On Fox News Over Benghazi Attack

Hillary Rodham Clinton says she has not decided whether she will run for president in 2016, but the battle over her public record is already being fought on television.

David Brock, who is the founder of Media Matters â€" a liberal watchdog group â€" and who is one of Mrs. Clinton’s most ardent defenders, has written an e-book titled “The Benghazi Hoax.” He plans to advertise it on the Fox News Channel, the outlet he says has been the most vocal in its criticism of the State Department’s handling of the attack on the United States mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year that led to the death of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state at the time.

The advertisement includes a montage of Fox News pundits weighing in on Benghazi, some of them calling it a scandal worse than Watergate and saying, “The Democrats are very good at watching Americans die.”

Mr. Brock also appears, with an American flag waving at the bottom of the screen. “We all agree that politicizing a terrorist attack crosses a line, but that’s what Fox has done since tragedy struck in Benghazi,” he says in the ad. “You, the Fox viewer, lose out when you don’t get the facts, so we wrote a book about the Benghazi hoax. Get the facts for yourself.”

A spokeswoman for Fox News did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Brock was an outspoken conservative and frequent critic of President Bill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton in the 1990s. But in 1996, he wrote “The Seduction of Hillary Rodham,” which was unexpectedly sympathetic to Mrs. Clinton. He later renounced his work with conservatives.

The book is coming out as the conservative group Citizens United plans to release what is expected to be a highly critical documentary about Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. Mrs. Clinton is also writing her own memoir about her time at the State Department; it is expected to be released next summer.

Media Matters often turns its focus to Fox News. A Media Matters spokeswoman said the group was seeking to run the ad on Fox News this week, but the cable channel has not said whether it would accept it. The ad will run on stations nationally, with heavy airplay in the Washington market.

Mr. Brock says the group will also rebut attacks on President Obama; Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser; and others in the administration. But Mrs. Clinton is the focus.

Political rivals including Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, have already said that the Benghazi attack will be a liability for Mrs. Clinton should she decide to run in 2016. Mr. Brock disagrees. “Our conclusion, having looked at all the facts, is that there is no political vulnerability for Secretary Clinton,” he said in an interview.

Some conservatives have already taken issue with “The Benghazi Hoax.” In a blog post headlined “The Benghazi Whitewash,” Tim Miller, executive director of America Rising, a political action committee, said Mr. Brock started “the Democrats’ callous, politically motivated attempts to whitewash the failures leading up to and attempted cover-up” after the attack in Benghazi.

Keystone Pipeline Opponents Plan Widespread Civil Disobedience

PITTSBURGH - Opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline outlined new plans for persuading President Obama to reject the project at a conference for young climate activists here over the weekend. And while most organizers continued to express optimism that the administration would not allow TransCanada to complete the 1,700-mile pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries, they are preparing for the likelihood that the project will win approval.

If the State Department’s National Interest Determination finds in favor of the pipeline â€" virtually the last hurdle before approval â€" demonstrators will risk arrest at more than 100 protests in 37 states, said Todd Zimmer, a campaigner with Rainforest Action Network who helped develop new training and recruitment guidelines for such direct action against Keystone XL. As of Monday, nearly 76,000 people have pledged to engage in “dignified, peaceful civil disobedience that could result in my arrest in order to send the message to President Obama and his administration that they must reject the Keystone XL pipeline.”

The protests at the State Department and other federal offices around the country could come within a week of the national interest announcement, Mr. Zimmer said, and actions may also take place at TransCanada offices and those of Environmental Resources Management, the consulting firm whose findings that Keystone XL would have minimal environmental impact have been called into question by opponents.

On Sunday, as part of a two-hour presentation about Keystone XL at Power Shift, a gathering of almost 8,000 mostly college-age climate activists, organizers also encouraged local groups to make “climate time capsules.” The red tubes, filled with artifacts of local climate efforts, would most likely be presented in Washington in mid-November, and organizers hope to bury some of them along the planned Keystone XL route.

If President Obama wants to build the pipeline, said Kendall Mackey of the Energy Action Coalition, “he’s going to have to dig up our climate legacy and bury his own.”

But the activists tended to be less optimistic than the organizers. T. R. McKenzie, who works with the Deep Roots United Front in Jefferson, S.D., said the national organizations “need to stop thinking that petitions and other ways of symbolic action” are going to prevent Keystone XL. Mr. McKenzie said that more confrontational types of protests might be necessary, like last week’s blockade of a hydraulic fracturing operation in New Brunswick, Canada, during which Canadian authorities arrested and sprayed tear gas at activists from the Mi’kmaq tribe.

Throughout the weekend in Pittsburgh, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown, young activists attended sessions about the environment’s role in reproductive freedom and how to start a green business. Postcards advertised the latest album from DJ Cavem Moetavation, an “O.G.: organic gardener, producer, emcee.”

On Monday, attendees marched over the Roberto Clemente Bridge and around downtown to protest the hydraulic fracturing and mountaintop removal coal mining that take place not far from Pittsburgh. Organizers said about 2,000 people joined the march.

But while the conference focused on fighting big energy companies, the gathering of committed activists illustrated the struggles of getting Americans to change basic habits in service of the environment. Paper coffee cups were tossed into canisters designated for bottles and cans, and in a women’s bathroom next to the main auditorium, paper towels spilled out of the trash can and onto the floor, even though the dispenser was right next to a high-speed air dryer.

Some were trying to force basic changes, however. A line of vending machines selling bottled water and other drinks all had signs, written in marker, labeling them out of order, sometimes with a frowny-face. A parched and skeptical reporter was relieved to find that, on the contrary, the machines worked just fine.

Keystone Pipeline Opponents Plan Widespread Civil Disobedience

PITTSBURGH - Opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline outlined new plans for persuading President Obama to reject the project at a conference for young climate activists here over the weekend. And while most organizers continued to express optimism that the administration would not allow TransCanada to complete the 1,700-mile pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries, they are preparing for the likelihood that the project will win approval.

If the State Department’s National Interest Determination finds in favor of the pipeline â€" virtually the last hurdle before approval â€" demonstrators will risk arrest at more than 100 protests in 37 states, said Todd Zimmer, a campaigner with Rainforest Action Network who helped develop new training and recruitment guidelines for such direct action against Keystone XL. As of Monday, nearly 76,000 people have pledged to engage in “dignified, peaceful civil disobedience that could result in my arrest in order to send the message to President Obama and his administration that they must reject the Keystone XL pipeline.”

The protests at the State Department and other federal offices around the country could come within a week of the national interest announcement, Mr. Zimmer said, and actions may also take place at TransCanada offices and those of Environmental Resources Management, the consulting firm whose findings that Keystone XL would have minimal environmental impact have been called into question by opponents.

On Sunday, as part of a two-hour presentation about Keystone XL at Power Shift, a gathering of almost 8,000 mostly college-age climate activists, organizers also encouraged local groups to make “climate time capsules.” The red tubes, filled with artifacts of local climate efforts, would most likely be presented in Washington in mid-November, and organizers hope to bury some of them along the planned Keystone XL route.

If President Obama wants to build the pipeline, said Kendall Mackey of the Energy Action Coalition, “he’s going to have to dig up our climate legacy and bury his own.”

But the activists tended to be less optimistic than the organizers. T. R. McKenzie, who works with the Deep Roots United Front in Jefferson, S.D., said the national organizations “need to stop thinking that petitions and other ways of symbolic action” are going to prevent Keystone XL. Mr. McKenzie said that more confrontational types of protests might be necessary, like last week’s blockade of a hydraulic fracturing operation in New Brunswick, Canada, during which Canadian authorities arrested and sprayed tear gas at activists from the Mi’kmaq tribe.

Throughout the weekend in Pittsburgh, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown, young activists attended sessions about the environment’s role in reproductive freedom and how to start a green business. Postcards advertised the latest album from DJ Cavem Moetavation, an “O.G.: organic gardener, producer, emcee.”

On Monday, attendees marched over the Roberto Clemente Bridge and around downtown to protest the hydraulic fracturing and mountaintop removal coal mining that take place not far from Pittsburgh. Organizers said about 2,000 people joined the march.

But while the conference focused on fighting big energy companies, the gathering of committed activists illustrated the struggles of getting Americans to change basic habits in service of the environment. Paper coffee cups were tossed into canisters designated for bottles and cans, and in a women’s bathroom next to the main auditorium, paper towels spilled out of the trash can and onto the floor, even though the dispenser was right next to a high-speed air dryer.

Some were trying to force basic changes, however. A line of vending machines selling bottled water and other drinks all had signs, written in marker, labeling them out of order, sometimes with a frowny-face. A parched and skeptical reporter was relieved to find that, on the contrary, the machines worked just fine.

Tim Griffin of Arkansas Will Not Seek Third Congressional Term

Representative Tim Griffin, a two-term Republican who represents a politically competitive district in Arkansas, said Monday that he will not seek a third term.

Mr. Griffin, a former aide to Karl Rove and one of the Republican Party’s rising stars in Congress, said that he wanted to spend more time with his wife and two young children. His announcement was unexpected.

“It has been an agonizing and difficult decision involving much prayer, thought and discussion,” he told the Arkansas publication Talk Business.

“We have decided that now is the time for me to focus intently on my top priority, my family,” added Mr. Griffin, who was one of 87 House Republicans who voted for the Senate plan to end the shutdown.

Mr. Griffin’s district, which includes Little Rock and several surrounding counties, has leaned Republican lately, though until 2011 it was represented by a Democrat, Vic Snyder, for more than a decade.

His decision not to run again opens another Republican seat for the 2014 election. Last week, longtime Representative Bill Young of Florida died. His district is also competitive.

While Democrats would have to overcome long odds to recapture control of the House, vacancies like these certainly help. Patrick Henry Hays, the former North Little Rock mayor, was planning to announce his campaign in Mr. Griffin’s district on Tuesday.