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Switching allegiances

One-time Clinton basher becomes a key defender

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Washington Bureau

September 7, 2006

WASHINGTON - David Brock, the reformed right-wing reporter who once took aim at Hillary Rodham Clinton, has cultivated surprisingly deep ties to the senator - paying $200,000 to a Clinton confidant for working at his watchdog group, Media Matters.

In the strange-bedfellows world of Washington, few couplings are odder than the Clinton-Brock alliance. The ideological chameleon has emerged as a reliable defender, while she's quietly nurtured his $8.5-million-a-year nonprofit empire.

"David is immensely valuable to Hillary," says a wealthy Democrat with ties to Brock, speaking anonymously. "It's like having your former prosecutor running around saying you were wrongfully prosecuted. He's living proof the right wing is out to get Hillary. ... I don't think anyone really trusts him. He'll never get a job in the [Hillary Clinton] White House, but he's useful."

Back in the mid-'90s, Brock, now 44, seemed the perfect choice to write the definitive anti-Hillary tome. While at American Spectator, reporter Brock repeated claims that she had an affair with her family friend Vince Foster. He also broke the Paula Jones sex scandal, creating the cascade of denials that ultimately led to Bill Clinton's impeachment.

But researching "The Seduction of Hillary Rodham" domesticated the attack dog: Brock ended up admiring Clinton, infuriating his backers and driving him into the Democratic fold. "In finding Hillary Clinton's humanity," he later wrote, "I was beginning to find my own."

Brock's mediamatters.org Web site debunks attacks on all prominent Democrats and has been funded by donors with connections to many party leaders.

Still, it's been particularly kind to Clinton. The site posts three to four articles per week chiding perceived Clinton bashers from Bill O'Reilly to Tucker Carlson to The New York Times. When Brock listed his 2005 accomplishments, he highlighted his point-by-point dissection of Ed Klein's error-strewn Clinton biography.

For her part, Clinton's extended family of contributors, consultants and friends has played a pivotal role in helping Media Matters grow from a $3.5 million start-up in 2004 to its current $8.5 million budget.

Two years ago, she advised Brock on creating the group, encouraging the creation of a liberal equivalent of the Media Research Center, a conservative group that has aggravated Democrats for decades.

And while Clinton and Brock aren't exactly chums, she chats with him occasionally and thinks he provides a valuable service, according to people familiar with the relationship.

Kelly Craighead, one of the Clinton's closest friends, served as one of Brock's top advisers during Media Matters' formation in 2004. She was paid as part of a $202,781 contract with her husband, Erick Mullen's, consulting company, tax records obtained by Newsday show.

Brock, whose group is committed to media accountability, declined to comment for this story and didn't return repeated calls. Mullen and Craighead didn't return calls.

Craighead - whose 2001 marriage ceremony in California was performed by Sen. Clinton, acting as a justice of the peace - now serves as a top adviser to the Democracy Alliance. That group, which advises Democratic donors on where to spend their political contributions, has steered more than $6 million to Brock's group in the past two years, say alliance members.

Two of Media Matters' top alliance donors are Susie Tompkins Buell and James Hormel, both Clinton loyalists and donors.

There are other Clinton connections. Media Matters' special projects director, C. Neel Lattimore, was Clinton's press secretary when she was first lady.

And Brock is close to Bill Clinton's former chief of staff John Podesta, founder of the powerhouse Democratic think tank Center for American Progress. Podesta, one of Hillary Clinton's top policy advisers, made room for Media Matters in the center's offices before Brock found permanent digs for the group.

Still, Brock's backers say that his relationship with Hillary Clinton merely reflects his rising stock among the liberals who once reviled him.

Its Web site has become a destination for liberal bloggers and radio hosts, providing truth-squad commentary on the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson and Michael Savage. It also tracks the mainstream press, pointing out reporting errors while alleging anti-Democrat or pro-GOP bias in news stories.

"David's really filled a void," said Fred Baron, a Texas lawyer and Democratic donor to Media Matters. "The thing that sets him apart is his commitment to publishing scrupulously accurate information. He really holds you guys accountable."