Raw advice

Sid Blumenthal's raw advice for Hillary

From Iran to Boehner, the longtime confidant of the Clinton family offered the former secretary of state extensive — and seemingly unfiltered — advice. 

By Nahal Toosi

Israel? It needs some "tough love."

Iran? Use the "iron fist in the velvet glove approach."

Republican leader John Boehner? A "louche, alcoholic, lazy, and without any commitment to any principle."

If Hillary Clinton ever needed insights on something -- or even if she didn't -- Sidney Blumenthal was happy to oblige.

The latest batch of Clinton emails released late Monday further shed light on how Blumenthal, the liberal writer and longtime confidant of the Clinton family, was an inescapable presence in the former secretary of state's digital life during her years at Foggy Bottom.

In his emails, Blumenthal appeared to cover as much territory as the jet-setting Clinton, dealing with everything from politics in Northern Ireland to the foreign policy bona fides of a top adviser to President Barack Obama. —

Many of Blumenthal's missives read like intelligence analyses, offering takes on his conversations with other key figures or a sense of where media pundits were coming down on a subject.

In a February 2010 message, Blumenthal recounts a conversation with German politician Joschka Fischer about Iran and Saudi Arabia. According to Blumenthal, the German pointed out that the Saudis already have their own nuclear bomb because they "invested in Pakistan's nuclear weaponry partly for this eventuality."

Heading further east, at least in his emails, Blumenthal urges Clinton in January 2010 to be "crystal clear, explicit and tough on China" in an upcoming speech.

Clinton should "spell out the economic consequences not just for the Chinese and their future but for the economic future of ordinary working people in the USA and their stake in successful diplomacy on the issue: and why their future is the basis of our national interest," he wrote.

A couple of months later, Blumenthal offered advice on a Clinton speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, urging her to "remind it in as subtle but also direct a way as you can that it does not have a monopoly over American Jewish opinion."

Blumenthal has become a central figure in the ongoing saga over Clinton's use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state. While much of the controversy has been focused on whether sensitive material was mishandled, the release of her emails has shown the extent to which Blumenthal, a divisive figure, had Clinton's ear.

Although Clinton has described Blumenthal’s advice as unsolicited, the emails released so far show that at times she sought his counsel.

The extensive communication appears to have been a constant during Clinton's tenure, after her attempts to get Blumenthal a State Department post were blocked by Obama aides unhappy with his role during the 2008 presidential primary fight between Obama and Clinton.

In the emails released on Monday night, Blumenthal also touched on Bill Clinton's activities.

During an email exchange on whether the former president should write an op-ed supporting former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the next European Union president, Blumenthal suggested it "should include description and endorsement of Blair's personal qualities for office. Can't be backhanded."

(After another person on the emails warns against creating any expectations of such an op-ed being written, Hillary Clinton weighs in: "I agree. I think Bill and Tony will figure it out.")

Even as Blumenthal himself dispensed advice on international affairs to Clinton, he recommended that she find ways to rein in David Axelrod, a top Obama adviser, on such issues.

"Axelrod should not be a foreign policy spokesman on any issue or area ... Many people in the press feel he's out of his lane and resent being lectured by him on foreign policy," Blumenthal wrote in March 2010.

The November 2010 message that ripped Boehner, now the speaker of the House, was labeled "Post mid-terms strategy" and shared a long list of insights that Blumenthal said he received from Republican sources.

The longest item was aimed directly at Boehner, and Blumenthal pulled no punches: "Boehner is despised by the younger, more conservative members of the House Republican Conference. They are repelled by his personal behavior. He is louche, alcoholic, lazy, and without any commitment to any principle," Blumenthal wrote, continuing, "Boehner has already tried to buy the members with campaign contributions and committee assignments, which he has already promised to potentially difficult members. His hold is insecure. He is not [Newt] Gingrich, the natural leader of a 'revolution,' riding the crest into power. He is careworn and threadbare, banal and hollow, holding nobody's enduring loyalty."