Plunderbund

Does the name Ribby Goodfellow ring a bell? Probably not.

Does this help?

Probably not. How about this?

No? Well, Ribby Goodfellow was a Hillary staffer who dressed up in Uncle Sam gear to taunt Rick Lazio, Hillary’s opponent in her 2000 race for the Senate. Seems Rick wouldn’t release his tax returns and Team Hillary took exception to it, culminating in Mr. Goodfellow (outstanding name, btw) following Rick around shouting him down as Uncle Sam. The American people had the right to know!

Comments at the time were pretty telling. You might recognize a name:

New York Times: 8/17/2000 - Among the demonstrators greeting Representative Rick A. Lazio, the Republican Senate nominee, on a Harlem sidewalk today was a tall, bearish man dressed casually in khaki pants and a dark golf shirt and clutching a couple of slips of paper.

It was none other than Howard Wolfson, the communications director and a top adviser for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate campaign, who came for one of the more unusual recent stunts intended to tarnish Mr. Lazio’s appearances.

Mr. Wolfson, responding to Mr. Lazio’s quip Tuesday that he would release his state income tax return in 15 minutes if Mrs. Clinton did the same (as a resident for six months, she would have no such return), sought to thrust on him copies of Mrs. Clinton’s property tax bills from her home in Chappaqua. Disclosure of the $17,368.64 in payments on those bills, Mr. Wolfson reasoned, complied with the spirit of Mr. Lazio’s challenge, which followed demands by Democrats that he release his federal income tax returns.

“If he says he can release them in 15 minutes, why doesn’t he?” Mr. Wolfson asked reporters as he stood near a Democratic Party operative dressed as Uncle Sam and shouted for Mr. Lazio to release his tax return.

Tough spot, eh Howard? Howard is still advising Hillary and it was his job to remember this. It’s politics. Long memories serve you well. Along with proper planning.

So the question remains. What do we have to do? Dress up like Uncle Sam and shout Hillary down? Howard. Hillary. Listen to Ribby Goodfellow. Release the returns now! The American people really do have a right to know, especially in this drawn out and most contentious of primary elections! Do it for us. The people. Help us make an informed decision. Like Ribby and Howard asked back in 2000: What do you have to hide?

(caps from viewimages)