On the December 6 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, host Tucker Carlson egged on Dick Collins, owner of the Today newspaper chain, who characterized Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as an “ultraliberal,” an “ambitious, calculating, tough politician,” and an “ultra left-wing Democrat.” Collins is responsible for resuscitating Stop Her Now, a website and 527 group dedicated to halting Clinton's as-yet undeclared presidential candidacy. Introducing Collins, Carlson said that “there are people out there who have their gaze fixed on taking [Clinton] down,” and added, “Thank God.”

Collins baselessly claimed that Clinton is “trying to masquerade as a centrist” because the Clintons are “very disciplined” and have learned “what the positions of a Democrat need to be in order to win the presidential election in '08.” Collins also said that “President Clinton left office with a disgrace” but has since “rehabilitated himself.” He added that “Democrats think of him as kind of a loveable rogue” while “Republicans think of him as a loveable scumbag,” but that "[n]obody trusts their 18-year-old daughter with him." Carlson agreed, adding, “I wouldn't trust my 7-year-old daughter with him.”

In February 2005, as New York Magazine reported, “Arthur Finkelstein, the political guru who helped create George Pataki” was forming Stop Her Now “to raise more than $10 million nationwide to use against [Sen. Clinton] during [h]er 2006 [Senate] reelection campaign.” A September 2006 USA Today article about Sen. Clinton's foes' failure to present an adequate challenge to Clinton in her 2006 senatorial contest explained that the initial effort had foundered, saying that anti-Clinton groups were “showing little sign of doing much to keep her from using the race as a springboard to a possible presidential bid in 2008.” That article suggested that Stop Her Now was so unsuccessful at fundraising that it “hasn't yet filed a fundraising report with the Federal Election Commission.”

As Media Matters for America has noted, Carlson has repeatedly used his program to bash Sen. Clinton.

From the December 6 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:

CARLSON: Well, in case you forgot to TiVo CSPAN, that was Senator Hillary Clinton at yesterday's Senate confirmation hearings for [Defense Secretary-designate] Robert Gates. While the senator from New York might have her eyes fixed on an '08 run for the White House, there are people out there who have their gaze fixed on taking her down. Thank God. One of those people joins us now. He is Dick Collins. He has recently relaunched www.stophernow.com. It's a website designed to expose what he calls the senator's ultraliberal policies. Mr. Collins, thanks for joining us.

COLLINS: Thank you, Tucker. It's good to be with you.

CARLSON: So isn't [Sen.] Barack Obama [D-IL] going to do your job for you?

COLLINS: Well, I don't think so. Barack Obama hasn't run into the Clinton machine yet. And so I suspect the Clintons are going to find out everything about Barack Obama that we don't know and let everybody know about it. And you've got to remember this guy was a state senator 23 months ago and it's highly improbable that he's going to have an easy path to the White House. Nobody has ever gotten a Republican or Democratic nomination handed to them on a silver platter.

CARLSON: Right. Though senators very rarely -- last time a senator, of course, won the presidency was, you know, 46 years ago.

COLLINS: Senator [Bob] Dole [R-KS] got the nomination in 1996.

CARLSON: Of course he did. I guess that's exactly my point. Would you welcome an Obama candidacy? I mean, if -- would you back him? I assume you're a Republican. But would you back Obama over Hillary?

COLLINS: I'm a Republican. And I would not back Obama over Hillary. They both represent the left wing, the ultra left wing of the Democratic Party. And when Hillary Clinton talks about the Iraq policy, they always talk about change, but they offer no specifics. Hillary Clinton's an ultraliberal.

CARLSON: So how are you going to stop her?

COLLINS: Well, we're going to do it in a different way. A lot of time these independent expenditures, like the ones set up by [progressive financier] George Soros, they raise a lot of money from rich people around the country and they beat up their opponent. We want to define Hillary Clinton as the ambitious, calculating, tough politician that she is. And, you know, you get in the way of the Clintons, sometimes you get trampled. But we don't want to do that in a mean-spirited, ugly way, we want to do it with some fun where you come away from our website with a smile on your face. So we have devised a website where are going to have a Hillary joke of the day and a cartoon of the day or week, but the main thrust is the “Hillary Show,” which is our animated cartoon, if you will, of where Hillary serves as the [Tonight Show hosts] Jay Leno or Johnny Carson and [Democratic National Committee chairman] Howard Dean serves as her sidekick. And they will interview people, and in our first episode, she interviews [Sen.] John Kerry [D-MA].

CARLSON: That sounds completely bizarre. Doesn't this -- I'm not in any way disagreeing with you. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton for the past 14 years of public life has drawn strength from people like you, from her enemies. The reason Hillary Clinton is popular with the left wing of the Democratic Party is not because she's the most liberal Democrat in the world, she's not, but because she's perceived as a magnet for right-wingers whom the Democratic base hates. So don't you make her stronger when you attack her?

COLLINS: We may make her stronger in her primary. That could be so, but Hillary Clinton is not a centrist Democrat, she's an ultra left-wing Democrat that believes in higher taxes, more spending. And I fear her own policy on national security, if you look back at Clinton years, that was particularly weak when we got attacked at the World Trade Center, the [USS] Cole bombings and our two embassies being blown up. We had virtually no response. And the bad guys look for what the response is. And when you do nothing to them, then they think they've got free rein to go after you.

CARLSON: How much are you going to spend on this?

COLLINS: Well, I don't know. It's like any effort. You know, you start as a small nucleus and it goes from there. We're off to a great start. We doubled the number of hits on our website. We're doing it over the Internet. And then from there, we may end up doing paid commercials or more organizational-type things in eight or 10 key states that are going to make up the outcome of the 2008 election.

CARLSON: Boil it down for me. Politics aside -- I mean, I may never convince you, but I sincerely believe -- and I am certainly not a Hillary backer. But if you put her positions against those of the other potential candidates on the Democratic side in '08, she doesn't come out a lot more left wing. They're all liberal, you know. They're Democrats. What is it about Hillary Clinton that makes you mad?

COLLINS: Well, she is a very calculating and ambitious person. And the thing about the Clintons is that they're very disciplined. They have determined what type of Democrat needs to -- what the positions of a Democrat need to be in order to win the presidential election in '08. When Bill Clinton got elected in '92, he ran as a new Democrat. He dramatically moved left as soon as he got there. And his first two years were a disaster for his presidency. So I think she represents the left wing of the Democratic Party and she is trying to masquerade as a centrist.

CARLSON: Have you ever met her?

COLLINS: I have not. I had the opportunity to meet President Clinton one time. And I was dating a Democratic fundraiser, and I said take somebody who wants to meet him and so she did.

CARLSON: What do you think of her husband? Do you like him better?

COLLINS: President Clinton left office with a disgrace -- in somewhat disgrace. Basically, he's rehabilitated himself. Democrats think of him as kind of a loveable rogue. And Republicans think of him as a loveable scumbag. But the operative word is he's kind of loveable. Nobody trusts their 18-year-old daughter with him, but we just kind of like him.

CARLSON: I wouldn't trust my 7-year-old daughter with him. Mr. Collins, thanks a lot for joining us.