To say that Children's Defense Fund is paramount to Hillary Clinton's political career is not an understatement.

Podesta emails reveal 62 hits on the term "CDF", and many of these do refer to the organization:

https://search.wikileaks.org/?query=CDF&publication_type%5B%5D=46&order_by=newest_document_date#results

Why?

Because it is cited as the beginning of Clinton's public service, working with Marian Wright Edelman, who was a staunch advocate for hillary during her campaign, was an important reference in this Breaking Every Barrier speech ( https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/18623) ), and put her own image behind her advocacy with dozens of tweets like these: https://sli.mg/uAuvVJ on CDF's twitter account, https://twitter.com/childdefender .

CDF even held a pity party after Hillary lost: https://archive.fo/XQgAr

WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, November 16, 2016, the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) will host its 26th Beat the Odds® Celebration at the Newseum in Washington, DC. At the event, CDF will honor Children’s Defense Fund Alumna Hillary Rodham Clinton for her dedication and contributions to child advocacy and the Children’s Defense Fund throughout her remarkable career. “The Children’s Defense Fund is honored to celebrate and recognize a life-long champion of children who never gives up and never stops working to change the odds for children. Never has there been a more urgent time for all of us to help bind our wounds and heal our divisions and work for a nation and world where all children are respected and protected and no child is left behind. We thank Hillary who has been a tireless voice for children from the Children’s Defense Fund’s beginning as a young staff attorney, then board member and board chair,” said Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children’s Defense Fund.

With what we know about Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, Laura Silsby ( https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/794247777756860417) ), how is it this organization CDF, their president Marian Edelman, can remain ignorant of Clinton's true activities?

The Edelmans, Peter and Marian, show up often in wikileaks emails (note: not all Edelman mentions refer to CDF's Edelman):

https://search.wikileaks.org/advanced?order_by=newest_document_date&publication_type%5B%5D=46&query=Edelman

Searching Wikileaks, we get this email sent on behalf of the Edelman's regarding Obama's 2008 Cabinet appointments: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/56999

From Peter Edelman and Marian Wright Edelman:

Attorney General: Former NYS Supreme Court Chief Justice *Judith Kaye

HHS: Sebelius. Peter had qualms about Howard Dean, having recalled that while he was governor folks at HHS thought he was difficult to deal with (well, sure -- he was trying to rip off the feds for money to implement universal health care for kids); but Marian thinks he'd be terrific and Peter muted his concern.

Labor/White House: Peter Edelman would really like to be in the mix for DOL Secretary (I think he'd be interested in something less, though. Perhaps Assistant Secretary for Employment & Training?), and has lots of ideas and passion around the workforce agenda. I think Peter would be a terrific candidate to lead the WH effort on poverty reduction, perhaps as a Deputy Asst to the President, double hatted in NEC and DPC? This seems a better fit to me than DOL. Recall Obama's pledge to cut poverty 50%, and of course Peter's role in the CAP project on poverty.

White House: DPC staff position on Early Childhood Learning, coordinating interagency council on same (per campaign pledge): David Kirp, UC Berkeley public policy prof who is working on the transition policy group and is a big deal author/expert on the subject. Substantively brilliant, but also terrific at messaging and political thinking. No DC experience, but knows tons about what's going on around the country.

(personal email) Christopher Edley, Jr. Professor and Dean UC Berkeley Law School

Peter Edelman even reached out to John Podesta directly to request the role: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/46349

But Hilda Solis got it: http://infogalactic.com/info/Hilda_Solis#U.S._Secretary_of_Labor

In another Podesta email, December 2014, we see that Peter Edelman has been named professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown U: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/2640 (Subsequently, emails from him can be traced from a law.georgetown.edu address.)

---

So at this point I'm thinking, the Edelman's could possibly be related to PizzaGate, and maybe that's still the case...but I doubt it.

In a retrospective article I found in Podesta's email ( https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/1977) ) shows a side of the Edelman's which shows them in another light: true believers.

Will Hillary Clinton Run Against Her Husband’s Welfare Legacy? https://archive.fo/Sy3rE

Clinton's signing of the bill was a source of near-physical pain to someone like Peter Edelman, then Clinton’s assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, who as a speechwriter for Robert Kennedy had penned one of the earliest liberal critiques of welfare’s shortcomings, in 1967. RFK’s proposed antidote, however, had been a massive jobs program. Edelman had known Hillary Clinton since 1969, when he’d put her in touch with his wife, Marian Wright Edelman, who became her mentor and employer at the anti-poverty organization she'd just founded, the Children’s Defense Fund.

After Clinton signed the legislation, Edelman and his Health and Human Services colleague Mary Jo Bane, both of whom had been brought into the administration as advocates of a very different brand of welfare reform, did what few in Washington ever do—they resigned in protest. In an “Open Letter to the President’’ published in the Washington Post, Marian Wright Edelman called it a “moment of shame” for her old friends and their party.

…

“Bill’s decision, and my endorsement of it, outraged some of our most loyal supporters,” including the Edelmans, and “[i]n the painful aftermath, I realized that I had crossed the line from advocate to policy maker. I hadn’t altered my beliefs, but I respectfully disagreed with the convictions and passion of the Edelmans and others who objected to the legislation.”

In the book, Clinton came very close to suggesting that they were naïve, and said outright that that kind of purity was easy for people in their position: “As advocates, they were not bound to compromise, and unlike Bill, they didn’t have to negotiate with Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole or worry about maintaining a political balance in Congress."

I wanted to write this thread down because it was, for me, a facinating case where you look at a Clinton connection with suspicion because they're so close to the corrupt politician, and close also to her closest advisors, and for such a long time.

But in some cases, as Clinton herself characterized them, they're more likely naïve.