Hillary Hellacious

Update II: Fearing a divisive Democratic primary caused by Clinton dirty tricks,
Activists Dems Want a Democratic Truce

Sounds good, Hillary and Co. have been brushed back, and they know if they pull that sorry crap again, they will pay for it.

Update: Video at http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/1/13/113633/286

Just when she got out, she pulled her back in.

That's back into the self-serving, pernicious muck of the political lie, the cesspool where Hillary Clinton thrives.

Hillary's attacks on Barack Obama on Meet the Press this morning show again that absent misogyny and right-wing irrationality, the tragic Hillary apparently wishes to return to her sphere as the object of scorn, retaining her sad commitment to disingenuous assaults that has earned her the loathing of many hues of the American political spectrum.

Her presidential ambitions threatened by Obama, Hillary attacks Obama on civil rights, the Iraq War, and his character in an unrelenting display of negativity.

Transcripts and video should be up at at Meet the Press at 1:00 pm, ET.

Watch and read Hillary, and then take a bath.

Obama's Statement on Hillary's Meet the Press Attack

What we saw this morning is why the American people are tired of Washington politicians and the games they play. But Senator Clinton made an unfortunate remark, an ill advised remark, about King and Lyndon Johnson. I didn’t make the statement. I haven’t remarked on it and she I think offended some folks who felt that somehow diminished King’s role in bringing about the Civil Rights Act. She is free to explain that, but the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous.

I have to point out that instead of telling the American people about her positive vision for America, Senator Clinton spent an hour talking about me and my record in a way that was flat out wrong. She suggested that I didn’t clearly and unambiguously oppose the war in Iraq when it is absolutely clear and anyone who has followed this knows that I did. I stood up against the war when she was voting for it, at a time when she didn’t read the intelligence reports or give diplomacy a chance. She belittled the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate despite the fact that she stood on the sidelines during that negotiations on that bill.

I have to say that she started this campaign saying that she wanted to make history and lately she has been spending a lot of time rewriting it. I know that in Washington it is acceptable to say or do anything it takes to get elected but I really don’t think that is the kind of politics that is good for our party and I don’t think it is good for our country and I think that the American people will reject it in this election.What I want to do is spend talking about how we are going to make sure that people who are losing their jobs get work. How are we going to make sure that our young people are going to afford college? How are we going to make sure that the sub-prime lending crisis does not lead to an all out recession? How are we going to create the kind of foreign policy that allows us to bring our troops home and makes us safer and goes after a genuine terrorist threat? Those are the issues that we are going to spend time talking about in this campaign and if Senator Clinton wants to be distracted by the sorts of political point scoring that was evident today then that is going to be her prerogative.
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No Rick Lazio Moment for Hillary

Update: Well, shi*, the broadcast media's over-the-top jumping on Hillary for being a human being today is making a liar out of me (see post below). See Pundit Nation's "I think this is ridiculous." "Admit it. She's right." So much for my thesis, the media is the foil, but will it be enough of one?

The problem Hillary Clinton faces in this campaign is that she has no clear political foil in the Democratic primary. No crazed, impeach-Clinton haters, no misogynists, no Rick Lazio.

In Sidney Blumenthal’s The Clinton Wars (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), Blumenthal chronicles the rightwing Clinton haters’ defeat after defeat.

Among the most satisfying passages from the book is that of Hillary Clinton’s knock-out punch of Long Island Congressman Rick Lazio, a Mitt Romney-esque, say-anything-to-win opponent for the 2000 New York Senate election.

Writes Blumenthal (pp 695-697): “On September 13, the candidates (Clinton and Lazio) met in a debate moderated by the host of NBC’s Meet the Press, Tim Russert. … Russert played a tape from January 27, 1998, in which Hillary said that she believed her husband when he told he hadn’t had an ‘adulterous liaison,’ as her interviewer put it.”

“’Regrettably, it was proven true. Do you regret misleading the American people?’ asked Russert.”

In the same debate Lazio dramatically invaded Clinton’s physical space, and attempted unsuccessfully to bully her: “(Lazio) whipped out a piece of paper from his suit jacket, held out a pen in his other hand, and marched over to her.”

Blumenthal went on to describe how a too-demanding-in-tone and disrespectful Lazio literally pounded his podium, took repeated inaccurate, hypocritical shots at Clinton, while she maintained her cool and counterpunched Lazio with an agreeable, well-reasoned, short rejoinder.

That debate sealed the deal for the voters of New York and they elected Clinton 55 to 43 percent weeks later.

Writes Blumenthal: “According to a poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News, Lazio’s lead of 43-36 among suburban women in June had become a Clinton lead of 54-38 (after the debate). Russert’s embarrassing question, Lazio’s invasion, and Hillary’s composure were decisive. Actually seeing her fend off overbearing men made these women identify with her.”

But for Hillary Clinton today, she is a political giant (though not overbearing herself) seemingly aiming shots at underdogs fighting against the odds. That is a political narrative that will not work for Hillary Clinton or anyone else.

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