As the Clinton campaign continues its long day's meltdown into night, one of the sadder chapters of history being written is the tarnishing of Bill Clinton's legacy as a pretty good president.
Clinton governed in the middle, without the ideology and the tautology that we've all come to loathe in the current malAdministration. He met most ideas on their merits, accepted both sides of arguments, formed a consensus and moved on. Then he made illicit love, not illegal war. Oh, for THOSE good old days.
But the seamy political underside of these characteristics are the Clintonian tactics we've all come to loathe in the current campaign: the triangulation, the run to the middle to embrace the Right, the selling out of the entire Democratic undercard in order to concentrate on building the heavyweight champion. And the embrace of the worst of the Rovian tactics in furtherance of their own careers.
It is the Clintonian hubris that fuels this political engine, but Bill's "Bubba" persona kept the mixture from getting too explosive. Hillary's hard Midwestern edge turns that fuel into a more volatile mix, while her campaign's hour of desperation has distilled it into an unstable jelly. Disdaining Kool-Aid as just for kids, this Clinton napalm is the beverage of choice among her supporters, that is, until hemlock becomes available.
Ambassador Joe Wilson has drunk the napalm and is belching fire!
One of the sadder footnotes currently being written to history is the damage to Joe Wilson's reputation as a pretty good public servant. Of course, in a footnote to a preceding chapter he became the Pancho to his wife's Cisco as they fought the forces of the Evil Ranchero. But it appears he has subsumed their legitimate victimization to Clinton's Cult of Perpetual Martyrdom.
Contrast his brave and principled stand against Saddam during Gulf War I and his brave and principled stand against the Bush Administration in Gulf War II with his craven attacks on Obama. What's worse, he smears by association, as he attacks Obama for being supported by people whose only crimes appear to be supporting Obama and... criticizing Hillary!
Wilson is immolating his honor and reputation in the Clinton Gotterdammerung by firebombing the principled stands taken by Zbigniew Brzezinski, by John Kerry, by Bill Richardson, and by General Tony McPeak on behalf of the most transfiguring person in American politics since Franklin Roosevelt.
And what is the unspeakable sin that all these people have committed? What horrible crime against humanity caused this career diplomat to act in so undiplomatic a fashion? What horrendous affront to all that is good and holy in the world can possibly have caused Wilson to throw up his deep grounding in realpolitik to quaff the napalm of Clinton's lite version of Bush's weltpolitik?
Brace yourself, and I'll tell you.
Brzezinski accused Hillary of lying about her vaunted experience. Kerry identified Obama, with his deep family history in Islam, as having an advantage in future diplomacy with Muslim nations. Richardson failed to discuss policy because he was too busy dodging Clinton smears. And McPeak drew a parallel between Bill questioning Obama's patriotism and Joe McCarthy's "un-American" attacks.
Why, those bastards! Heat the tar! Pluck the feathers! Saddle up the rail!
This is the heady side effect of drinking the Clinton napalm. Not only do you lose your inhibitions and your judgment, but you also burn all your boats behind you and every bridge in front of you while turning your political viability into a crispy critter, another burnt offering on the Altar of Almighty Hillary.
Bill Clinton's chapter in history is thick. It will survive the fire and, decades down the line, his Presidency will be judged independently of his wife's failed candidacy.
But when Joe Wilson's footnote goes down in a chapter of history, it just goes down in Plame's.
It is a puzzlement that WIlson cannot comprehend that Barack Obama is the real article. Republican Senator Chuck Hagle believes he is and so stated in an interview with Charlie Rose that was broadcast a few days ago.
THE CORPORATION. (He's not a Democrat, he's a CORP-O-RAT.)
"Over the years, Wilson has made contributions to the campaigns of Democratic candidates, ... and to Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California. In 2000, he donated US$2,000 to Gore's presidential campaign and US$1,000 to Bush's presidential campaign ... Though he voted for Gore and criticized the flawed election, he believed that Bush would nonetheless be a responsible president once in office--a belief he would later call "naive"."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_C._Wilson#Political_views_and_involvement
But, check out his neo-con buddie Ed Royce from CA, (his home state)
"In every year from 2003 to 2006, he has voted in favor of the annual supplemental spending bill to continue funding for the Iraq war. ...voted against Amendment 214 ...which called on Bush to develop a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq; in favor of Amendment 488 ... to keep troops in Iraq; and in favor of HR 612 opposing a timetable for withdrawal of troops from Iraq. In 2006, he voted for... a resolution labeling the war in Iraq as part of a global war against terrorism."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Royce
Just because Joe Wilson does not agree with you and others and criticizes Obama, does not make him a napalm drinking misfit.
"One of the sadder footnotes currently being written to history is the damage to Joe Wilson's reputation as a pretty good public servant" - Your claim is that what he states damages his reputation. What a buch of BS. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't make make your statement fact.
I'm tired of hearing the common theme of how Hillary is damaging the Democratic Party...It takes two to screw up a relationship.
Obama is not coming close -- even in his or other persons' promises about him -- to anything that Franklin D. Roosevelt actually did and succeeded in doing.
This country needs a president that's not afraid of the financial elite. Obviously, that is not Obama. He took their money. Now he's even flirting with Bloomberg.
Joe Wilson, the dirty bomb nuking the Billary campaign. So much for that sweet Bahamian ambassadorship.
That is some purple Kool-Aid.
Here are a few facts from Bill's "progressive" presidency:
- War on Drugs http://www.mapinc.org/newscfdp/v01/n087/a05.html?6793
- Welfare Reform. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060911/truthdig
- Media Consolidation http://www.mediamouse.org/features/061407bill_.php
- Trade Policy
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7DB1131F931A35751C0A965958260
- Crime Bill
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_n10_v58/ai_15783391
- First Anti-Terror Legislation
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/8375.html
- War on Domestic "Terrorism"
http://www.constitution.org/ruby/ruby.htm
- War on Terror
http://www.slate.com/?id=2060941
Hillary has been no better in what she has championed since arriving at the senate. Sorry, but the Clintons are no fan of the common (wo)man.
Some of us, like Joe Wilson, have a different perspective and it has nothing to do with drinking any beverage. It has to do with OUR assessment of what's true and what we want. Your attack on Wilson is despicable. He has as much right to express his opinion as you.
You're blind. Haven't you been following the campaign? Obama is attracting, inspiring, leading. Hillary is repelling, dividing, lying. Obama's support comes from little donors everywhere, Hillary's comes from a few big-bucks donors. Obama's leading. Hillary's losing. Reasons abound.
Beyond twenty years of excellence and activism at the local and state level, http://thomas.loc.gov/ has all the legislation Barack (as well as Hillary) has sponsored or co-sponsored since arriving at the senate, including;
- 570 bills in the 109th and 110th Congress.
- 15 bills that have become LAW since he joined the Senate in 2005.
- Introduced amendments to 50 bills, of which 16 were adopted by the Senate.
His bills that are now law include:
Two addressing foreign policy:
- Promote relief, security and democracy in the Congo (2125)
- Develop democratic institutions in areas under Palestinian control (2370).
Three addressing public health:
- Improve mine safety (2803)
- Increased breast cancer funding (597)
- Reduce preterm delivery and complications, reduce infant mortality (707).
Three addressing openness and accountability in government:
- Strengthening the Freedom of Information Act (2488)
- Full disclosure of all entities receiving federal funds (2590)
- The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590)[
Two addressing national security
- Extend Terrorist Risk Insurance (467)
- Amend the Patriot Act (2167)
One addressing the Armed Forces
- Wave passport fees to visit graves, attend memorials/funerals of veterans abroad (1184).
Finally, he was involved in pushing and crafting legislation to drastically reform the Senate"s ethics standards and curtail lobbyist influence. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/18/AR2007011802176.html.
Barack is more than qualified to be president.
Excuse the typos. My spell-check isn't working.
larry lynch
bias re color or sex has squat to do with who's electable. if you're so liberated, what's the difference who gets there first?