My Husband Is Not the Secretary of State

A rolling stone becomes quite mossy,
unless supported by its posse
when celebrating birthdays in
Las Vegas. Hillary can't win
when in the Congo in a tizzy
she has to prove that she is busy
running the affairs of State,
and not the ex-pres who's her mate.
Such competition does not put
the wife in a good light. The foot
she shoots is hers, while rolling south,
and makes her limp with motor mouth
she ought to put to better uses
and now employs to make excuses
for ways that she embarrasses
herself, and hurting, harasses
the people who cannot forget
it's easy to make her upset,
reminding her she climbs the Hill
with water for her Jack, called Bill.
Now she's cut both bended knees,
no vinegar will help her heal
as long as people don't feel she's
become a bigger-than-her-husband deal.
State Secretaries should never flash
with pique but being diplomatic
should hide all skeletons that flash
to mind in basements or the attic.

Before the description of Hillary Clinton's flash of pique in the Congo by Jeffrey Gettleman, Maureen Dowd wrote "Toilet-Paper Barricades,":

You may recall the seventh rule of "Fight Club": Fights will go on as long as they have to. In this summer of our discontent, fights are spreading like mountain wildfires -- from a town hall in Lebanon, Pa., to one in Kinshasa, Congo. Never before have we had so many tools to learn and to communicate. Yet the art of talking, listening and ascertaining the truth seems more elusive than ever in this Internet and cable age, lost in a bitter stream of blather and misinformation. The postpartisan, postracial, post-Clinton-dysfunction world that Barack Obama was supposed to usher in when he hit town on his white charger, with turtle doves tweeting, has vanished.

Hillary's KO in the Congo on Monday made the covers of both New York tabloids. Using tough hand gestures not seen since "The Sopranos" went off HBO, Hillary snapped back at an African college student who asked about the growing influence of China on Africa and then, according to the translator, wanted to know: "What does Mr. Clinton think?" It turned out that the student was trying to ask how President Obama felt about it. But before he was able to clarify, the secretary of state flared: "Wait, you want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not the secretary of state. I am." This raw, competitive response showed that the experiment in using the Clintons as a tandem team on diplomacy may not be going as smoothly as we had hoped; once more, as with health care, the conjugal psychodrama drags down the positive contribution the couple can make on policy. At Tuesday's State Department briefing, Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley explained that Hillary was particularly irritated to feel overshadowed by men in Africa, where she is pushing her "abiding theme" of "empowering women."

Follow Gershon Hepner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gwhepner

Comments

[Observer963]

I think this is a natural reaction after all the accusations during her entire campaign with "2 for the price of one" and "taking credit for her husband's accomplishments, etc.". I don't see anything wrong with it frankly for her making clear that she is there in the political capacity and questions regarding her husband's political opinion are inappropriate (since he is not directly involved in the current administration).

[lbicomber]

No, Mr. Hepner, the question was NOT trying to ask what Mr. Obama thought. The question was translated correctly.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/was-hillary-clintons-answer-in-congo-the-right-one/

[Gershon Hepner]

Even if the question was translated properly it was surely an egregious gaffe on the part of the nation's First Diplomat to make an ad homimem response to it---or should I say ad feminam?

[lbicomber]

Actually, the fact that it was translated properly doesn't make a difference, other than to illustrate one more faulty premise in your argument. Either way, she took (appropriately) modest umbrage at an insulting, sexist question. Don't agree?

What a surprise .... particularly from a man who's idea of utopia is the 60's when he was able to "cherchez la femme" and chase the office secretaries, and thinks that the glass ceiling is a "myth".

Not particularly surprising, for a man who takes M@ureen D0wd seriously.

[boazconstrictor]

Well written poem! Makes me wonder who would be the bigger disaster for women as president. Hillary, who seems eternally uncomfortable in her husband's shadow, or Sarah Palin who...well, is Sarah Palin.

[elinaomi]

Personally I think too much has been made over her remark. She is a very
bright, well informed lady who is doing a tough job and has to put up with a
lot of nonsense that a man in her position would not have to deal with.

[2Bfair]

Three of the last four Secretaries of State have been women. What exactly is Hillary having to put up with that a man in that position would not? Did Condi Rice and Madaleine Albright also face this discrimmination, or is Hillary alone the victim of the "sexism" to which you allude?

[undisclosedrecipient0]

Well, after all she was in a country where women's rights notoriously lag behind ,unlike in the land of the free and the home of the brave (at least, that's what they used to say about this country).
Maybe in the near future, moving to the Congo will seem like a bright option?

[rabbijeremy]

Must register my admiration of your use of language and the range of topics you cover. You are a delight and a Kiddush HaShem.
J

[jhNY]

Hillary Clinton forever meat
for poetasters and a treat
for pundits who can paint in bile
but tiresome truely afterwhile
all such drips from pen to page--
the jaded jokes, the faux outrage--
like Houseman said, it's "simple stuff"
of which this reader's read enough.

[lbicomber]

Bravo. Better than the OP, ...

... and also true.