HILLARY CLINTON: THE GIFT THAT JUST KEEPS ON GIVING — TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!
HILLARY CLINTON: THE GIFT THAT JUST KEEPS ON GIVING — TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!
By
Ken Eliasberg
Hillary Clinton has indeed accomplished many things, unfortunately none of them benefited her Party. Let me point out her 3 most significant accomplishments: (1) She almost single-handedly produced a Republican Congress (for the fist time in 40 years); (2) she single-handedly got her husband impeached; and (3) finally she did damn near the impossible —she turned a political has been, John McCain, into very possibly our next president. Now as a detriment to her own Party, you’ve got to go a long way to beat that. On the other hand, looking at the brighter side, she did more for America, by helping the Republican Party, than just about anyone I know. So, here’s to Hillary!
I have in the past pointed out that the Clintons are the best thing that ever happened to the Republican Party. No Republican — including Reagan, Eishenhower, and “W” (combined) — have done as much. You see, as I have often noted, Republicans just don’t take politics nearly as seriously as their Democratic counterparts. As I’ve also noted that this difference in energy is, at least in part, understandable in terms of the interest and investment that each Party has in the government’s involvement in the lives of its citizenry. Democrats want the government involved in just about everything, andRepublicans want it, consistent with the expressed wishes of our founding fathers, to play a much more limited role. This difference in interest in government translates directly in to each party’s interest and involvement in politics — an unfortunate disparity for Republicans. Democrats take politics very seriously for they need to control government, and politics is the key to securing such control. Why do they need that degree of control? Because government is the engine that pulls their socialist train; thus when they lose government, they almost lose their raison d’etre. Actually, this is a lofty (but, nonetheless, accurate) explanation of the Dems pursuit of government. For the Clintons it is something considerably less lofty — for them it is all about power, particularly in the case of Senator Clinton. How has she helped the Republican cause? Let me count the ways! Actually, there are lots of them — her persona has the effect on many people of immediately making you like who’s ever on the other side. However, I have something more concrete in mind, to wit her direct contributions to the election of Republicans and her critical role in getting her husband impeached.
First there was the heavy handed handling of her massive health care proposal, a plan that would have consumed 1/7th of the entire economy — this after Clinton had campaigned on the slogan that “it’s the economy, stupid.” In the process of shepherding her proposal through Congress, she managed to irritate almost as many Democrats as she did Republicans. For example, in dealing with Jim Cooper, a Democrat Congressman from Tennessee, who felt that her proposal was a bit too far to the left, rather than either politely disagree with Cooper or, better still, seek to negotiate their differences, Mrs. Clinton informed him that “[W]e’ll crush you. You’ll wish you never mentioned this to me.” How’s that for presidential behavior? In a similar vein, she went on to deal with Bill Bradley, Democratic Senator from New Jersey in the following manner (according to Carl Bernstein’s biography, Her Way, etc., 2007): “When then-senator Bill Bradley suggested that some changes might be required, she told him to forget it; if any lawmaker even tried, she said, the White House would ‘demonize’ them”. Bradley later unloaded on Bernstein. ‘That was it for me in terms of Hillary Clinton,’ he said. “You don’t tell members of the Senate that you are going to demonize them. It was obviously so basic to who she is. The arrogance. The assumption that people with questions are enemies. The disdain. The hypocrisy.” Then there is Brad Delong, an economics professor at Berkeley (and another Democrat), who worked on her health care staff, who made this observation of his boss, Hillary Clinton. “My two cents’ worth — and I think it is the two cents’ worth of everybody who worked for the Clinton Administration health care reform effort of 1993-1994 — is that Hillary Rodham Clinton needs to be kept very far away from the White House for the rest of her life.” Delong goes on at some length regarding Hillary’s flawed management skills (and character). Now, bear in mind that these are all Democrats who have had dealings with Mrs. Clinton, and those dealings tell you a great deal about her arrogance and her incompetence.
She not only unnecessarily bared her fangs, but demonstrated a tin ear and a lead foot that is rarely seen in politics. Her proposal was killed by a Democratic congress, and, while her supporters would like to blame it on Republicans (as is typically their want), it was her own Party that weighed her plan in the balance and found it wanting. The consequences of her insensitive approach to trying to jam socialized medicine down our throats was a Republican sweep in 1994, leaving her husband with a Republican Congress throughout the balance of his two terms. While I wish to take nothing away from Newt Gingrich and his Contract With America, it was Hillary Clinton who set the table for Newt, making it fairly easy for Republicans to sweep into power (a power that, over the next 12 years, they managed to squander). But so complete was their ’94 victory that they took the House back (for the first time in 40 years), the Senate, a majority of State Legislatures, and a majority of State Governors. All this thanks to Hillary Clinton’s ineptitude.
What was her next gift to the Republicans and her country? She got her husband impeached — by demonstrating that “the world’s smartest woman” is absolutely devoid of judgment. How did she do this? Simple! When the Whitewater mess was first being considered, the Washington Post, in deference to good journalism, contacted the White House (per David Gergen, the details of this contact are set forth in his book Eyewitness to Power, pp. 286-291) in December of 1993.Gergen (who, along with Leon Panetta, had been brought in to give the appearance of having some adults on board), went to the president and advised him that the Post had requested information on this Arkansas land deal. Both Gergen and Stephanopoulus urged the Clintons to make a clean breast of it, informing them that they would take a“hit” fora week or two, and the whole thing would blow over. Clinton indicated that he agreed, but that it had to be cleared with Mrs. Clinton since she had worked on the deal.Mrs. Clinton, the legal genius, said no — tell them nothing. So the Clintons opted to stonewall. In short order the hullabaloo made it necessary to appoint an Independent Counsel. Well, as you know, Whitewater led to Travelgate (another Mrs. Clinton fiasco); Travelgate led to Filegate (still another Mrs. Clinton screw-up); and, finally, Filegate led to Monica Lewinsky. The Clintons, on the advice of “the world’s smartest woman,” stonewalled all the way, with Mrs. Clinton denying knowledge of every one of these scandals (even though it is pretty clear that she was behind each and every one of them, with the possible exception of Monica).
The amazing aspect of Mrs. Clinton’s behavior is that she apparently learned nothing from her work on the Watergate affair; she was part of a group of attorneys looking into the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Now what would any one of even below average intelligence have learned from Watergate?IT’S THE COVER UP THAT KILLS YOU!!! This is a lesson that “the world’s smartest woman never learned. By the way, the Chief Counsel of the Judiciary Committee at the time of the Watergate inquiry, Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, has written 2 books in which he critiqued Mrs. Clinton, concluding that she was both incompetent and untrustworthy and that she was one of only 3 attorneys that he would not (and did not) recommend for a legal position. In an interview with Dan Calabrese of the North Star Writers Group published on March 31, 2008, the author makes the following statements re Hillary’s integrity (or lack of it):
“The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate Investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther — and goes much deeper — than anyone realizes.” (to be continued).