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Pirro's Shocked By Hillary's Ambition! (Joe Conason Alert!)
http://www.nyobserver.com/opinions_conason.asp ^ | 8/22/2005 edition | Joe Conason

Posted on 08/17/2005 11:45:30 AM PDT by Maria S

Up for re-election after a successful first term, with overwhelming popular approval, the candidate is a prohibitive favorite to win again. Sporting a Presidential name and a stunning capacity to attract campaign money, the candidate can pull in a million dollars or more simply by showing up for dinner, not only locally but anywhere in the country.

While the candidate insists that winning a second term is the only priority, the nation’s political elites and pundits openly speculate that plans are being laid for a White House bid. Everywhere the candidate goes—and the candidate goes everywhere, both to address the party faithful and raise funds—reporters ask about the Presidency. The next Presidential election is still years away, but the candidate already leads all potential rivals in opinion polls and insider surveys.

Back home, the candidate’s would-be opponents seek to transform those looming national ambitions into a negative campaign issue. Those opponents accuse the candidate of paying more attention to national politics than home-state concerns and suggest that running for President will mean only part-time attention to pressing issues.

Who is this candidate? Of course, the description fits Hillary Rodham Clinton, the junior Senator from New York and presumed Democratic Presidential contender. Seven years ago, however, precisely the same profile would have perfectly described George W. Bush, then running for his second term as Governor of Texas—and preparing to decide whether he would run for President of the United States.

During Mr. Bush’s 1998 re-election campaign, politicians and journalists correctly calculated that he was certain to begin running for President the following year. He was raising millions of dollars in places far from Austin, and he was doing his best to deflect questions about the Presidency without sounding overly coy.

To his credit, Mr. Bush never tried to deny that he might very well seek national office. “The truth is, I don’t know whether or not I’m going to run for the Presidency, and won’t know for quite a while,” he said in May 1998. “That’s just something Texas voters will have to factor into their decision.” He made those comments six months before his landslide victory over a Democrat who tried to make an issue of his Presidential prospects.

The issue of Presidential potential as a distraction from present responsibilities arose when Jeanine Pirro, the Westchester County District Attorney, announced her intention to seek the Republican nomination against Mrs. Clinton. Fumbling her way through an uninspired speech, Mrs. Pirro mentioned few substantive disagreements with the incumbent. Instead, she boasted of the “broad blue stripes” that offset her Republican redness and emphasized her disagreements with the Bush administration.

The would-be challenger’s sharpest complaint is that Mrs. Clinton could conceivably run for President while serving in the Senate. According to Mrs. Pirro, in fact, that complaint is the foundation of her candidacy.

“I am running for the Senate because New York deserves a Senator who will give her all to the people of New York for a full term—full time—and not miss votes to campaign in the 2008 Presidential primaries,” the District Attorney explained in her announcement speech last week. “New York deserves a Senator who has New York’s interests at heart—not the divided loyalties of one seeking to satisfy the needs of the people in Iowa, New Hampshire or Florida.

“You will know where my opponent and I disagree and where we agree,” Mrs. Pirro went on. But mostly, she concluded, “I’m the one candidate running for Senator from New York who really wants to be Senator from New York.”

There are many flaws in this argument, but let’s begin with the most obvious. Somehow it didn’t occur to Mrs. Pirro that if the people of New York deserve a “full-time” Senator, then the good citizens of Westchester County also deserve a full-time District Attorney—and she should resign because her attention will be consumed by a statewide campaign for the next 16 months.

Yet even if Mrs. Pirro does resign, the notion that anyone contemplating a Presidential candidacy shouldn’t stand for re-election to the Senate or statehouse is still stupid and harmful. Pursued to its logical conclusion, this stricture would eliminate many of the most able and talented politicians from public service.

Nobody in Kansas made an issue of Senator Robert Dole’s ambitions when he sought the Republican Presidential nomination in 1980 and 1988. (He did resign his Senate seat, in 1996, when he was the party’s nominee.) Should John McCain, the conscience of the Republican Party, have renounced his easy re-election last year because he may run for President again in 2008? Nobody in Arizona mentioned the idea, including his plucky Democratic opponent.

If White House political guru Karl Rove encouraged Mrs. Pirro to run, as many observers believe, then perhaps he should devise a more persuasive—and less sophomoric—rationale for her campaign.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
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Another "It's all Rove's fault" article:

"If White House political guru Karl Rove encouraged Mrs. Pirro to run, as many observers believe, then perhaps he should devise a more persuasive—and less sophomoric—rationale for her campaign."

1 posted on 08/17/2005 11:45:31 AM PDT by Maria S
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To: Maria S

So nice to see Conason's rationale being "Bush did it, so it's OK!"


2 posted on 08/17/2005 11:47:22 AM PDT by Darkwolf377 (If you want Hillary! for president, vote third party!)
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To: Darkwolf377
John McCain, the conscience of the Republican Party Probably the worst mistake in this flaw-filled article
3 posted on 08/17/2005 11:52:43 AM PDT by CarlEOlsoniii (McCarthy goes after Communists with a shotgun; I go after them with a rifle -Nixon)
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To: Darkwolf377
October 15, 1990 -

Reporter: "Will you guarantee all of us, that if re-elected, there is absolutely, positively no way that you'll run for any other political office and that you'll serve out your term in full?"

Bill Clinton: "You bet. I told you when I announced for governor I intended to run, and that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna serve four years. I made that decision when I decided to run. I'm being considered for as a candidate for governor. That's the job I want. That's the job I'll do for the next four years."


4 posted on 08/17/2005 11:55:14 AM PDT by HAL9000 (Get a Mac - The Ultimate FReeping Machine)
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To: Maria S

actually, being the non-Hillary is rational enough for me.
Isn't it time for Joe to put away his kneepads?


5 posted on 08/17/2005 11:55:17 AM PDT by EDINVA
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To: HAL9000

Clintoon Lied, His Loyal Arkansas Supporter Cried...?


6 posted on 08/17/2005 11:56:36 AM PDT by Darkwolf377 (If you want Hillary! for president, vote third party!)
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To: CarlEOlsoniii
I'm sure Conason didn't mind that Joe Lieberman ran for the Senate AND Vice President AT THE SAME TIME!!! Who cares, huh? So what is Hillary doesn't really have anything to do with New York and just wants the job for the status while she follows her LIFE-LONG ambition to be President. I'm sure he is recommending that all New Yorkers do what they can for her to be President by joining her in pretending that she wants to be a Senator in 2006.

New Yorkers apparently don't have any particular moral or other standards for their senators. If they can recognize the name, that appears to be the minimum threshold.

7 posted on 08/17/2005 11:57:21 AM PDT by bpjam (Now accepting liberal apologies.....)
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To: Maria S
Ole Karl really gets around,doesn't he.

You'd think by now Joe Conason would have figured out that Karl is just one of many clones created by the PNAC neo-cons to rule the world.

(Whoops,there I go leaking classified information again)

8 posted on 08/17/2005 11:57:33 AM PDT by smoothsailing (Qui Nhon Turtle Co.)
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To: HAL9000

*Snicker*


9 posted on 08/17/2005 11:58:34 AM PDT by Howlin
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To: bpjam

New Yorkers apparently don't have any particular moral or other standards for their senators.
------
They have none -- along with care for their country. With the libs IT IS ALL ABOUT SELF AND POWER AND CONTROL.

PERIOD.


10 posted on 08/17/2005 12:00:00 PM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: CarlEOlsoniii

well, if we go by how MSM apparently defines conscience, which is "that little voice that no one really listens to" then sure, mccain could be considered the conscience of the GOP


11 posted on 08/17/2005 12:01:23 PM PDT by absolootezer0 ("My God, why have you forsaken us.. no wait, its the liberals that have forsaken you... my bad")
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To: Maria S
We used to refer to people like Joe Conason as "another one of Clinton's butt-boys". The name still applies.
12 posted on 08/17/2005 12:03:34 PM PDT by hang 'em (Here Lies Peter Jennings - Deported with Extreme Prejudice.)
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To: Mia T

fyi


13 posted on 08/17/2005 12:05:16 PM PDT by jla
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To: Howlin

I hope someone in the NY GOP will obtain the KHBS-TV video of that Bill Clinton interview. It's like a ready-made commercial against Hillary.


14 posted on 08/17/2005 12:10:00 PM PDT by HAL9000 (Get a Mac - The Ultimate FReeping Machine)
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To: Maria S
I see Hillary made Neil Boortz' Honor Roll of Democrat Women:



15 posted on 08/17/2005 12:13:40 PM PDT by Irontank (Let them revere nothing but religion, morality and liberty -- John Adams)
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To: jla
 
I hope Jeanine goes after clintoncorruption,
clinton abuse of women, clinton abuse of power,
clinton utter failure to protect this country.

Since missus clinton is attempting to conflate bill and hillary
so that she can arrogate the clinton legacy as "theirs,"
all HIS failures and abuses formally become HERS, too.

ALL the clinton muck is fair game.

(BTW, everything would be fair game regardless of hillary's strategy.
She was an actor, even at times an architect, not some passive little missus...)

the MAD hillary series
WHY MISSUS CLINTON IS DANGEROUS
FOR THE CHILDREN,
FOR AMERICA,
FOR THE WORLD


madhillary.com (coming soon)
madhillary.blogspot.com
COPYRIGHT MIA T 2005

MAD hillary series #1
ALFRED E."What, me worry?" CLINTON
+ CRAZY HIL MAD COVER STORY



THE THREAT OF TERRORISM AS CLOSE AS
A CLINTON TO OVAL OFFICE
MAD hillary series #2
HILLARY'S
MIDDLE-FINGER MINDSET



Do you really want THAT finger
on the button?

MAD hillary series #3
"What, me worry?"



THE THREAT OF TERRORISM AS CLOSE AS
A CLINTON TO OVAL OFFICE

MAD hillary series #4
NANO-PRESIDENT



the danger of the unrelenting smallness
of bill + hillary clinton


MAD hillary series #5
SCHEMA PINOCCHIO



how the clintons are handling
the hillary dud factor



 
Listen to this and ask yourself if America Ever Had the Remotest Chance Under a clinton to Avoid 9/11
(To paraphrase Einstein: "The unleashed power of terrorism has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophes.")


Is the 9/11 commission calling bill clinton's statement '"unreliable," or did it choose willful ignorance this time, too?


Why hillary clinton should never be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office... or any position of power--THE SERIES
REASON 1: MISSUS CLINTON HIRED JAMIE GORELICK


Who in heaven's name is writing missus clinton's speeches?
A "handling the hillary dud factor" AFTERWORD


SCHEMA PINOCCHIO
how the clintons are handling the hillary dud factor



NANO-PRESIDENT, MEGA-DISASTER
history will not be kind to bill + hillary clinton


NANO-PRESIDENT
the danger of the unrelenting smallness of bill + hillary clinton


BIN LADEN FINGERS CLINTON FOR TERROR SUCCESS (SEE FOOTAGE)
THE THREAT OF TERRORISM IS AS CLOSE AS A CLINTON IS TO THE OVAL OFFICE


HIROSHIMA'S NUCLEAR LESSON
bill clinton is no Harry Truman



HILLARY'S MIDDLE-FINGER MINDSET (MAD COVER 2)
Do you really want THAT finger on the button?



THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT?
clinton legacy of lynching update


For the children?
the clintons ARE pornography downloads


"For the children," Jeanine or hillary? (IT'S NO CONTEST)


New York, New York -- if hillary can't make it there, she can't make it anywhere


HILLARY DUD -- NOT DUFF -- PORTENDS JEANINE WIN


"Married to the Mob" and other stop-Jeanine sillygisms


ANDREA MITCHELL CARRIES OBLIGATORY ANTI-JEANINE WATER FOR HILLARY CLINTON


CARRYING-hillary's-ANTI-PIRRO-WATER club


ROE, MEDICAL SCIENCE, THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT, ROSS PEROT + HILLARY CLINTON


HEAR MAD hillary talks #3:
"What, me worry?"


the significance of missus clinton's gratuitous gerundial g-droppings


CONDI RICE-HILLARY CLINTON VIRTUAL MATCHUP-2008
(BEAUTY AND THE HILDABEAST2)


ALFRED E."What, me worry?" CLINTON + CRAZY HIL MAD COVER STORY
THE THREAT OF TERRORISM IS AS CLOSE AS A CLINTON IS TO THE OVAL OFFICE


HILLARY'S TRIPLE PLAY
the clinton putsch + filegate + the gorelick wall



How did the flower children fall for the clintons, 2 such self-evident thugs and opportunists?
(FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU! FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME!)


Alfred E. Neuman + the threat of terrorism, according to hillary


HILLARY IS NIXON-PLUS part 1
BEWARE THE SYNERGY

Nixonian paranoia and fascistic mindset combine with
clintonian megalomania, ineptitude and, most important,
easy betrayal of America
to make hillary clinton deadly dangerous for us all.



KLEIN BOOK CAUSES HILLARY TO (oops!) CONFIRM "THE TRUTH ABOUT HILLARY"
CLINTON'S REACTION EXPOSES FASCISTIC MINDSET, TEXTBOOK CASE OF PARANOIA + MEGALOMANIA, AND A CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT IN BROADDRICK RAPE


THE OLYMPIC HILDABEAST FLOPS
hillary stupidly invokes clinton utter failure: 9/11


HILLARY CLINTONSTAHL
clinton agitprop machine censors truth about hillary


BEAUTY AND THE HILDABEAST
 
CLINTONS' DOCUMENTED ABUSE OF WOMEN


hillary clinton is a "CONGENITAL LIAR"
("I am not a crook")


hillary clinton: ABUSER, NOT VICTIM


retrograde feminist fraud positions herself as victim (again) in order to win White House
[FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU! FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME!]


NOTE THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN CLINTON REACTION TIME AND CONTENT TO THE TWO RAPE CHARGES


CATCHING THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KINGFISH
differential reaction to the two rape charges snares the clintons


CLINTON RAPES, REVISIONISM, USEFUL IDIOTS AND ENTROPY (an update)


1st Feminist Prez Impeached
(clinton, pushed by the "smartest woman in the world," managed to impeach himself)


HILLARY FLUNKED D.C. BAR EXAM
"the smartest woman in the world" sought less competitive venue


JENNINGS DOES A DIMBLEBY: clinton legacy-RAGE redux


THE DEMOCRATS ARE GONNA GET US KILLED (kerry, clinton + sandy berger's pants) SERlES



The Left's Fatally Flawed "Animal Farm" Mentality
(Why America Must NEVER AGAIN Elect a Democrat President)


THE JEANINE PIRRO--HILLARY CLINTON VIRTUAL MATCHUP


Hillary vs. Jeanine?


JEANINE PIRRO: indefinite prison/psych-ward term for all rapists
(HILLARY CLINTON: 16-year oval-office term for 2 certain rapists)


HILLARY IS NIXON-PLUS part 2
BEWARE THE SYNERGY
Nixonian paranoia and fascistic mindset combine with
clintonian megalomania, ineptitude and, most important,
easy betrayal of America
to make hillary clinton deadly dangerous for us all.

COPYRIGHT MIA T 2005


16 posted on 08/17/2005 12:25:48 PM PDT by Mia T (Stop Clintons' Undermining Machinations (The acronym is the message.))
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To: Mia T

I certainly don't consider McCain to be the "concience of the Republicans".


17 posted on 08/17/2005 12:39:22 PM PDT by Carolinamom (Life is a journey, not a destination.)
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To: Maria S

LOLOL. If Conason is out there attacking Ms. Pirro, then we KNOW her thighness is indeed worried.


18 posted on 08/17/2005 1:11:52 PM PDT by OldFriend (MERCY TO THE GUILTY IS CRUELTY TO THE INNOCENT ~ Adam Smith)
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To: Irontank
ROFL!!!!!!!!

Michelle is a turn on.............. oh, so are the rest of the Republican LADIES!!!

19 posted on 08/17/2005 2:03:57 PM PDT by beyond the sea ("If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball." - Jack Lemmon)
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To: Mia T
ANDREA MITCHELL CARRIES OBLIGATORY ANTI-JEANINE WATER FOR HILLARY CLINTON -----

****

Andrea Mitchell is Barbra Streisand on peyote.

Love your work, Mia. (one more time)

20 posted on 08/17/2005 2:06:04 PM PDT by beyond the sea ("If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball." - Jack Lemmon)
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