Posted on 11/22/2005 9:41:10 PM PST by thoughtomator
BUBBA STEPS OVER THE LINE
By DICK MORRIS
November 22, 2005 -- By traveling to Dubai, just a few hundred miles from the combat zone, to denounce the American involvement in Iraq as a "big mistake," Bill Clinton has made a big mistake of his own.
Normally, a top leader of the Democratic Party and the spouse of a presidential candidate can and should feel free to say anything he chooses. But a former president of the United States should be more careful before he tells hundreds of thousands of young men and women, many of whom served under him, that they are risking their lives for a mistake.
To do it in the Arab world compounds the error. His denunciation of our war effort so close to the spots where our troops are fighting summons memories of Jane Fonda.
Yes, Clinton's attacks were highly specific. He praised getting rid of Saddam, but criticized President Bush for being overly optimistic about how easy it would be to leave Iraq afterward. He also attacked the administration for not leaving the "fundamental military and social and police structure intact." Really? That infrastructure killed, tortured, maimed and mutilated hundreds of thousands of people. Should President Harry Truman have left the Gestapo in place?
Moreover, Clinton knew that the sound bite that would emerge was "big mistake" -- a remark far outside the normal bounds of criticism of a president by one of his predecessors.
But there's another, all too familiar, concern here -- Bill Clinton, blurring his roles as political advantage dictates.
Is he the husband of the 2008 White House frontrunner, predicting that his wife would be a better president than he was? Sometimes. Is he the former president rising above party to join former President George H. W. Bush in appealing for aid for victims of tsunamis and hurricanes? Often. Is he the partisan critic, the nation's chief Democrat, slashing away at administration policy and rallying the faithful on the left? Increasingly.
When he travels to Israel, is he the ex-president bringing his wife along on an almost official visit to our chief Middle Eastern ally, or is he the husband of the candidate trotting along for photo ops? He's both -- with not a care over the conflicts of interest.
It's a potent combo. His support for his wife carries weight because he is a former president; his attacks on Bush are important because he is the husband of the likely Democratic nominee in 2008; his quasi-ceremonial role as a former president gains bite because he still commands massive support in his party as its leader.
Indeed, we have not had a popular ex-president running around criticizing a less favored incumbent since Theodore Roosevelt did it in 1912 against President William Howard Taft. And, of course, we have never had a candidate's spouse assume such a role.
Hillary Clinton has her own version of this blurring -- alternately embracing and shunning her husband's record.
When the senator boasts of the job creation and balanced budget of her husband's tenure, she's arrogating these accomplishments to her own resume. But she's nowhere to be seen as evidence emerges that U.S. intelligence knew that Mohammed Atta was a man to watch in the late 1990s and that we had indications of suicide hijackings of passenger aircraft but did nothing to modify our air-safety system.
Finally, Bill and Hillary are playing a pas-de-deux in satisfying both the left and the center of the Democratic Party. For the first time in their careers, they can really be all things to all people -- Hillary, a hawk voting for the war; Bill, a dove blasting the decision to wage it.
Should the elections in Iraq really turn the corner and give that nation a working democracy and America a way out of Baghdad, Hillary can always say she was there from the beginning. But should the casualties only mount, she can join Bill on his leftist perch.
Eileen McGann co-authored this piece.
Nah. But he serves a very important purpose where he is and with all he does.
LOL, I have always wondered about this tired criticism regarding the disbanding of the police and military structure.
Thankyou!
I'm reading it now but why am I waiting for the Clinton's name to appear any minute? A gut feeling tells me maybe I haven't read far enough yet. I know they have to have their fingers in the pot somewhere and this would be right up their alley.
Me too. The only Republican who could speak that strongly is one who isn't running for anything. Any suggestions?
This is a HELL BUMP for the both of them!
I would favor legislation that would afford Secret Service protection to ex-Presidents only for so long as they remained retired and completely out of the public arena.
Maybe we could permit one volume of memoirs every two years. But certainly no speeches, magazine articles, or overseas interferences unless requested the the current POTUS.
I am aware that this might seem a restriction on freedom of speech, but it's not. Nobody, not even these ingrates and reprobates, have a RIGHT to secret service protection.
Ollie....."Any chance of that happening?"
I don't think so, but would love to see him get an important cabinet position.
Bill Clinton like Little Jimmy Carter are both useless pieces of crap. Everytime the open their mouths and move their lips they prove it.
That was my first thought but was giving him the benefit of the doubt.
LOL!
Yes, Clinton was able to lie and manipulate his way out of anything for decades. And then, imagine his shock to learn that he had been outmaneuvered by a strumpet who had the good fortune to get some timely advice regarding the preservation of a "soiled" blue dress. He has been rotten from the start. But his not uncommon failings pale when compared with those of a debauched electorate that managed to send him into the White House.
It is certainly no surprise to anyone who has followed Clinton's swagger toward power that he could send aid and comfort to our enemies and endanger our troops without a second thought. Recall the following excerpt from his letter to Col. Holmes in 1969? This has been Bubba's innermost sentiment concerning the US military for thirty-six years, minimum:
"I am writing too in the hope that my telling this one story will help you understand more clearly how so many fine people have come to find themselves loving their country but loathing the military... To many of us, it is no longer clear what is service and what is dis-service, or if it is clear, the conclusion is likely to be illegal."
Make no mistake about it, the only thing that Clinton has ever loved is himself.
Bob Dole.
Not a surprise that I still have nightmares, reading this, will cause them.
I did not know clinton was brave enough to our Military they were in the wrong.......
What is that called, "Fragging a leader"?
I as any Patriot understand your outrage...however, W is trying as best he can to defeat extremism on the left and the right to allow a moral majority to prevail, as we all work to Put aside the hell that is liberalism...we must support W as well as the next W to allow true progress in defeating hell's Devils(Dem's) I fear that the all or nothing we seek is self defeating...be real! it took the left...the screwed up communist left since the 1930's to make a mess this BAD, it is up to us, yes we Patriots, it is up to us, to fix this frigging bunch of Lier's! WE must be just as patient to right the wrongs and we can not just kill the opposition...WE MUST LEAD! Let it be so here! Jim...sorry if this seems a triad, I have been here so long reading your wisdom, I just had to have my say in a way to say I love you guys
They are The Arkansas Grifters going along their merry way wreaking havoc with their lying and fund raising,leaving destruction, mayhem,in their path.
'Democratic Party'. ...It's Democrat Party...Oh, wait, maybe we better leave the ic in, it's more descriptive of the them anyhow.
You know what, you are right on this one but think of it this way. By having Ethel and Julius Clinton around making a$$es out of themselves and A$$es out of the democRATS, is the best thing in guaranteeing a Republican majority in all branches of Gov't for many years to come. Presient Bush and his handlers have been brilliant in this regard. Mark my words; this is definately occouring and America will be better because of it.
That's "continue" folks in my tag line.
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