Posted on 10/18/2006 5:59:32 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Former President Clinton bemoaned ideologues who describe opponents as "running for office on his or her way to hell" and urged Democrats not to shy from fighting back.
Clinton, criticizing Republicans weeks before the midterm elections, told an audience at Georgetown University on Wednesday that intellectual debate should trump partisan rancor and either-or choices are false.
"Most of us long for politics where we have genuine arguments, vigorous disagreements but we don't claim to have the whole truth and we don't demonize our opponents and we work for what's best for the American people," he said.
Clinton, whose wife Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is eyeing a 2008 White House run, spoke at his alma mater to mark the 15th anniversary of his series of speeches there as a then-fledgling presidential candidate. The former president gave notice that Democrats would not be passive victims of attacks.
"This is a contact sport, politics," he said. "You can't complain about being attacked. It's like Yao Ming complaining about being fouled playing basketball."
Clinton said he doesn't see Democrats shying from the debate.
"It's not that we want a bland, mushy, meaningless politics," he said. "We like our debate. . . . We understand that campaigns will be heated and only one side can win. But we want it to be connected somehow to real lives and real people, to aspirations of ordinary Americans to the future of our children and our grandchildren."
Recently, the former president engaged in a testy exchange with Fox News over his administration's record on terrorism.
During remarks that were framed as a discussion of the common good, Clinton decried personal attacks against candidates for perceived lack of faith.
"It's not about who represents the religious truth and who is basically running for office on his or her way to hell," Clinton said.
Clinton also argued that the GOP has allowed its conservative element to drown out moderate voices.
"The ideological, right-wing element of the Republican Party has been building strength, partly in reaction to things that happened 40 years ago - Barry Goldwater's defeat, the excess of the '60s, Ronald Reagan's election" he said. "But this is the first time on a consistent basis, the most conservative, the most ideological wing of the Republican Party has had both the executive and legislative branches with a very distinct governing philosophy and very distinct political philosophy."
He said the United States' effort to develop new weapons and cut taxes undercut the moral arguments.
"They favor unilateralism whenever possible and cooperation when it is inevitable," Clinton said without specifically mentioning members of the Bush administration.
"The problem with ideology is, if you've got an ideology, you've already got your mind made up. You know all the answers and that makes evidence irrelevant and arguments a waste of time. You tend to govern by assertion and attacks."
Perhaps a comment like this isn't suitable for a family-friendly site when it comes from Bill Clinton.
I don't get it. Slick says we shouldn't demonize the opposition but the opposition shouldn't complain when it's attacked. Apparently, the syphillis has metastasized to whatever's remaining of his brain.
Very possible!
I must just plain suck to be "slick willy"
In my circle of friends, some moderate and liberals, there is now a growing consensus that the Clinton administration was a disaster for the country in national defense. This is a sea change for those folks and I hope it repsents the county at large.
They just won't go away.
Really.
Contact especially with young interns.
I'm sure he thinks the same thing about whatever he thinks sex is.
This coming from the man who invented the Politics of Personal Destruction.
Did he cover how 'Nuts & Sluts' fit into this paradigm, perchance?
I walked out of "The Witches of Eastwick." But not before Jack Nicholson's face showed up on the monitor in the nursery, above the three babies he's sired.
It's kind of like that.
Except, in real life, they do go away. And the become greater and greater charicatures as time goes on.
Fight back! Wag your finger! Tap the other guy on the thigh! Turn red in the face! Clinton trying to turn his vice into a virtue. More BS from the masters of BS.
BJ Clinton: "Politics is a contact sport!"
Monica: "I'm on my knees for you, here's some contact, Bubba!"
Hillary: "Here's some %#$#$#%#% contact for you, %#$#$#%#%!!!" [throws lamp at BJ]
Hannity just rolled the clip of 'toon today. billy-jeff is either on drugs or drinking. He hiccuped and slurred his speech like crazy!
LLS
Watching him on CSPIN......something terribly wrong, both healthwise and mentally.
Just watching the re-run on CSPIN....
"The problem with ideology is, if you've got an ideology, you've already got your mind made up. You know all the answers and that makes evidence irrelevant and arguments a waste of time. You tend to govern by assertion and attacks."
If there is ANY single statement by this person which proves him a fool it is this one!
He must've elaborated from his experience in the WH!!!
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