on it.
Posted on 11/06/2007 5:01:20 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON – Bill Clinton was hit with caustic criticism Tuesday from his wife's Democratic rivals, who accused the popular former president of falsely comparing questions about her candor to smears of past campaigns. In a presidential nomination fight growing more intense by the day, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama also criticized the former first lady for having voted in the Senate against incentives for ethanol production and higher fuel efficiency standards. And 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards challenged her to spell out what she would do about Iraq.
The week after Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign accused her rivals of “piling on,” those foes showed no sign of easing up. They even went so far as to criticize the former president, a strategy that comes with risks in a party filled with voters who admire him for resurrecting the party in the 1990s.
On Monday, in defense of his wife against political critics, Bill Clinton cited the “swift boat” television ads of the 2004 presidential campaign that questioned John Kerry's patriotism and the campaign commercials in 2002 that suggested Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia was soft on terrorism.
Obama told The Associated Press he was “stunned” to hear Clinton make the comparison. Both Kerry, who commanded a Navy swift boat in Vietnam, and Cleland, who lost three limbs in that war, are decorated veterans who were defeated by Republicans.
Obama said Hillary Clinton contradicted herself at the end of a Democratic presidential debate last week when asked whether she supported a plan by the New York governor to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. This week, the Illinois senator and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina have repeatedly reproached her on that subject.
“How you would then draw an analogy to distorting somebody's military record is a reach,” Obama said.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, another candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, called the Clintons' response to the debate “outrageous.”
“To have the former president come out and suggest this is a form of swift boating ... is way over the top in my view,” Dodd said in a telephone interview.
A senior adviser to Sen. Clinton's campaign, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said the former president's remarks were not part of campaign strategy and in fact were considered counterproductive by the her advisers.
But Bill Clinton is a powerful advocate in the Democratic primary, and he is returning to the all-important first-voting state of Iowa Thursday to campaign on his wife's behalf. Roughly half of respondents to recent polls say they approve of him, and even more say looking back they approve of how he ran the White House.
The morning after last week's debate, Sen. Clinton's campaign issued a video called “Pile On” that featured each of her male rivals calling her name the night before. Then, at Wellesley College, she joked about presidential politics being an “all-boys club,” and campaign surrogates suggested that sexism was behind the criticism.
Only then did Clinton herself say it wasn't her gender but her lead in the Democratic race that had led to the intensified criticism.
Said Dodd on Tuesday: “If elected to the presidency, there will be a lot of tough questions, and if you can't handle it in a debate without accusing everybody who has an issue with you of piling on or a sexist attack, somehow, first of all that's unwise and, secondly, it's false.”
Sen. Clinton acknowledged Tuesday that she could have done better in the debate, but denied that her stance on illegal immigrants has been unclear.
“I wasn't at my best the other night,” Clinton said on CNN. “We've had a bunch of debates, and I wouldn't rank that up in my very top list. But I've answered probably, I don't know, more than 5,000 questions over the last 10 months and I have been very clear about where I stand and what I want to do for the country.”
“If they want to use their energy attacking me, that's their choice,” she said. “I'm going to use my energy focusing on a new energy policy and so much else.”
In fact, her energy policy was the focus of criticism from Obama, with his campaign accusing her of voting 13 times against ethanol from 2002-2006, including measures to increase the amount of ethanol to be used as an additive in gasoline and to give liability protection for ethanol manufacturers.
“I think it is important to look at who has been a consistent champion on these issues,” Obama said. “I think I can make a legitimate claim that I have been consistent even when the politics is hard.”
Clinton's campaign said she has backed tax incentives for blending ethanol into gasoline, tax credits for installing ethanol pumps and a mandate that the nation's fuel supply contain 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022.
“She has always been a supporter of ethanol except for a time when there was evidence that New York would be hurt economically,” said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer. “Apparently, Senator Obama thinks misleading the voters about his fellow candidates' records is what the politics of hope is all about.”
Clinton also was the focus of criticism in New Hampshire. Edwards said she must answer questions about her plans for Iraq, including whether she would continue combat missions.
“If you believe what Senator Clinton believes, then you can support her,” Edwards said. “But if you believe that we need to bring this war to an end by getting all combat troops out and ending combat missions in Iraq, that is what I will do as president of the United States.”
Associated Press writers Ron Fournier in Newton, Iowa, and Philip Elliott in Newmarket, N.H., contributed to this report.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20071106-1241-billclinton-text.html
Text of Bill Clinton’s comments
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 6, 2007
Here is a text of former President Clinton’s comments Monday night in Las Vegas on the criticism of his wife, Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton:
“The point I’m here to make to you is whoever you’re for, this is a really big election. We saw what happened the last seven years when we made decisions in elections based on trivial matters. When we listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff.
And when they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he’d done in his life. When that scandalous Swift Boat ad was run against Senator Kerry. When there was an ad that defeated Max Cleland in Georgia, a man that left half his body in Vietnam. And a guy that led several departments ... with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden because he dared to vote against the president’s version of the Homeland Security bill. Most Americans still don’t know the truth. The president was against the Homeland Security Bill for 8½ months. And Karl Rove told him they were going to lose the 2002 election unless the American people were scared about terror again. So they decided to be for a bill they opposed. And they put a poison pill in it. That bill was designed by the president to take the job rights away from 170,000 federal employees that had no access to secure information, no access to secure technology. No business being treated like CIA. We need to be able to fire CIAs. .. But we don’t need to treat secretaries at FEMA that way. The whole thing was a scam.
So Max Cleland said, I didn’t go to Vietnam and leave one arm and two legs to come home and hold my job by stripping the job rights of 170,000 good, hardworking Americans. I don’t want to do it. So they put an ad on comparing him to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Why am I saying this?
Because, I had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy land again. Ya’ll raise your hand if you’re for illegal immigrants getting a driver’s license. So, we then let the Republicans go ahead saying all the Democrats are against the rule of law.
I think it’s fine to discuss immigration. We should. I believe immigration needs to be discussed. And it’s fine for Hillary and all the other Democrats to discuss Governor Spitzer’s plan. But not in 30 seconds, yes, no, raise your hand. This is a complicated issue. This is a complicated issue.
So do I hope you vote for my wife? You bet I do. It’d be good for America, and good for the world. But, more than that I came here to tell you today, don’t you dare let them take this election away from you. This belongs to you.
Don’t be diverted, don’t be divided. Thank you ... “
on it.
billyblythe blows
>> a party filled with voters who admire [Bill Clinton] for resurrecting the party in the 1990s
...ROFL! say WHAT?? he did WHAT???
These guys oughta ditch the political commentary gig. They could make a lot more dough scabbing for striking Hollywood comedy writers!
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Maybe I’m wrong but it looks like Hillary is in the process of imploding and we’ve got the leftist nutcase Spitzer to thank for it. I actually think her nomination would bring out conservatives in droves and almost guarantee a GOP landslide.
Roughly half, Nedra. What's the actual number? And how many is "even more"?
The Spitmeister may be a nutcase, but he's a shrewd nutcase. MissDidi and I were discussing on another thread a few days ago that he wants to be President, not someday, but in 2012.
If Herself wins in 2008, Spitzer can't realistically run against her in a primary in 2012. But if she loses in '08, Spitzer is in the catbird seat to run against the Republican incumbent in '12.
With all this negative publicity he’s getting do you think he could win? 2012 is a long way off yet but everything he’s doing now will come back to haunt him. If illegals are amnestied then I’d say all bets are off and anything is possible, which may be what he’s counting on.
“almost guarantee a GOP landslide.”
I wish I had your confidence. I hope you are right.
Chris Dodd better watch his back and NEVER go near Ft. Marcy Park!
Actually, she WAS SWIFT-BOATED!!! Swift=boated means the TRUTH came out FINALLY!!!
BEFORE Bill Clinton I NEVER thought the Democrat Party was VILE, IMMORAL and LOW CLASS....but after they elected and slobbered all over him, and covered up for his BJ’s in the OVAL OFFICE, I now think that!!
It warms my heart to think that Spitzer could SINK her!! Eliot the MILLSTONE!!
There is a high likelihood that Bill will have expired due to a sexually transmitted disease before 2012.
Yup, but she offered up one helluva big broadside as a target too. ;-)
It was gonna happen eventually,, and kudos to all who have been rallying to the cause.
That it has happened so early on is a testament to a lot of folks seeing thru the Clinton Legacy and revealing the Clintons for who and what they really are.
She was Swift Boated. They told the Truth about her answers.
Pray for W and Our Victorious Troops
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