General Clark: Marching on Washington?

Washington Watch | 03.12.03 | Richard S. Dunham

[kcvl]

MARCH 12, 2003

WASHINGTON WATCH

By Richard S. Dunham

General Clark: Marching on Washington?

The former NATO commander may vie for the Democratic Presidential nod. Lots of insiders like his credentials, but he doesn't have much time

As the field of Democrats jockeying for the chance to take on President George W. Bush in 2004 grows, party activists have an eye on one prospective candidiate who hails from Arkansas, is a former Rhodes Scholar, and grew up humbly in an adoptive home.

Sound familiar? This time the fresh face from Little Rock is retired U.S. Army General Wesley K. Clark, the 58-year-old former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. The similarities with Bill Clinton quickly end, however. Clark graduated first in his class at West Point. He was a platoon leader in Vietnam, where he was wounded four times and won a chestful of medals. He went on to command U.S. forces in Europe, where he directed the campaign that drove Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic from power. Since retiring from the Army three years ago, Clark has stayed visible as an analyst on CNN and a lecturer on the rubber-chicken circuit.

MAKING THE ROUNDS. What intrigues so many Democrats is the ex-general's message: President Bush's single-minded pursuit of war against Iraq has shattered traditional alliances and may create a Middle East quagmire. Coming from a career soldier, this argument packs a punch. "He's the only Democrat who has all the issues coming his way," says Skip Rutherford, a Little Rock communications consultant and friend of both Clinton and Clark. "He brings the party credibility on war, international relations, military strength, and terrorism."

Plus, Clark hits all the right notes on domestic issues for Democratic activists. He supports affirmative action, abortion rights, and a return to the kind of fiscal discipline of the Clinton years under Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin. If Clark can ignite the Democratic base, his foreign-policy credibility could make a difference with swing voters, some pols believe. "An impressive fellow with an impressive résumé," says Washington & Lee University political scientist William F. Connelly Jr.

Clark clearly is testing the waters. He lunched in January with Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe and met with some of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's top New York money-raisers. While Clark didn't respond to requests for comment, associates say he has informed them that he'll wait to see how the U.S.-Iraqi showdown unfolds.

FALLING BEHIND. If he does enter the race, candidate Clark faces an uphill battle, however. Waiting much longer will put him at a distinct disadvantage against a field that's already organized and collecting cash. "If someone doesn't raise a significant amount of money before the process begins, they have little hope of enduring the rapid set of early primaries," says University of Iowa political scientist Arthur Miller. A Feb. 21-23 Zogby poll of New Hampshire voters found Clark running second to last -- ahead of only Florida Senator Bob Graham -- with just 0.5% of the vote in Democratic voter preference.

There's also the danger he'll lose key backers to more aggressive contenders while he bides his time. A recent example: Former Representative Dick Swett (D-N.H.) and his wife, Katrina, a 2002 congressional candidate, recently threw their support to Connecticut Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. The Swetts "were very high on Clark," says independent New Hampshire pollster Dick Bennett. "This makes it even more difficult." Such Granite State endorsements count for votes for the Jan. 27, 2004, primary.

To best the current field of Democrats, Clark would have to catch fire with the electorate in much the same way that GOP 2000 contender John McCain did -- by stressing an outsider image. Clark can also play up his business experience as a consultant for Little Rock-based investment bank Stephens Inc., where he focused on developing emerging-technology companies.

"ARKANSAS NETWORK." The Republican negative-research team is already at work, however. If Clark's star ascends, the GOP'ers are poised to paint him as a thin-skinned hothead -- just as backers of President Bush tried to paint McCain in the 2000 Republican primary season. Back when he was NATO commander, Clark's relations with then-Secretary of State William Cohen and the Pentagon brass over a strategy for ending ethnic bloodshed were often volatile and openly testy. Antiwar activists were enraged over his aggressive bombing of Serbia during the showdown over ending "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia.

The general's friends say he has plenty of time to mount an unconventional counterstrike. "He has an Arkansas network that's loyal to him, a Rhodes Scholar network that helps him -- plus he has military connections in every nook and cranny around the country," says Rutherford. And even if Clark doesn't snag the Presidential nomination, he's already considered prime Vice-Presidential timber.

Having a military man on the ticket who can make political war on the current occupant of the White House sounds mighty good to Democratic partisans these days.

[kcvl]

NO! No more Rhodes Scholars(especially from Arkansas who are "friends" with the Clintons). This guy is a arrogant jerk just like Bill Clinton.

BTW, if he has a "network" of anything in Arkansas it's tied to that skank Skip Rutherford (Clinton's side-kick).

[gaspar]

First it was Lyndon Johnson, then Carter, and then Clinton. Hopefully, America has learned its lessons when it comes to impoverished Southerners who seem to step out of a William Faulkner novel.

[Stopislamnow]

Served under this guy. Wasn't nice.

All show, no substance.

Poligeneral.

Don't have the courage to run.

[hobbes1]

And Tyson, no doubt.

Look, this is a 'We have no credible candidacy" trial balloon.

Simply put, any Technicians that could put him at the top of the Primary Battles have already been hired by other candidates.Remember, the Package is only part of the Deal, the packaging is what makes it sell.

[SJSAMPLE]

It's true: The really big turds DO float to the top.

[FryingPan101]

"He was a platoon leader in Vietnam, where he was wounded four times

I'd like some proof of this. Wounds? I personally know two people, both platoon leaders, who were right there with him in the Big Red One. They say hogwash!

[speedy]

Remember now, no Dick Swett jokes. Really, I mean it. We can't go there. Wouldn't be prudent.

[Semper Paratus]

one prospective candidiate who hails from Arkansas, is a former Rhodes Scholar, and grew up humbly in an adoptive home.

Been there, done that.

[guitfiddlist]

One of the perfumed princes that rotted the military from within.

[JohnGalt]

The Left will never go along with this guy:

Coutnerpunch/Alexander Cockburn (this is a far left publication)

Was Clark at Waco?
On February 28, 1993 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms launched its disastrous and lethal raid on the Branch Dividian compound outside Waco, Texas. Even before the raid, members of the US Armed Forces, many of them in civilian dress, were around the compound.


In the wake of the Feb 28 debacle Texas governor Anne Richards asked to consult with knowledgeable military personnel. Her request went to the US Army base at Fort Hood, where the commanding officer of the US Army's III corps referred her to the Cavalry Division of the III Corps, whose commander at the time was Wesley Clark. Subsequent congressional enquiry records that Richards met with Wesley Clark's number two, the assistant division commander, who advised her on military equipment that might be used in a subsequent raid. Clark's man, at Richard's request, also met with the head of the Texas National Guard.


Two senior Army officers subsequently travelled to a crucial April 14 meeting in Washington, D.C. with Attorney General Janet Reno and Justice Department and FBI officials in which the impending April 19 attack on the compound was reviewed. The 186-page "Investigation into the Activities of Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Towards the Branch Davidians", prepared by the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight and lodged in 1996 (CR 104 749) does not name these two officers and at deadline CounterPunch has so far been unable to unearth them. One of these officers had reconnoitered the Branch Davidian compound a day earlier, on April 13. During the Justice Dept. meeting one of the officers told Reno that if the military had been called in to end a barricade situation as part of a military operation in a foreign country, it would focus its efforts on "taking out" the leader of the operation.


Ultimately tanks from Fort Hood were used in the final catastrophic assault on the Branch Davidian compound on April 19. Certainly the Waco onslaught bears characteristics typical of Gen. Wesley Clark: the eagerness to take out the leader (viz., the Clark-ordered bombing of Milosevich's private residence); the utter disregard for the lives of innocent men, women and children; the arrogant miscalculations about the effects of force; disregard for law, whether of the Posse Comitatus Act governing military actions within the United States or, abroad, the purview of the Nuremberg laws on war crimes and attacks on civilians.

[ClearCase_guy]

Actually, this could be sweet. It would give the Democrats a chance to point to Bosnia as a great American moment. You, know, the way we saw a tyrant who was killing his own people and how we and the UN saw how necessary it was to go into that country, with great military force. We can discuss how we engaged in regime change. How we avoided a quagmire. How only a small occupation force was required in order to maintain the nation that we built.

And then the Dems could explain how Iraq is totally different. How the 1998 Senate resolution doesn't matter. How the 2002 Senate resolution doesn't matter, and how the 17 different UN resolutions don't matter.

[verity]

Perhaps he and Sharpton can use dueling pistols to decide the nomination.:~)

[DeuceTraveler]

Remember when the recently discarded and disgraced General McClellan joined the Democrats to go against the Republican Abe Lincoln in 1864? History does repeat itself.

[Redbob]

I'm just glad to hear there's yet another Dim candidate.

There's only so much money for losing causes, and now it'll be split one more way.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Geeze, I thought you were rotated out well before you got that many wounds. He did a great job of destroying the bridges on the Danube. Cripled commerce in Eastern Europe. Ruskies got control of the airport under his nose. Never got the Apache helicopters deployed.

Think he's one of Hackworth's perfumed princes. Did he ever make it into the field for Bill's Bosnian adventure?

[Jumper]

American doesn't need a Ted Turner Employee running the government, especially an EX-CNN Employee. We've already had Jane Fonda Turner.

[George W. Bush]

I think the real Dimocrat politicians will carve this guy up for lunch.

They'll suck up all the money before he can get any traction in the early primary states.

[tbpiper]

Did you know that there are fewer people in Nevada that there are people running for the democratic presidential nomination?