September 19, 2003
The Perfumed Prince Report - 09/19/2003
"The Ultimate Perfumed Prince" was a nickname reportedly given to General Wesley Clark by those serving under him. David Hackworth first picked up on it during the Kosovo conflict. This first edition of the Perfumed Prince Report (which will be repeated most likely on a weekly basis) has recent and not-so-recent pieces from the blogosphere and beyond on Wesley Clark's past and his present presidential campaign. Feel free to add anything you might have or to submit it for next week's report by sending e-mail to jeff -at- jquinton.com.
Check back over the weekend for more updates to this post, including news article links.
A recent Clark news summary can be found via Google News.
How does Clark stand on the draft? by Blaster
Scent of Failure from Baseball Crank
Ratko Mladic's INTERPOL Wanted Poster linked by
John at argghhh!!
Clark Might Vote for Himself As President at Scrappleface
"Put a fork in Clark . . . " by Donald Sensing
Balkan Failure is Clark's by Robert Novak on May 6, 1999
John at argghhh!! points out the newest nickname for Clark: General Jello.
PoliPundit discusses Clark's latest flip-flop on the war with Iraq.
I think that a presidential candidate has two chances to put his or her best case before the American public. One is when he/she announces his/her candidacy and the second is when he/she accepts the nomination at the convention. (Don't you hate our lack of gender neutral pronouns?)
Is it just me or did Wesley Clark squander his first chance today by being boring when he announced that he's running for President? He didn't seem to do much better on the new channels.
Expect the media to play up Clark's military credentials as "proof" that he can handle national security better than President Bush. Don't expect them to spend much time noting that it was Clinton's numerous failures to properly battle terrorism in the 1990s that left the U.S. open to the September 11 attack. And Clinton is Clark's political patron and foreign policy soulmate.
Donald Sensing points out the following:
Tracing Clark's military map in the Washington Times
Does Clark candidacy make the Brits nervous?
CLARK ON THE WAR by Andrew Sullivan
A Mother Jones blurb on Clark
Clark and the Clintons by Michael Williams
Glenn Reynolds points out that Wesley Clark, Jr. is defending his dad in the comments at Daily Kos.
James Joyner points to a James Pinkerton piece.
Peter Augustine Lawler, writing in National Review Online, thinks the most likely scenario for the Democrats is a Wesley Clark-Hillary Clinton ticket, which he thinks could win a general election. His rationale is interesting and worth reading, although I'm far from sold on either candidate at this point. For one thing, a ticket with a combined two years of elected office experience would be unprecedented, certainly in modern times. For another, Clinton's being on the ticket would virtually ensure that Bush swept all the Deep South states.
I'm also not convinced yet that it's obviously a choice between Dean and Clark at this point. While no one else seems to be getting any traction in Iowa or New Hampshire, that's no longer a necessity. I'm believe Dean's doing well in the South when I see it.
The Russians at Pristina Airport from SSDB
Team Coverage of Clark 2004 from SSDB
Wesley Clark's Ties To Muslim Terrorists by Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media
A Montreal man has emerged as the key figure in a controversy that has dogged Democratic presidential aspirant Wesley Clark during the summer months.
Questions have swirled since June when the former NATO commander alleged on national television that he was pressured to link the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in a mystery phone call he received.
Clark first implied the call, not long after the attacks, might have come from White House, then later said it came from a Middle Eastern think tank in Canada. He has never identified the caller.
As Clark kicked off his campaign yesterday in Little Rock, Ark., Thomas Hecht, founder of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies, told the Star he placed the call to Clark and drew his attention to a potential link between Saddam and the Al Qaeda suicide hijackers.
But Hecht said he did not pressure the former army general, who became a CNN commentator after retiring from the military, to make the link and said the matter was raised in a phone call inviting Clark to come to Montreal for a speech.
Words from Wesley Clark, General and now Democratic Presidential candidate, on Meet the Press, June 15, 2003 (emphasis added):
The Bush tax cuts weren't fair. The people that need the money and deserve the money are the people who are paying less, not the people who are paying more. I thought this country was founded on a principle of progressive taxation. In other words, it's not only that the more you make, the more you give, but proportionately more because when you don't have very much money, you need to spend it on the necessities of life.
Somehow I slept through the class session in American History where they explained just how the country was founded "on a principle of progressive taxation." "No Taxation Without Progressivity," was that the big slogan? (Thanks to Dan Gifford to the pointer; I should also note that columnist Walter Williams also made the same observation shortly after the Clark speech, and I'm sure many others did, too.)
Clark avoids stakeout questions
Says The Note about Wesley Clark's amateurish stumbles:
Suffice to say, the message is a work in progress. Some of the other Democrats are amazed at the manner in which Clark is taking and (apparently) untaking positions.
...
Writes one Democrat with national political experience:
"I have read the accounts of the Clark interviews and my reaction is despair and anger. Why did my party's best operatives think it would be a good idea to subject their neophyte candidate to the country's savviest reporters for over an hour? Why have my party's elders rallied around a candidate who is so shockingly uninformed about core issues and his own positions? I am not a Dean supporter — but I am angry that our party's leaders have anointed an alternative to him who seems even more ignorant and unprepared — and that this supposed 'anti-war' candidate turns out to have been in favor of both the war resolution and Richard Nixon!! And let's not even talk about the Clintons. Today I am embarrassed to be a Democrat."
Amateur Hour from PoliPundit
Wesley Clark wants to pay for HillaryCare by cutting the defense budget from PoliPundit
Ryan Booth has a round-up of Clark items from earlier this week along with his initial post on the Clark candidacy.
I'd been working on a post arguing that Wesley Clark might just be exactly what the Democrats need in 2004 -- "Dean Lite." Before I could finish it, David Brooks published similar thoughts in today's NYT.
But you'll have to read his entire column, because he sucker-punches you with it, at the end of the 12th round.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Clark has never run for public office. An examination of his statements to the press suggests he is a moderate on social issues, placing him in the middle of the Democratic ideological spectrum. He opposes Bush's tax cuts, is pro-choice and pro-affirmative action, supports an assault weapons ban but opposes most federal gun control, and opposes drilling for oil in the Alaska wilderness. On gay issues Clark has said he is against gay marriage but might support civil unions. He also has said he favors gay men's and lesbians' serving openly in the military. "We've got a lot of gay people in the armed forces, always have had, always will have," Clark said in June on NBC's Meet the Press. "And I think that...we should welcome people that want to serve." But asked by host Tim Russert if that meant he would open the military to gays, he said, "We need to charge the men and women responsible for the armed forces to come forward with that answer."
On Wednesday retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a decorated military leader who opposes the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, became the 10th candidate vying for the 2004 Democratic nomination for president....
...Although little is known about Clark's views, the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force labeled him "another pro-gay moderate joining the most pro-gay field of presidential candidates in history."
Earlier this summer, Clark said in a televised interview that the military's ban on gay and lesbian personnel doesn't work and should be changed. He has also publicly expressed support for the Supreme Court decision decriminalizing gay sex and suggested that recognizing same-sex couples is a matter for states to decide.
General Wesley Clark finally confirmed this week that he would seek the Democratic nomination to run against President George Bush in next year's presidential elections.
While his decision came as no surprise to America's pundits, most agreed the former Nato commander's candidacy would boost the Democrats' chances - and enliven a dull process.
"If there's one thing this sorry excuse for a presidential contest needs, it's a little shaking up," said the Boston Herald's Rachelle Cohen. "And no question about it, with his military background and bearing and a to-die-for resume, Gen Clark surely has the potential to do that."
Richard Cohen was less charitable about the general's vote-pulling power. "Clearly, some of the palpable excitement about Gen Clark in Democratic circles comes from an equally palpable yawn about the rest of the Democratic field," he wrote in the New York Times. "The only candidate who has so far generated any excitement is Howard Dean. But if the Bush team could digitally create the perfect patsy candidate it would be Mr Dean."
The commentators were similarly divided over the new candidate's illustrious military CV. "Gen Clark's primary political function is to serve as the Democrats' beard on national security," said the New York Post's Eric Fettman. He warned Democrats to think twice before backing a single-issue politician: "A Clark candidacy would mean a campaign based solely on the war at a time when many in the party believe Mr Bush's biggest weakness is the economy - an area in which, like every other domestic issue, Gen Clark has no track record."
The Wall Street Journal also had doubts about the general's political nous. "'I imagine I voted for Reagan at one time or another,' he told the Washington Post recently, a fact that won't excite the Democratic masses," noted the paper. "Only recently did he even declare that he was a Democrat, much less embrace the party's bellwether positions on raising taxes or national healthcare."
Others, however, saw Gen Clark's political virginity as his greatest asset. "In this season when Wall Street investment houses, the Catholic church and the New York Times have suffered scandals based on hiding the truth, Americans might be ready for a straight-talking, four-star general," said Jack Newfield in New York Newsday. "The whole culture ... seems to need a shot of truth-telling."
Clark is a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual tax increaser. If you need any more reasons to oppose him actively, consider these:
He nearly started World War III when serving as NATO commander in the unconstitutional, immoral war on Serbia. When the Russians took control of Pristina airport before NATO troops, Clark, at the behest of NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, ordered 500 British and French paratroopers to take it away from them. Thankfully, his order was disregarded by British Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, who told Clark: "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you."
It was Clark, once again, at the center of the Waco massacre. He was in charge at Fort Hood and was only too happy to cooperate with Attorney General Janet Reno in providing the armor and personnel needed for the military-style assault on the Branch Davidian church.
Clark attended Oxford as a Rhodes scholar with Bill Clinton. But the relationship hardly ended there. It was under Clinton's watch that Clark became a rising star in the military. And once his military career was over, he found a home working for the Stephens Group in Arkansas – the same business incubator that fostered the Clintons' rise to power.
Clark's nickname among those who served under him should give you an idea of the extent of his megalomania. He was referred to as "the Supreme Being." Col. David Hackworth called him the "Ultimate Perfumed Prince" and added "he's far more comfortable in a drawing room discussing political theories than hunkering down in the trenches where bullets fly and soldiers die."
When the issue turns to retired General Wesley Clark, the Democrats have the same unjustified glee. They tell us that General Clark is the next Eisenhower. They tell us that he is a great addition to the field, blah blah blah.
Well, let’s take a look at the Eisenhower comparison with General Clark. General Clark commanded NATO forces during the Kosovo campaign of the Clinton Administration. The campaign was strictly an air war, and some, such as London newspapers, argued that Clark nearly caused World War III because of his overreaction to Russian involvement in the situation at an airport there. Regardless of whether or not such assertions by the British press are true, Clark was no Eisenhower. Clark commanded no grunts on the field for years. Clark did not balance world leaders in the matter. Clark commanded a force that was assured victory.
Eisenhower commanded allied forces against a threat that could have wiped out freedom and democracy had it prevailed. Eisenhower commanded the allied forces in a time when victory was not a sure thing. Eisenhower held together a force despite the egos of allied commanders and political leaders. At the end of World War II, Eisenhower had such international respect that he could be readily received by heads of states throughout Europe and the planet without hesitation. Indeed, the essence of the role that Eisenhower played as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces was more political than military. It left Eisenhower the most prepared General ever to become President.
Compare that to the arguably mixed results of the military command success of General Clark and one can readily see there can be no honest comparison of the two men.
I've started a new blog, South Carolina Draft Clark, to share news about the Draft Clark movement in our state. Call me crazy, but the more I know about this guy, the more I like him.
Noah Shachtman has more on Clark and technological warfare.
Pristina Airport Confrontation Almost Led to WWIII from Kevin McGeehee.
Gen. Clark, Who Fraternized With Mladic, To Lead NATO from New Republic:
Bill Clinton last week nominated General Wesley Clark to lead NATO and America's forces in Europe. If the president was trying to remind the public about the lack of seriousness with which his administration has taken war crimes in Bosnia, this is a fine choice. On August 27, 1994, Clark, then director of strategy, plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went to Banja Luka - and met with Ratko Mladic, the bloodstained military leader of the Bosnian Serbs. (My note: everybody apparently forgets that before Serbia's the aggression in Bosnia the same Ratko Mladic was military commander of the Serbian army ("Yugoslav Peoples Army") in Croatia and conducted large scale massacres of Croatian civillians there, especially in the ethnically "cleansed of Croatian population "Krajina", another Serb-proclaimed "republic"). The State Departement had advised against the meeting, on account of Mladic's well-documented war crimes in Gorazde, Srebrenica and Sarajevo. Still, Clark and Mladic had a jolly time. Mladic gave Clark some plum brandy and a pistol with a Cyrillic inscription, and the two merrily swapped military hats. What do you do with a man with that kind of moral cluelessness? Promote him.
Ratko Mladic was Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's army chief throughout the Bosnian war.
Along with Mr Karadzic he has come to symbolise the Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing of Croats and Muslims and is one of the most wanted suspects from the Bosnia conflict.
He has been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide and other crimes against humanity - including the massacre of thousands of Muslim men from the town of Srebrenica in 1995.
Having lived freely in Belgrade for some time, Mr Mladic left when former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested.
The perfumed prince and other political tales by John Chuckman
Wes Not Ike by Alan Dowd
At this point the Clark candidacy's chance appear to me to be largely constructed on hopes, dreams and best case scenarios that aren't grounded in much reality.
Wesley Clark - A War Criminal? from zpub
A Vain, Pompous, Brown-noser - Meet the Real Gen. Clark from Counter Punch
Known by those who've served with him as the "Ultimate Perfumed Prince," he's far more comfortable in a drawing room discussing political theories than hunkering down in the trenches where bullets fly and soldiers die. An intellectual in warrior's gear. A saying attributed to General George Patton was that it took 10 years with troops alone before an officer knew how to empty a bucket of spit As a serving soldier with 33 years of active duty under his pistol belt, Clark's commanded combat units -- rifle platoon to tank division - for only seven years. The rest of his career's been spent as an aide, an executive, a student and teacher and a staff weenie.
Personally, I agree with Matthew Yglesias and Kevin Drum that Clark is essentially a blank slate, upon which Democrats longing for a strong contender can create their dream candidate. Otherwise, I can't explain the Clark insurgency. He's clearly bright and presumably has excellent leadership skills; you don't rise to command of NATO otherwise. But he has no obvious charisma. Unlike, say, Colin Powell or Norman Schwarzkoft, Clark was a rather lackluster administrator over a rather unexciting war. Indeed, until people started touting him for president, I hadn't thought about him in some time. And, frankly, he'd not been on my list of the top hundred viable candidates for president.
Clark Campaign Voicemail Spam from InstaPundit
Whither the Democratic establishment? by Dan Drezner
Clark Not Turning Into Superman from Baseball Crank
Will Wes Clark run? Can he win? by Phil Carter
Gen. Chutzpah by Rich Lowry.
Saving Democrats from Themselves by Paul Walfield
Is Wesley Clark too weird for prime time? from Poliblog.
Donnie Fowler working for Clark
I don't know. People I know who were associated with operations in Bosnia tend not to like him, for reasons expressed rather pungently here. On the other hand, his aggressive response to the Russians -- which some characterize, unfairly, as "nearly starting World War III" -- at least bespeaks a degree of, well, aggressiveness otherwise lacking in the Democratic field.
General Clark and Anybody But Dean by John Ellis
Wes Clark's Military by Noah Schachtman
That Vision Thing by Donald Sensing
I met Clark when he was a two-star general commanding the National Training Center and Fort Irwin, Calif., during the Gulf War. The occasion was the media briefing on the results of investigations into friendly-fire casualties during the war, and what the Army would do about preventing them in the future. Col. Roger Brown, assigned to an operations office at the Pentagon would brief the media about the investigations themselves. Maj. Gen. Clark would brief about changes to training and doctrine would result. A brigadier general whose name escapes me, the director of the Army lab system, would brief the technology aspects.
My job was to write the briefing explaining the investigations and rehearse all three officers the day before.
What Clark may be doing is setting up a straw man that he can later accuse Bush of knocking down. Remember, Clark may yet run against Bush in 2004. It is Clark who wants the UN restored, perhaps because Clark spent so much time in Europe that he seems to have "gone native," as they used to say about China Marines who spent their careers there. IMO, he still displays pre-9/11 thinking, wishing to re-establish the pan-European-American alliances that nurtured his career. But those days are gone, doomed really even without 9/11. That date was catalytic, not causative.
Some people are speculating that Clark will jump into the 2004 race -- and there's even a movement to "draft" him. I listened to him and Colmes talk and take calls from listeners for an hour or so, and Clark's grasp of issues struck me as spectacularly poor. He didn't understand our income tax system, he didn't understand the War on Terror, he didn't understand the operational facts of the battle in Iraq, he didn't understand much of foreign policy, he didn't understand environmental issues and our dependence on oil, &c. I'm not saying this because I disagreed with the positions he voiced (although I did), I'm saying it because he sounded like he was spouting Democratic talking points that he didn't really have any knowledge of.
Clark contradicted himself several times, sputtered, floundered, and forced Colmes to rescue him from more knowledgable callers. It was truly painful to listen to. Anyone who thinks that Clark can mount a credible campaign is delusional. Clark may have excellent military command ability (although I doubt it, based on his direction of the war in Serbia), but he has little compehension of political issues, and it shows.
Supreme Allied Commander in Chief? by Matthew J. Stinson
Random jottings on the Clark boomlet by Matthew J. Stinson
Michael Moore to Wesley Clark: Run!
by Michael Moore
But General Clark would face obstacles as well. For one thing, the nine declared candidates for the Democratic nomination enjoy nearly a year's advantage in raising money and building campaign networks in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
He would also be a first-time candidate for office, beginning his career in politics by seeking the very top rung on the ladder. Several Democrats and Republicans alike described that today as a recipe for trouble, noting the difficulties first-time candidates invariably have in trying to navigate a political race. What is more, his personal and political record is only now coming under the kind of scrutiny that will grow all the more intense if he declares.
CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll Says Clark Entry Dooms Lieberman from the Left Coaster
Colorado Conservative points to a list of people convicted of war crimes by a court in Serbia. Wesley Clark is on the list, along with a couple of his bosses at NATO and in the U.S. command structure (you'll recognize the name at the top of the list*)
Now, of course these convictions are what you might call partisan and just aren't going to be taken seriously.
But the Left's barking moonbats like to talk about how Robert McNamara and Richard Nixon were war criminals in Vietnam, and how Reagan and Weinberger and Ollie North were war criminals for the Iran-Contra scandal. And I have no doubt there are threads on various moonbat websites where they're barking about how Dubya and Rummy are war criminals because of things that happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.
At least the Serbs went to the effort and expense of a show trial to support their contention. Ya gotta respect that kind of dedication.
So retired Gen. Wesley Clark is officially announcing his candidacy for president as a Democrat, good news to those of us worried he might go the third-party route and be a spoiler like Ross Perot.
They say he has no political experience but if you think about it, it's impossible to get all 4 stars without mastering the game.
Posted by Jeff Quinton at September 19, 2003 11:58 AM | TrackBack