Posted on 01/04/2002 1:27:29 PM PST by dirtboy
I owe my husband 50 bucks. I'd said the dog wouldn't make it to 2002. I guess I underestimated the ex-president's caretaking skills.
Buddy, ostensibly beloved dog of the Clinton family, was accidentally struck Wednesday afternoon when he darted out in front of a car on a busy two-lane road at the end of the cul-de-sac where the Clinton house stands in Chappaqua, N.Y.
What happened to Buddy is precisely what can be expected to happen to a dog when it's meant to be little more than a pawn in its owners' continuing attempts to impersonate human beings.
I find myself wondering whether, upon hearing the news about Buddy, Clinton even remembered that he had a dog.
Granted, the dog was mostly under someone else's watch. Still, if you care about the dog, you lay down the law with the caretakers - or with the Secret Service, as the case may be. A dog's baby-sitters will take their cues from the dog's owner and will tend to be either as vigilant or as cavalier as the master. If the owner's attitude is lackadaisical, why should theirs be any less so?
I remember the day they told us that the President got a dog. As a dog lover, I was more than a little disturbed by the thought of a soft, fluffy and genuine thing getting into the clutches of that family. Does Hillary Rodham Clinton strike anyone as someone who likes dogs? (Actually, they did have a cocker spaniel when they were governor of Arkansas, but Hillary reportedly didn't like it in the house.)
It is worth noting that the Clintons got Buddy after they were already First Family and in the public eye, to bolster their image as a real family. In contrast, the first Bushes had had Millie for years before they got into the White House, and the current Bushes likewise were partial to dogs and got Spot (and Barney) before the world was watching.
To give credit where credit is due, at least Bill Clinton didn't entertain photographers and guests by dangling his dog by the ears while it squealed, the way that other great humanitarian, creator of the Great Society, Lyndon Johnson, did to his dogs Him and Her.
So Buddy's dead. Socks they gave away. Has anyone seen Chelsea?
Personally, I was surprised the girl made it past the '93 inauguration, having already done her part to fulfill the minimum family-unit requirement so her parents could have a political life. Of course, she was a self-sufficient adolescent by then, not quite as vulnerable as a dependent canine. The only visible, physical manifestations so far of the stress she's endured from playing her role are the smoking and the drinking (having held off on the latter all through college, until her parents were out of the White House). But notice how, in contradistinction to the mischievous Bush daughters, this kid was a stellar child; she never made a wrong move. She must have known her life - or rather, her parents' political lives - depended on it.
At any rate, the Clintons most likely won't be getting another dog, seeing as how it wouldn't serve any political end at this point.
If they should try, however, one would hope that the animal rights people make a negligence claim to try to prevent it. (More likely, though, their ideals will take a backseat to Bill Clinton's whims, just as those of the National Organization for Women did.)
Then again, one shouldn't rush to judgment, since we don't yet know the full story. Perhaps Buddy wanted to die. Maybe he pulled a Vince Foster. Maybe he had seen and heard too much in that house, was privy to too many unspeakable schemes and just couldn't take the guilt.
Oooh, ouch!
Yes, but someone wrote "connecting text" or "context", whatever you want to call it. That's what they are crediting the Bitch with and I maintain that some low paid hack wrote it.
...books like that (and Profiles In Courage) just write themselves...
Man oh man, I had heard rumors that their circulation had dropped to the basement, but they must be desperate for readership to print such a delicious piece.
Between Greta on Fox and Keyes on MSNBC and now this piece in The Inquirer - I don't know, maybe the evangelicals are right - these must indeed be the end times. Lions are lying down with lambs all over the place!
Yeah right Julia. If she wasn't a stellar child, you wouldn't have reported it.
The Clintons went after anyone that wrote anything about the kid in a premptive jihad against the media. Remember George Stepahnopoulis and how he described his job as going to war against the media to suppress embarassing stories?
But then again, the Inky gave Juanita Broaddrick two column inches in the Sunday paper which basically dismissed her allegations. While in the same "Editorial Section" has a quarter page by Jane Eisner on how high heels oppress women.
Sheesh.
Saw that dog a few times at the White House. Sometimes walked by the ERT guys in the Secret Service Uniform Division and sometimes by guys in Public Works type uniforms. Buddy was always on a leash.
I told you so!
Dead set!
A bloody dog!
Or a limey.
Hard to tell limeys and dogs apart.
Except on bath days.
[Dogs bathe]
Best line of all.
Here's little Buddy when he first began his all-too short life with those people he was unfortunate enough to be left with.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.