chance of winning a beauty contest.
Posted on 10/06/2002 1:17:18 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
BY MAUREEN DOWD
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Watching Robert Torricelli mist and mewl, as he was torn from the bosom of the Senate, gave me new pause over that old question: Are men biologically suited to hold political office and leadership positions?
We have the Torch dousing himself in self-pity and wondering why nobody will forgive him for something he claims he never did with a sugar daddy who draped him in Italian-made clothes and Tiffany baubles.
We've got a tearful Andrew Cuomo getting the vapors and being led away from the governor's race on the strong arms of Bill Clinton and Charlie Rangel. And Jeb Bush crying whenever his daughter is busted.
We've got Tom Daschle in a lipstick-pink tie practically having a drama-queen breakdown on the floor of the Senate about being the victim of those nasty White House bullies.
We've got the Dow, the ultimate measure of macho capitalism, going all fluttery-jittery at the prospect of battle: depressed one minute, hyperactive the next.
We've got Ari Fleischer -- the same Ari who on Tuesday called on Iraqis to assassinate Saddam because "the cost of one bullet" would be "substantially less" than the $13 billion cost of a war -- in a swivet because reporters found out he registered for his wedding gifts at Target instead of Tiffany.
The arena is full of powerful men in touch with their powerless inner women. And yet, surrounded by famous men puddling under pressure, American girls are still doubtful about the prospects of a woman becoming president. According to a poll in Tuesday's USA Today, 40 percent said they would not see one within 10 years and a grim 14 percent "not in my lifetime."
Are those 14 percent unaware of the Clintonian relentlessness of the junior senator from New York?
In the latest sign that she is running for president in 2008, candidate Hillary Clinton is staying away from Al Gore's kumbayah corner.
Whatever doubts she may have privately about war, she is not articulating her angst as loudly as some of her Democratic colleagues.
She knows that any woman who hopes to be elected president cannot have love beads in her jewelry case. It may be too much even to be caught with a worn copy of "Tapestry."
Clinton has said that she will support President Bush if he decides to take out Saddam. "I know a little bit about what it's like on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, making these difficult decisions," she told Tim Russert.
Just as her husband was obsessed with maintaining his "political viability" during the Vietnam draft, candidate Clinton must keep her own political viability in mind during the Senate debate on war.
Although many Americans assume she is too polarizing a figure to ever get elected, the former first lady has been shrewd and pragmatic in how she has handled herself in the Senate. She did not have a tantrum when Republican leaders were stingy with her office space. Hillary has offered the other cheek to those who once pilloried her and has charmed her Senate elders, turning her Washington house into the Cipriani of fund raising, and has put Democrats in her debt by handing out fistfuls of cash from her political action committee.
Hillary and Bill, her very own Dick Morris, have a grandiose master plan that calls for John Kerry or John Edwards -- or Al Gore, if he can find any Democratic donors -- to be the sacrificial lamb in 2004 to a popular wartime president.
Hillary will try to quell criticisms that she is a pushy queen bee by playing the worker bee in the Senate for a few more years. She will disabuse those who thought she was the liberal in the White House, veering away from the left on issues like welfare and bankruptcy.
Her supporters have sketched out a Doomsday scenario that would catapult her into the White House:
In the flush of patriotism and empire-building, the Republicans take over the Senate and keep the House this fall. Then President Bush wins his war on Iraq. He and his inner circle become more arrogant.
Gen. Rove, as he is known in Hillaryland, pushes through the most reactionary agenda since the Congress of Vienna, packing the courts with young right-wingers opposed to abortion and all regulations. Congress, too, gets carried away with an ultra-conservative agenda.
The maniacally centrist American public craves another correction. Right, left, right, left. Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton. Yup. In our lifetime.
That is just the problem, one more politician who will lie, cheat, steal, do whatever it takes to gain power. There is no integrity here, there is no statesmanship, there is no leadership, there is just the deception of telling you anything you want to hear, and giving you anything you want...then going ahead and doing what your agenda was in the first place, something you never bothered to tell the people, that’s the Hillary way. With Hillary’s it is out & out Socialism and a Partnership with the United Nations.
The junior senator from New York is no Margaret Thatcher and she is far from being a lady, the sort you need to be in some circles and in representing your Country. Hillary’s compliance with the United States Constitution as written is nil; she and her husband feel it is an archaic piece of paper. She lied when she took her oath of office to honor and protect it just as he did. She has set an example all of her adult life just how Marxist she is in her thinking. Her education policies in Arkansas did nothing to alleviate that sad problem; her leap into health care once in the White House only exacerbated the problem, never fixing anything. She is just as corrupt as the ill fated contender in New Jersey, if not more so. Her MO is to secretly wrangle as many political points as she can then use the results as her own.
Like her husband, she is deceitful and mad for power and money. A less likely candidate I cannot imagine of America. Forget Hillary Clinton for President. We’ve had enough of these crooked politicians!...in any lifetime!
Why not mention Bob Livingston, who acted like a man and resigned? Why not mention the House Managers who prosecuted the other girly-man, Bill Clinton?
In this mish-mash, does Maureen even consider the possibility that Queen Hitlery won't even make it past the next Senatorial election in NY? After all, what better path to the presidency for Rudy G. is there than by dismantling the corrupt Clinton empire via slashing and burning her next senatorial campaign. Then, perhaps, Maureen can reprint this piece on how much better females are suited to higher office.
No way, for the same reason she wasn't elected to the Senate from New York................
You are seeing the results of the "MTV generation" maturing. My kids are right in there. It's the Instant Gratification, push the button - give me Instant Gratification ---- NOW!
Yuck. The thought of that makes me sick.
Short of Janet Reno becoming a gynecologist how do you suggest finding anyone willing to do this?
If you've been operating under the premise that our fellow Americans are in their right minds, I'm afraid that at some point in time, you will endure a rude awakening.
An anagram for Hillary Clinton is "Ill Harlot in NYC." Almost as good as Tom Daschle--The Old Scam. Anybody want to play?
At some point in the future, the United States will have a woman President. It will not be Hillary Clinton. Maureen Dowd has fallen prey to wishful thinking. She is blinded of the many faults Hillary Clinton will bring any campaign. Hillary was able to win a Senate seat running against a weak candidate, with the assistance of a fawning media, in a section of the country that in general shared her view of the world. She will not have these advantages in a national campaign.
Further, Hillary Clinton is not “liked” by many people. Sure there are some who will support her because they share her beliefs, but few like her. This lack of likeability (for want of a better word) is what will in the end keep her out of office.
But, even if that was not enough, there is the fact that the world is not static. Six years (to when Hillary is most likely try for the Presidency) is a very long time. A lot can happen. At the very least more details of the corruption within the Clinton administration will be exposed, and sink in to the general voting public.
I will predict now that Hillary will be lucky if she can win re-election as a Senator, let alone become President.
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