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.
Not if I can help it. I'll be retired by the time she runs, and if I have to spend every day and dime to prevent her from realizing her ambition, so be it.
I cannot bear the thought of my children and potential grandchildren living under another clintbilly regime.
Hillary for President...Chelsea for VP. Perish the thought.
sw
No need. She's going to run in 2004,and she's going to win. Bubba Bush seems to be scared to death of her,and won't stand up to any of her attacks.
Not yet. She will most likely get a State Department job first,and then a Senate seat. She is already preparing herself with her Oxford degree in "International Relations. She also now has a "personal assistant" hired to help her. The news babe on SNL last night commented on someone who is still in college and who doesn't even have a job hiring a personal assistant,and said it "officially makes Chelsea Clinton the white Al Sharpton".
Please don't leave me hanging. I live in NJ and need some good news.
Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:
Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.
The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.
Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.
Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.
Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Other sections of the Constitution, when referring to members of the Legislative or Judicial branch, do not use gender specific language.
So, until the Constitution is amended to modify the language. She is barred from the office.
Hoo Yah!
The mistake is that Bush will take an "extremist" path, something that's very far from his or Karl Rove's mind. But come election time liberals will portray whatever he does as "extremist" to drive the sheep to the polls.
Only if he gets a sex change and the 22nd Ammendment is repealed. Of course Hillary could still be the first butch president.
If The Hildebeast is elected President of the US, I will take a four year leave of absence from my job and leave the country. I will remain an expatriate during her tenure, and I will not return until the Hildebeast is expunged from the White House.
Skooz
10/6/02
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