GERE TAKES ON BILL (Richard Gere says Bush has done more for Aids than Clinton!)

NY Daily News ^ | 2/5/03

[areafiftyone]

Gere takes on Bill

Richard Gere stunned fellow liberals Monday by suggesting that President Bush is doing a better job of fighting AIDS than President Bill Clinton did.

Introduced by Sharon Stone at a fund-raiser at Cipriani 42nd Street for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the "Chicago" star hailed Bush for his State of the Union proposal to contribute $15 billion toward the AIDS battle in Africa and the Caribbean. Gere then addressed the track record of Bush's predecessor in the White House.

"I'm sorry, Sen. [Hillary] Clinton, but your husband did nothing about AIDS for eight years," Gere said.

By that point, Sen. Clinton, who joined Mayor Bloomberg and honorees Anna Wintour and Lorne Michaels at the event, had left the restaurant. But a spokeswoman for the senator said yesterday that Gere's claim was "simply not true. The Clinton administration increased funding for AIDS research, prevention and treatment by over 400% and tripled funding for international AIDS programs."

Meanwhile, veteran Clinton-basher Christopher Hitchens is suggesting that the former President was a CIA informant at Oxford University, where the two were students in the late 1960s.

"I think he was a double," the author of "No One Left to Lie To" claims in the latest issue of the conservative quarterly Doublethink. "Somebody was giving information to [the CIA] about the antiwar draft resisters, and I think it was probably him."

Clinton's spokesman Jim Kennedy declined to comment on Hitchens' spy story.

[The Wizard]

good for him.....the beast never hears a discouraging word...she lives in her own little hell, and who cares

[DoughtyOne]

I happen to believe that if Bill Clinton had been a CIA operative in Europe, his boys in the agency would have aired it during his Presidency on order, and Bill would have countered the image of his Magical Mystical Tour. Sorry, I believe the premise that he was CIA is nothing more than a disinformation campaign that gives cover to those who wish to dismiss what was likely criminal behavior.

[Slyfox]

I'm sorry, Sen. [Hillary] Clinton, but your husband did nothing about AIDS for eight years," Gere said.

I'm surprised she didn't give him the Rodham 'EvilEye DeathRay'.

[BlueAngel]

Elizabeth Taylor said the same thing Gere said on Larry King a couple of nights ago. She said that Pres. Bush had done more than Clintoon.

[Constitution Day]

This strange uncomfortable feeling, must be what winning feels like :-)

It must be. I hope we feel it more often between now and November 2004.

[Revolting cat!]

Look, this two bit star, so talented that he tends to play himself on screen, is doing nothing more than expressing one of the two or three obsessions of the Lefties, which trump any loyalties they might have to the Fuehrer and to Eva Rodham. What was the other obsession? Oh yes, "RACISM"! Expect the Sarandon woman (or Julie or Jack or somebody) to make a similar statement accusing their former hero of not having done enough to combat this "RACISM"! Another break between shoplifting trips to Rodeo Drive!

[Winfield]

"first the Washington Post and now Richard Gere - Did I really wake up this morning or am I still
in bed?" .....and Dennis Miller!!!!! Thank God for President Bush. He has brought leadership, civility, wisdom and morality to Washington. More and more people are beginning to see what a great man he is. Even Liberals!
I couldn't believe USA TODAY had that poll: "Who do you trust more, Bush or Powell? For goodness sake! Bush appointed Powell (and everyone else in his cabinet) because
he believed in them and their abilities to serve our nation.
That is the mark of a great leader. Can you imagine USA TODAY asking, "Who do you trust more, Clinton or Albright?"
Never would happen. STUPID QUESTION!!!!!!!

[swarthyguy]

OK, I'd say instead of operative, which implies more an active role, i'd say asset, funneling information on the state of the Oxford English Antiwar movement back to the CIA.

In terms of releasing this info while he was President, it would have burnt his bridges within the party. Something that while being effective for the country as a whole, possibly, would have rendered him an outcast within his party.

Sort of makes sense of how he got a free ride in his first campaign. And Bush's the elder lackluster campaign. He knew that Clinton had been one of the boys. Makes using the Mena airport viewpoint understandable, too.

One thing, whatever Clinton says, no one will believe it. I believe Hitchens may have poisoned the well for both him and Hillary now.

[Marysecretary]

I wholeheartedly agree with you TontoK. When I heard it was going to the WHO, I wanted to shake Dubya up good and yell NO, NO, NO! at him.

[MHT]

Double-agent--hardly. Clinton's love of the power offered by the ideal socialist model (with him on top, of course) was and is greater than his love of America. He still loathes the military. He did everything in his power to turn this country left every chance he got during his eight years (except for the times he had to compromise to save his rump). He had a communist girlfriend while he was in England and lived in the house of a Czech communist honcho.

He's a two-timing creep when it comes to sexual fidelity, keeping political promises, friendship, etc.; but, make no mistake, when it comes to the socialist agenda, he's a loyal dog all the way!

[Marysecretary]

AND, not only HIS lip! Put ice on it, baby.

[bootless]

Strange days, indeed. (Axis of Gerbils - ROFL!)

I agree. I think Gere's stuff is often on the outer rings of Saturn, but I do believe he speaks in earnest, unlike the cynical rantings of other residents of the Holly-ward.

[aristeides]

I was told at a dinner party I recently attended in D.C. that Fulbright was a notorious womanizer.

[aristeides]

He's a two-timing creep when it comes to sexual fidelity, keeping political promises, friendship, etc.; but, make no mistake, when it comes to the socialist agenda, he's a loyal dog all the way!

Don't you think Cord Meyer of the CIA (Clinton's likely handler) would have thought he was advancing a socialist agenda?

[alphadog]

"What it means is that GW is moving LEFT."

His open border policy says it all...

[GSWarrior]

If you believe snopes.com, that whole gerbil episode is an urban legend.

[meandog]

I was told at a dinner party I recently attended in D.C. that Fulbright was a notorious womanizer

...don't know about that but Fooldim was a notorious racist. He used the "N" word constantly around his doting staff (one of which was Beelzebubba (anxiously drinking up his Socratic teachings). He was head of the Senate Foreign Relations comittee at the time, and vigorously supported South Africa's apartide policy--BUT YOU HEARD NONE OF THIS DURING THE CLINTON TERM IN OFFICE!

[Hildy]

Where can we find out just HOW MUCH Aids funding was raised? I'd like to call Mrs. Clinton on her assertions that Gere is wrong.

[Hildy]

Is that true? If Elizabeth Taylor said it than it is true because she truly is an AIDS activist. Has been for a very long time. Her Daughter-In-Law has AIDS or has already died of it. So she knows the numbers because she raises the money. Say what you say about Bush and agree or disagree about this particular issue, but his political savvy has been unbelievable. If there was ONE issue to pick to get the libs on his side, this was it.