A Babbling Brook Called "Hillary"

The Times reporters were left scratching their heads after Hilary left the Senate floor recently:

WASHINGTON, May 3 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed Thursday that Congress repeal the authority it gave President Bush in 2002 to invade Iraq, injecting presidential politics into the Congressional debate over financing the war.

Mrs. Clinton’s proposal brings her full circle on Iraq — she supported the war measure five years ago — and it sharpens her own political positioning at a time when Democrats are vying to confront the White House.

Here is her floor statement, and here she was with reporters afterwards:

Talking to reporters after her floor speech in a mostly empty Senate chamber, Mrs. Clinton indicated that her view was that rescinding the original vote would mean that troops would be out as of October. “They have no authority to continue,” she said. “That is the point.”

That is absurd - even the folks who call for out troops to be withdrawn understand that many US soldiers will be left behind to assist in training the Iraqis.  No one, including Hillary, is calling for a 100% US withdrawal by October 2007, her own mouth notwithstanding:

Later, however, her aides said Mrs. Clinton was not seeking a total withdrawal of troops from Iraq, or a quick pullout that could put troops at risk. They said she had called for a phased pullout that would leave a reduced American force to pursue terrorist cells in Iraq, support the Kurds and conduct other missions — a position she continued to support, her aides said.

Odd that despite her touted position on the Armed Services Committee, she can't remember her own position on troop withdrawals.

And let's say it again - pulling out US troops may end US involvement in the war, but it won't end the war.  If it were that easy, the war in Darfur would be over, yes?

STYLE WATCH:  Will the Times continue to present her as "Hillary Rodham Clinton", consistent with her New York packaging?  Or will they adopt the national branding and go with "Hillary Clinton"?  Another toughie, as the dual local/national roles vex both candidate and newspaper.

In glancing at her website, I see that she (OK, her staff) flip-flops on the news releases - some tell us about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and others describe Senator Hillary Clinton.  Clintonologists will want to speculate as to the pattern or plan here.

Comments

[Other Tom]

The whole business of jiving around with her name just reminds us of how calculating she is about everything under the sun, no matter how trivial.

Her shifting--or indeed incoherent--position on Iraq has one constant, and it is shared by every other Democrat I know of: they all refuse to tell us what is likely to happen if we leave on their schedule. Ironically, if they were really able to force such a withdrawal, they would have exclusive ownership of the catastrophe that would follow. It seems possible to me that some of them realize this, and instead are hoping for a catastrophe that they can blame exclusively on Bush. It is a low, cynical and dishonest party.

[clarice]

Soylent is a very bright, funny poster who for wome weeks was a star of JOM's Friday night live..
He's at Ft Leonard Wood now..If past is prologue, he will be the best intel officer ever serving in the US military.

[TerryeL]

And to think I can remember when Democrats were front and center telling us what a bad man Saddam was and how he had to go.

But that was the 90's. I forget, new decade, new candidate, new line of crap.

If they are really going to run away from Iraq, why bother staying in Afghanistan? What is the point? Jsut tie the ME up in a bow and give it to Osama and his ilk as a going away present.

Dear Osama:

We are real bored with all this war stuff. Besides it was Bush's idea and he has low poll ratings so he does not count. If we run away and let you kill all the Muslims and Jews you want it is only fair if you stay on your side of the ocean. Carbombs are gross and we don't want to clean up the mess.

Sincerely yours,
Her Majesty
Queen Hillary

[PeterUK.]

Bringing the troops home will upset Zawahiri.

"nterviewer: The American Congress recently passed a bill which ties the funding of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq which ends next March. What is your comment on this resolution?

Zawahiri: This bill reflects American failure and frustration. However, this bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap. We ask Allah that they only get out of it after losing two hundred to three hundred thousand killed, in order that we give the spillers of blood in Washington and Europe an unforgettable lesson which will motivate them to review their entire doctrinal and moral system which produced their historic criminal Crusader/Zionist entity."
Perhaps Hillary should take a trip to see the man.

[PatrickR]

What do you expect from a country girl:

'In her speech, Clinton talked about her childhood in Park Ridge, using it to focus on issues such as immigration reform -- a concern paramount to the huge Hispanic community in California.

'She recalled Park Ridge was surrounded by farms that relied on migrant labor and that she used to baby-sit the workers' children, an experience that awakened her to the complexities of the immigrant experience.'

[Jane]

Clarice,

Give Soylent our best - altho I'm sure you already did.

[Paul Zrimsek]

Was Clinton against the war at some point before she voted for it? Or are the Timesmen having an Iñigo Montoya moment with that phrase "full circle"?

[clarice]

I did,Jane. I'm still trying to send him food packages but he can't receive them yet..he'll tell me when he can and says he's now dreaming about brownies instead of sex.

[Rick Ballard]

"What do you expect from a country girl?"

After all the time she has spent (her entire adult life) with a competent and professional liar of world reknown, I actually expect a little better. She continues to lie awkwardly and artlessly - a four year old with a chocolate smeared face denying knowledge of the whereabouts of the contents of the candy dish.

Perhaps her undoing is that she believed Bill when he told her that she possessed exceptional talent. He was closer to the truth when he explained his intern mentoring project to her.

[Lew Clark]

That's the problem with media created celebrities. Whether they be political or other. There is no criteria. The person doesn't have to prove themselves. They're just invented as famous. Hillary married well. And that was a shot-in-the-dark at the time. She lucked out with Bill's climb. But she never developed any skills of her own. Now she has to strut her own stuff. And there is none. As long as she sat quietly in the corner and the pundits told us how brilliant and great she was, she did well. Now that she has the spotlight on her. Not so good.

[centralcal]

Lew, I love your posts most of the time, but I really have to take issue with your statement that "Hillary married well."

Puhleeze .... she married a fella with ambitions that mirrored her own. And, I believe, with the same morality and ethics as hers, even thought his flaws are borne on the outside, while hers are hidden (so, she thinks) on the inside.

But, married well?? How do you define "well?"

[centralcal]

oops. "thought" should be "though."

[Other Tom]

"Federal agents are taking aim at phony war heroes who tell tall tales of battlefield valor and pin bogus medals upon their chests, the [New York] Daily News has learned.

"The FBI's Washington headquarters receives at least 15 tips a week about fake heroes - and most of the information comes from veterans who are furious that the scam artists are demeaning real sacrifices, said FBI Special Agent Michael Sanborn."

Stand by, Kerry--stand by. (And you know what that means.)

[Maybeex]

Was Clinton against the war at some point before she voted for it?

With the Clintons and the NYTs, you can't think in terms of geometry. They are actually talking about the degree to which they hope to bend history. In that case, a 180 is actually following a straight path. A 360 brings you back to the point before anything happened.

So...the war wasn't going on at some point before she voted for it. That's the point she's trying to circle back to, and then she'll begin her new history.

[Other Tom]

Thoughts from Powerline on the French election:

"The U.S. has now seen the leadership of both France and Germany pass to figures who believe, as a general matter, that American power is a force for good in the world, and not something that needs persistently to be constrained. Let's hope that in 2009 the U.S. still has a leader who concurs."

Does anyone doubt that most of the money flowing to Democratic candidates comes from people who most urgently want to see U.S. power constrained? I'd be interested to hear from any who do harbor such doubts. Where is Ferris, and what does he have to say about this?

[Maybeex]

OT- excellent observation.

The irony is that if the US's power is constrained, someone else will have to step up. And then what? Had Chirac been as powerful as he wanted to be, he would have been hated more than Bush.

[Other Tom]

As it is, Chirac is now facing criminal prosecution for fraud. He was immune from prosecution so long as he remained in office. Among his last acts while in office were the stacking of all the relevant prosecutors' offices with cronies who are hugely indebted to him. Vive la France.

[Lew Clark]

Centralcal,
I used the term "married well" derisively. I've never considered it a positive term. It defines a person, usually a woman, as accomplishing nothing more than hooking the right mate.
Absent Bill, I doubt Hillary would have been anything more than a second rate lawyer in an unknown law firm.

[richard mcenroe]

Lew, how can you say that? She carried Sam Erwin's briefcase so well...

[PeterUK.]

Other Tom,
It might be a good time for the US to offer Chirac,asylum,amnesty and an annuity in exchange for information on the Oil For Food scam,uranium deals in Africa and sanctions busting in Iraq.
France had a finger in all these and more.

[PeterUK.]

The anti-war tail is wagging the Democrat dog.
This would explain the rapidly mutating stance of Democrat politicians,the moonbats are pulling the strings.

[Jane]

There is something so transparent about George Soros effectively running the democrat party.

[lurker9876]

Does anyone have data showing which candidates Soros is / has been funding? Especially Edwards?

Looks like O'Reilly has been working on this.

[Jane]

Soros funds Move-on - which dictates what the candidates do. Read PUK's link.

[hit and run]

Good day if your initials are TM.

1) Kaus hearts Maguire

2) Rocket hearts Yankees

[Jane]

Gee, I'd consider joining the Yankees for 28 million dollars. Just don't tell my relatives.

[fschmieg]

Yes PUK. The congressional Ds were inclined to be sensible about the war appropriations bill and scuttlebutt was saying there was an agreement. Then out of the blue, no agreement. This has happened twice now. Also, the Hillary attempt to remove the authorization came from nowhere. All of these "surprises" are due to pressure from that anti-war alliance and their "quick reaction" forces. If the country foolishly puts the Ds into the presidency, the lefties will be ruling the country.

[PeterUK.]

fschmieg
Well actually,the carpetbaggers will be running the country,Soros sees the huge trade deficit as a business opportunity.

[cathyf]

Off topic, but did anybody else read Judy Miller's WSJ op-ed on the NYPD's tactics to prevent terrorism at the 2004 GOP convention? More evidence that Miller's "dizzy broad" act is an act that she turns on when it is convenient to her...

[PatrickR]

Mark Steyn on why Sarkozy won't accomplish much:

' In my recent book, whose title escapes me, I cite one of those small anecdotes that seems almost too perfect a distillation of Continental politics. It was a news item from 2005: A fellow in Marseilles was charged with fraud because he lived with the dead body of his mother for five years in order to continue receiving her pension of 700 euros a month.

' She was 94 when she croaked, so she'd presumably been enjoying the old government check for a good three decades or so, but her son figured he might as well keep the money rolling in until her second century and, with her corpse tucked away under a pile of rubbish in the living room, the female telephone voice he put on for the benefit of the social services office was apparently convincing enough. As the Reuters headline put it: "Frenchman Lived With Dead Mother To Keep Pension."

' Think of France as that flat in Marseilles, and its economy as the dead mother, and the country's many state benefits as monsieur's deceased mom's benefits. To the outside observer, the French give the impression they can live with the stench of death as long as the government benefits keep coming. If that's the case, the new president will have the shortest of honeymoons.'

And, judging from the comments here, Steyn's right.

[Other Tom]

I have no doubt that Sarkozy will fail, simply because France and the French people are too far gone. The only question is how hard he will try.

[Other Tom]

I note with pleasure that Sarkozy won the female vote by 52-48%, virtually the same margin as the overall vote. Will Dowd now pronounce the French women "neurotic?"

[clarice]

I don't know OT, but if anyone can be said to know neurotic it's MoDo.

[Other Tom]

From Mark Tapscott at Examiner.com:

"The Democrats have all but abandoned their campaign promises. Now they hide behind a cynical veil of excuse and delay. The Senate and House approved earmark and other ethics reforms earlier this year. Yet nobody now seems interested in working out differences between the two reform packages, so the new rules can go into effect.

"Meanwhile, 2007 and 2008 spending bills are being larded up with new anonymous earmarks, with leading Democrats openly defending the practice. They are like drunks who remained sober for a dozen years, but then fell off the wagon and now it’s as if they never stopped boozing."

[Other Tom]

Captain Ed explains the latest Newsweek poll:

"Yes, this would be a devastating poll, if one could rely on it. It contradicts nearly every other poll, which has consistently shown Giuliani beating Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. How could Newsweek get the results they have published?

"Well, for one thing, it helps when you poll 50% more Democrats than Republicans. If one reads the actual poll results all the way to the end, the penultimate question shows that the sample has 24% Republicans to 36% Democrats. Compare that to the information given by Newsweek's NBC partners in February, which showed that party affiliation had shifted from a difference of less than a percentage point to a gap of 3.9 points -- 34.3% to 30.4%, with 33.9% independents."

(This was the poll that showed Bush's approval as "the lowest in a generation.")

[topsecretk9]

Huh? What? did we miss something...(this has to be a boo boo on the LSU paper right?

Edwin Edwards' corruption trial. Huey P. Long's legendary good boy system. And most recently, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, **pleading guilty** to accepting more than $400,000 in bribes.

These are just a few examples of Louisiana's government leaders caught behaving badly. Thanks to these colorful politicians, the state of Louisiana has become notorious for government corruption.

The newly formed LA Ethics 1 coalition is trying to change that stigma. Comprised of 42 civic and business organizations, LA Ethics 1 is launching an initiative to reform Louisiana's state ethics laws and create an independent ethics administrator. ...

http://media.www.lsureveille.com/media/storage/paper868/news/2007/05/04/News/Coalition.Pushes.For.Updated.Ethics.Regulations-2894360.shtml

[Jane]

Speaking of LA - has anyone else noticed the complete polar opposite reactions of the people who suffered such great loss in Kansas over the weekend, and the victims of Katrina?

[clarice]

ts, that is in error and probably refers to this: Louisville man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to bribing Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) with more than $400,000 in payments, company stock and a share of the profits to promote the Kentucky firm's high-tech business ventures in Africa.

Vernon L. Jackson, 53, owner of Louisville-based iGate Inc., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe and bribery in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of up to nine years for the crimes, which occurred from 2001 to 2005.
Jackson pleads quity to bribing Jefferson

Jane--it is astonishing isn't it, what effect cultural differences have on how communities deal with emergencies?

[hit and run]

Jane, I haven't been paying attention to it much.

Question, has anyone blamed global warming for the tornados?

Because I Blame Bush.

Also, has Bush gone to KS? Is he planning on it? Any chance we can hear how the racial makeup of the local populace figures in his decision? I mean, I'm sure Bush has Rove pulling up the numbers as we speak to calculate the appropriate response.

[gmax]

Its an embarrasment that in the US the leftist candidate will likely get about as much support as the leftist candidate did in France. We are not that far from being inundated with Socialist packaged policies which will sap this country and its economy. 47% is way too close to squeaking into office in my opinion. Perhaps all of the wise guys who thought it was a good idea to sit out the 2006 election will now come back and explain it again to us.

[topsecretk9]

Clarice

That's prolly it...seems almost comical it would be goofed in an article about "ethics" .

[Rick Ballard]

"what effect cultural differences have on how communities deal with emergencies?"

MS got hit harder than LA and isn't whining 1/10th as much. I believe that MS has as many government "clients" (on a percentage basis) as LA.

Is inept, inefficient, corrupt and just plain stupid state and local political leadership a "cultural" difference? I'd say the Blanco/Nagin/Landrieu "what buses?" tag team are a political rather than a cultural artifact.

It's the old "can't do" spirit writ very small.

[clarice]

gmax, you might be interested in this article on the EU:
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2104

[clarice]

Rick, would they have been elected if the ethos of NO has not always been "grifters are us"?

[cathyf]

Filed under the "Bias? What Media Bias?" file, we have the AP's judgement of the sole newsworthy comments which the Kansas governor made on the Greensburg tornado:

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said the state's response was limited by the shifting of emergency equipment, such as tents, trucks and semitrailers, to the war in Iraq.

"Not having the National Guard equipment, which used to be positioned in various parts of the state, to bring in immediately is really going to handicap this effort to rebuild," she said.

I'm so sure that she had nothing else newsworthy to say, right?

[Jane]

Jane--it is astonishing isn't it, what effect cultural differences have on how communities deal with emergencies?

It is indeed astonishing. It's how I hope I would react under the same circumstances. And frankly after Katrina, it's almost downright shocking.

[gmax]

Well that is a pretty depressing event and one that should give libertarian of all stripes reasons to resist their liberal brethren's siren calls.

I am more concern about the US however, and think if the levers of all power were to fall to the leftists it might be fatal to our way of life.

[Other Tom]

I hope you'll all forgive me for going way, wa-a-a-y off topic here.

As many of you know, I have an obsessive contempt for John Kerry, and have written at length here and elsewhere about his near-delusional accounts of his personal exploits. One of these is the "Christmas-in-Cambodia craziness. He very quickly, when challenged, had to acknowledge that he had not been there on that date--since it was readily established that he was in fact in the town of Sa Dec, which is nowhere near Cambodia. However, he (or his apologists) immediately went on to say that, although he was confused about the date, he nevertheless ventured into Cambodia several times on secret missions, where he variously was running guns or taking a CIA operative for a ride.

I have a question for the well-informed readership here: Did Kerry ever claim to have been in Cambodia before October 1979, when he wrote his review of the movie Apocalypse Now? I think it can be shown that the thought of having been in Cambodia never entered his fabulist mind until he saw Martin Sheen in the movie, and decided that he himself had been there, done that.

Am I wrong? Is anyone aware of an earlier reference?

[Paul Zrimsek]

OT: Paul Krugman surrenders unconditionally on the old "mathematically impossible" debate, but probably doesn't realize it.

[PeterUK.]

Clarice,
Brussels Journal.I cannot see the EU leading to war,quite the opposite,the institution arouses mainly apathy,no one will fight and die for it.
What is happening is the people are divorcing themselves from the polity,Euro elections have dismal turnouts.There is a huge growth in the black economy,corruption is rampant.As with all Tranzi social engineering,it has destroyed social cohesiveness without replacing it with anything else.
The main danger is that the micro managed and over centralised EU structure of governance is ripe for the plucking by any demagogic faction or individual.