Bill Clinton - Health Care Failure "My Fault"

Bill Clinton explained at a town meeting that blame for the collapse of HillaryCare lies with him:

GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) – Former President Clinton said Thursday that he is to blame for his administration's failed health care plan, not his wife, who spearheaded the effort.

Clinton was asked about the plan during a campaign event, where he spoke to about 600 people crowded into a YMCA gymnasium. The health care effort was led by then-first lady Hillary Clinton, now a New York senator and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"She has taken the rap for some of the problems we had with health care the last time that were far more my fault than hers," the former president said.

In his extended remarks, the former President also explained that Hillary deserved credit for the magnificent job creation and budget surpluses during his two terms; the collapse of the Palestinian peace talks occured only because her invaluable advice went unheeded; and one of his great regrets is that he didn't listen more carefully when she made the case for aggressively pursuing Osama Bin Laden.

MORE:  I 'fess up - he didn't really say those other things. Yet.

Comments

[Clarice]

He will torpedo her campaign. He has to be the center of attention. His remarks all week only (a)concentrate the voters' attention on her weaknesses, and (b) remind everyone that this charming fabulist will be in the WH again if Hil wins.

[Jane]

WEll the left is eating it up. So let's hope sanity prevails in the middle.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

I think he has completed the descent from 'charming rogue' to 'aging roue'. The portrait is no longer in the attic and vaseline and gauze are the only tools left which can provide cover.

Not to mention Miz Waterbuffalo, who is followed by a quite different problem. It is a maxim that cheap wine does not improve with age. In human terms, I'd say Mr. & Mrs. Depends provide evidence that the maxim holds for more than wine.

[Clarice]

I haven't been able to locate Ms King's prescient analysis of Bill nor any of my copies of her books so I wrote to her. She pegged him (and their relationship) to a T.

Now look at what he's doing...He is undermining her by his over the top praise. If called on it, it's "What me? Look how hard I'm trying."
I think there's a chapter in "Games People Play" that covers this well.

When he gets to praise her slender ankles and shapely butt it will be perfectly obvious to all.

[MayBee]

Tom-
You forgot the little known moment when Hillary said, "Oh, Bill. You have just got to see Monica's cute new thong."

[Ann]

"When he gets to praise her slender ankles and shapely butt it will be perfectly obvious to all."

Clarice....You the best!

[Ann]

I think the democrats just want Bill back.

Someone coined the phrase "BLUE DRESS DEMOCRATS" and it fits.

[Clarice]

Seems I was right to be suspicious of the Clinton Campaign's version of the tip story. NPR has this today:

[quote]

A Clinton campaign staffer called on Esterday at the restaurant Thursday after the story aired. The staff member apologized to her and gave her a $20 bill, according to Esterday. The Clinton campaign confirmed that visit. The campaign also produced photocopies of receipts showing $157.46 was paid to Maid-Rite on a VISA card on Oct. 8 for meals consumed by the candidate's entourage. The tip was supposed to have been paid in cash, and the campaign insisted such a payment was made but has declined to make available a staff member who was present at Maid-Rite and left tip money.

Maid-Rite's manager, Brad Crawford, said Thursday that while he was not present at the restaurant on Oct. 8, he knew that a bill was paid by the campaign that day. He also said that he believed three of six servers working that day received tips from people he thought were working for or affiliated with the Clinton campaign.

Crawford said he didn't know if campaign staffers meant "for their tips to be distributed to everybody" or whether they were meant only for individual servers.

The manager said he can't say for sure if Esterday was tipped for serving Clinton and her guests, Christie Vilsack and Ruth Harkin. (Vilsack is the wife of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Harkin is the wife of Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin). But Crawford said he believes Esterday's account that she received no tip.

"Where Hillary was sitting, there was no tip left," Crawford said.

The restaurant has a lunch counter, where Clinton and her guests were seated. Esterday and several other servers were working behind that counter. There are a dozen or so other booths and tables around the restaurant, and other servers were helping diners seated there.

Esterday, speaking to NPR from home later Thursday, said the Clinton campaign staffer who visited the diner apologized to her and said a $100 tip was left on a credit card the day of Clinton's visit. Esterday said the staff member said the money was meant to be shared.

"I explained to her that our credit card machine, you know, doesn't add on the tip," Esterday said. "And she said, 'Well, then, they left a $100 bill there.' And I said, 'Well, it didn't get divided up amongst us, because I had gotten nothing.'

"She just said, 'Well, there was one left,'" Esterday said. "She just kept repeating, 'There was one left.'

[b]After the campaign staffer stopped at the diner Thursday, Esterday said, the $100 tip was a hot topic.

"Two others that had worked with me that day turned around and said, 'We didn't know about any $100 tip,' because they both turned around and said 'We didn't get a part of it.' And they didn't. So, it's like 'OK, where did it go?' That's the mystery question: Where did it go?"

Esterday said it would surprise her if money that was intended to be split among the staff was never shared.

"The ladies that were working that day have been working there for years — some of them for 30 years, some of them for 25 years," Esterday said. "And I've known a lot of these ladies most of my life living here, too. And I can't imagine them pocketing it."[/b] [/quote](Emphasis supplied.)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16143435

I can't believe that it helps Hillary more that her staff is obviously trying to peg Iowa minimum wage earners as thieves rather than accept blame for not having taken care of this properly themselves. Since Hillary previously got into trouble for not tipping a waitress at a diner during her Senate campaign it says much of her executive ability that her staff wasn't properly prepped on the protocol.

Add to this the fact that she exploited without permission the waitress' story about her life, this is not a pretty picture

[MayBee]

I can't believe that it helps Hillary more that her staff is obviously trying to peg Iowa minimum wage earners as thieves rather than accept blame for not having taken care of this properly themselves.

Brilliant observation, clarice.

[MayBee]

I nabbed it and posted it at PW, clarice.

[Clarice]

Thanks..Now I can't find my Eric Berne book either. Dang.. There's a nice piece on this practice of overblown praise as a means to undercut Hil and puff up himself.

[GMax]

The finish draws ever nearer.

http://soccer.seniorclassaward.com/public/women/vote.aspx>Vote JMAX!

[MarkJ]

Ah yes, Bubba, who isn't running for anything (except maybe "Drone-in-Chief") gallantly falls on his sword for the Hive Queen.

Just goes to show that you can do and say anything...if you have no shame.

[RichatUF]

Clarice-

Sounds like the "affidavit strategy" all over again. Wonder if the campaign has sent a couple of goons staffers to go and rummage through the waitress's garbage and threaten a campaign of character assassination apologize for any confusion.

Ridiculious-

[Clarice]

To me it sounds like a really screwed up couple where each has power and intimacy problems. But I'm no shrink. Just an observer who thinks he's undercutting her at every turn in a way that makes it hard to pin it on him.

Last night on Hume, the panelists were roaring at Clinton's claim that she's so great he'd be in some podunk town in Iowa camapaigning for her even if she weren't his wife because she's so great:Translation--she's nothing without me.

[RichatUF]

I'll try to have more time this evening, but I thought that the HillaryCARE narrative was that it was Ira Magaziner's fault because he was really running the show and that Hillary's role impeded the decision making among lobbists, Congress, and the White House because she wasn't some DC policy wonk that could be tossed aside when it became convenient-she was the First Lady and she set the confrontational tone.

[RichatUF]

I suppose they don't call it 2-for-1 for nothing...

[anduril]

Yeah, looks like Bill could turn this election into a referendum on himself.

[Clarice]

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/11/and_her_ankles_and_butt_are_go.html>And her ankles

[Lesivo]

'Paws.' 'Hilly's paws.' 'Jimmy's pea nuts.'

'Maybe we shouldn't take the rap for the spears.'

Lucifer, as we all know, assumes bodies. If your a dead whore in hell, for example, you may want to use a living human and one can only guess how a dead whore would do this. It's what luciferians do, was. The idea is,if I'm poor and can't pay a doctor; everyone should get my disease. was.

Luciferians got all confused, today. They always have been; which is why they 'make' and 'use.' They have sub standard minds and intellectual capacities because they use Lucifer's eye, which is why they make and use. They have excuses and they just dont' stop.

Anyways, luciferians get confused because they are arguing over humans and their bodies. For exmaple, someone produced drugs. The drugs are there to solve a disease, which was created by lucifer. So, one luciferian group might argue that another is making money using to make a disease and providing the cure. The group who made no money from the deal is just going to say we 'made' the pills too and they won't work unless we get some cash. No cash, they go right after the person with the disease and make it worse.

Luciferians are often confused. This is because they are substandard and it probably goes back so far it's genetic. Brain size. Large brains mean genetics got into lucifer's eye.

Health care. Who is confused?

[MayBee]

There is a code post in every thread, lately. They used to just show up on the Plame threads.

[Clarice]

Code post? I just assumed JOM was linked at some goofy blog.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

The link is actually to a starship hiding behind a Jovian moon. When Babelfish includes Klingon/English translation capability this will all smooth out.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Did he also lift the $100 bill from the table of the restaurant?

However, Brad DeLong is famously on record on the health care debacle:

My two cents' worth--and I think it is the two cents' worth of everybody who worked for the Clinton Administration health care reform effort of 1993-1994--is that Hillary Rodham Clinton needs to be kept very far away from the White House for the rest of her life. Heading up health-care reform was the only major administrative job she has ever tried to do. And she was a complete flop at it. She had neither the grasp of policy substance, the managerial skills, nor the political smarts to do the job she was then given. And she wasn't smart enough to realize that she was in over her head and had to get out of the Health Care Czar role quickly.

So when senior members of the economic team said that key senators like Daniel Patrick Moynihan would have this-and-that objection, she told them they were disloyal. When junior members of the economic team told her that the Congressional Budget Office would say such-and-such, she told them (wrongly) that her conversations with CBO head Robert Reischauer had already fixed that. When long-time senior hill staffers told her that she was making a dreadful mistake by fighting with rather than reaching out to John Breaux and Jim Cooper, she told them that they did not understand the wave of popular political support the bill would generate. And when substantive objections were raised to the plan by analysts calculating the moral hazard and adverse selection pressures it would put on the nation's health-care system...

Hillary Rodham Clinton has already flopped as a senior administrative official in the executive branch--the equivalent of an Undersecretary. Perhaps she will make a good senator. But there is no reason to think that she would be anything but an abysmal president.

[Clarice]

Let's hope she brings those same keen skills to this campaign. It appears she is, doesn't it?

[Clarice]

It also looks like NPR isn't just going to roll over and play dead, doesn't it? Love her fast response website--Hope she gets Sid Blumenthal to run it and end her race faster.

[Topsecretk9]

Sorry, OT...but from Jonah Goldberg's email, the least shocking news of the day

Jonah,

Not too long ago, I flew from DC to CA sitting next to Joe Wilson.

You will not be surprised to learn that he was a jerk. He made sure to talk very loudly on his cell about Cheney and Bush and the latest news with regard to the Plame affair. As he talked, he looked around the plane to make sure that people knew he was Joe Wilson and that he was talking about the Plame affair on his cell phone.

He acted like he was a rock star and more than a few passengers on the plane were giving him dirty looks and loud sighs for his boorish behavior.

Yeah...he and Val just wanted their anonymity.

Best regards.

[name withheld]

I'm NOT LOW---LEVEL!!!!!!!!!

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmEyYjM3MWNkNzIyNDg1YWE4MWZlNjA0NGQ2NWFjMTM=

[Clarice]

HEH!

[Leo]

What is a code thread code post?

The translator thing is the linguists the CIA hired from, gee I don't know where, to work for Tennant the 'I believe in people rather than satellites' Director who later had all the other Directors, who all worked for Air Force like Plames dad, moved to DoD, which is really DIA, but, if it's a linguist, probably NSA. Any stories out of Virginia? Maybe, gee I don't know where:

http://www.rosettastone.com/global/press/news-20071012-rs

Klingons

Anyho, if there is a wierd thing with the blog, I got an emergency notice on my screen to shut everything down for specific periods of time and reboot things in a specific way. Keen skilled software.

[hit and run]

From the Department of Silver Linings:

Well, at least JOM didn't come in LAST place.

From the Department of What Have You Done For Me Lately:

Tom doesn't even appear on the list to repeat as Man of the Year.

[Clarice]

My choice for MOTY is the guy who turns off the lights and padlocks the door on the mag, a vestige of the day when anyone paid any attention to weekly news magazines.

[hit and run]

Speaking of the Weblog awards, Real Clear Politics won the Best Political Coverage award.

My man Jim Geraghty came in second. At one point, he was lamenting (in jest of course) his plight in competing with RCP:

We're behind the fine team at RealClearPolitics. Yes, that team, that large group, that institution with a staff and lots of branches and contributors and... Well, anyway, if you feel like helping out an underdog one man operation, a lone wolf standing tall amid the cliches... feel free to vote here.

A lone wolf? Competing against another blog that has a staff?

So, I've offered to be his staff. You know, do some posts on Campaign Spot when he's not looking busy with a newborn, or traveling, or anything else that may preclude round the clock coverage.

I don't know how to tell when someone's put you on their spam list, but he hasn't responded.

[Patton]

Bill also copped to hiding the Rose Law Firm billing records and a torrid sexual encounter with Vince Foster and Eleanor Smeel.....

[anduril]

tsk9, I loved that one.

[anduril]

Interesting post at Westhawk:

In this brief article, the New York Times notes that China's Foreign Ministry is now publicly calling on the Iranian government to "positively respond and attach importance to the concerns and voice of the international community."

This public statement from the Chinese government came only a few days after U.S. Defense Secretary Gates completed a visit to Beijing. Simultaneously, French President Sarkozy came to Washington for consultations with President Bush.

Have the U.S. and the Europeans now become more specific about their options regarding Iran? Did Secretary Gates relay this increased specificity to the Chinese leadership? And have the Chinese, in turn, passed the message on to Tehran?

All of these steps, if they actually occurred, could have happened in private. Why did the Chinese Foreign Ministry go public with its pleading to Iran? By publicly confronting Iran (ever so gently), the Chinese would be reinforcing the seriousness of any message they may have delivered in private.

Diplomatic action on the Iran issue may be heating up.

[Clarice]

That is interesting.

[hit and run]

OK, this photo is BEGGING for a caption contest...

[Rick Ballard]

Anduril,

I keep thinking about the Norks showing American inspectors what clean hands they have regarding nukes. Then about the Israeli site clearance work in Syria. Then about the Chinese oil pipeline running into North Korea - without which they get the fine opportunity to die from cold rather than just starvation.

It is absolutely true that nations have no friends but the coincidence of interest has never been higher between China and the US.

Sarkozy provided the necessary weight shift that allows diplomacy to proceed as it should. The "big stick" is heavier than ever - and much easier to swing.

[anduril]

Rick, I agree. On a host of issues the US and China have common interests. The sticking point is China's view of the US as "hegemon."

[eo]

My computer just crashed with an explanation of lucifer for the last 15 years, but that's okay.

[RichatUF]

anduril, Rick-

Re: China and the remaining "Axis of Evil"

The problem that China has with a recalcriant NK [especially in NP activities] and Iran [terrorism directed at the US] is:

1. Terrorism increases export security costs
2. Terrorism increases the price of oil
3. Both are bad for business in 2008 (Olympics and the US Presidential election)
4. China has a leash on both.

It comes down to what would make China's near abroad vassle states-slowly collapase NK along Albanian lines [early 2008, Feb or March would be my guess, when Lil' Kim leaves] and force the US into the position that a reunification along E. German-W. German lines [late 08 and into 09, without political reconstruction, but a peace treaty and major US force reductions in Korea and Japan] is in the best interest of the Korean Peninsula and Asia generally. The faster they work to defuse these threats the greater the opportunity that Hillary! will be in the White House.

[RichatUF]

...is in the best interest of the Korean Peninsula and Asia generally...

The showcase of this foreign policy would be a United Korea team that competes in the Olympics under the same flag in all the competitions.

[dick]

Strikes me that Hillary has got to realize that she is not like Prince Charles and the heir to the throne. She should make sure that the people who take care of her get treated right. That is not something that should be delegated, especially when you are someone with all the negatives she has - and gaining more as she goes along. When even NPR won't cover for the Clintons on something like this, they need to take care of the problem immediately.

Personally I hope that people will see them and her especially for the low lifes they are and not vote for her. They talked about trawling through the trailer park with a $100 bill, then they are talking about this pair for sure. And you can bet that they would run down whoever had the bill and mug him completely.

[dick]

Strikes me that Hillary has got to realize that she is not like Prince Charles and the heir to the throne. She should make sure that the people who take care of her get treated right. That is not something that should be delegated, especially when you are someone with all the negatives she has - and gaining more as she goes along. When even NPR won't cover for the Clintons on something like this, they need to take care of the problem immediately.

Personally I hope that people will see them and her especially for the low lifes they are and not vote for her. They talked about trawling through the trailer park with a $100 bill, then they are talking about this pair for sure. And you can bet that they would run down whoever had the bill and mug him completely.

[dick]

Strikes me that Hillary has got to realize that she is not like Prince Charles and the heir to the throne. She should make sure that the people who take care of her get treated right. That is not something that should be delegated, especially when you are someone with all the negatives she has - and gaining more as she goes along. When even NPR won't cover for the Clintons on something like this, they need to take care of the problem immediately.

Personally I hope that people will see them and her especially for the low lifes they are and not vote for her. They talked about trawling through the trailer park with a $100 bill, then they are talking about this pair for sure. And you can bet that they would run down whoever had the bill and mug him completely.

[dick]

Strikes me that Hillary has got to realize that she is not like Prince Charles and the heir to the throne. She should make sure that the people who take care of her get treated right. That is not something that should be delegated, especially when you are someone with all the negatives she has - and gaining more as she goes along. When even NPR won't cover for the Clintons on something like this, they need to take care of the problem immediately.

Personally I hope that people will see them and her especially for the low lifes they are and not vote for her. They talked about trawling through the trailer park with a $100 bill, then they are talking about this pair for sure. And you can bet that they would run down whoever had the bill and mug him completely.

[PaulL]

As far as Mrs. Clinton stiffing the waitress of her tip:

Isn't it revealing that a waitress nobody knows anything about is more credible to the public than is Mrs. Clinton and her campaign staff?

[RichatUF]

PaulL-

Isn't it revealing that a waitress nobody knows anything about is more credible to the public than is Mrs. Clinton and her campaign staff?

If I were paranoid, I would call it a set up.

[MayBee]

The showcase of this foreign policy would be a United Korea team that competes in the Olympics under the same flag in all the competitions.

You know, I was really touched the first Olympics that they marched together for the 2000 Olympic games. Subsequently, I've been more cynical. S Korea can be too desperate for reunification sometimes, and many Koreans end up blaming the US for keeping them apart. I see it now as S Korea turning a blind eye, and N Korea using S Korea's naivety.
I guess finding out the bribes that S Korea had paid helped boost my cynism somewhere along the line, along with finding out that Clinton/Carter's N Korea plan had been for naught.

[Rick Ballard]

Anduril,

The Communist rhetoric from China is phonier than that peddled by our own pathetic progressives. According to the CIA Factbook, wealth concentration is greater in China than it is here among us running dogs. Their growling is impressive but they're wearing a choke chain collar with a sturdy leash attached (courtesy of that evil man, Dick Nixon). If they lunge hard enough against the leash - well it's called a choke chain for a reason.

Rich,

I'm not sure I follow re the Norks. I suppose I can't quite see whether China betrayed the Nork-Syrian-Iranian game or was part of it as a "hedge". China could have made a credible threat to cut off the oil to North Korea any time in the past ten years in order to bring L'il Kim to heel. Nothing happened until after the Israelis acted. I can't figure out how all those pieces are shaped, let alone how they all go together.

I agree completely with your assertions, I just can't figure out the ergo part.

Dick,

You have a small problem with your browser that can be rectified by clicking the Main page for JOM prior to refreshing. Otherwise you'll continue to stutter.

[Jane]

So I wonder what Hillary promised, and to whom to get this Kerik indictment going.

[Ann]

Jane,

I was thinking the same thing. This trial will last through the campaign season.

Hillary has Sandy Burglar working for her. Will anyone ask her why a convicted felon is on her team?

I haven't looked at the 16 indictments. Does anyone here know
more about the case against him and what the worst case senario is. I can't believe Guilanni would have backed him for home land security if he thought Bernard was connected with the mafia.

[narciso]

Got around to flipping through "Fair Game" There's a bit of an irony in that the Company classified every fifth word is some chapters; yet Laura Rozen 'decoder ring' afterword didn't go through the censors, so
details like her station chief in Athens; David Smith appear loud and clear. Of course
the revelation about Ames selling her out in '93-94; appear nowhere in the manuscript
so it really looks like she was being trained to become a NOC; instead of pigeonholed into itto prevent wider exposure.

On the other side of the 'Bearded Spock' universe is Kenneth Timmerman's Shadow
Warriors, which dissects the CIA's relentless campaign against the President
and his freedom agenda. which really begins
in the first few monthes after 9/11 when they reveal Al Libi's whereabouts and release NSA cables circa the pre-9/11 atmosphere. In this context he places the
totally pathetic 'infamous' Aug. 6, 2001
PDB which names not one person of interest
for that time. The rationales behind the campaign against Chalabi and the INC, carried out rather ably to Ricciardone now in Manila (ironically Abu Sayyaf was one of
the larger recipients of Saddam's largesse.
The wispering campaigns against Garner; a flavor of which can be garned from Woodward's State of Denial, and the work of his successor Chandrijeksan. A truly brutal
dissection of Paul Bremer's cluelessness including the first fateful encounter with
Muqtada Sadr. which features the ineptitude
of one Packer's great unsung heroines; Megan O'Sullivan. The foisting of the
'parliamentary slate from hell' which did
spread sectarian chaos into the system. The coup against Goss and the agency reform movement spearheaded by Paul Pillar; who is shown to have been as clueless as Larry Johnson pre-9/11. The names of the likely
leakers of the rendition and other program;
Mary McCarthy was small fry in these regards. Many ended up on the staff of Goss's fellow Book & Snake colleague Negroponte; who further served to undermine the CIA. This would be academic; except for
the fact that this faction supported by the
VIPsers seem to have won the battle (the push back against IG Helgerson, another unsung hero to Rolling Stone; seems to indicate a reversal) their erroneous
impressions under Deputy Director Kappes and
Ops Chief Sulick are seen in thepathetically
shallow National Intelligence estimates; (AQ wants to hit us; that's a shock,)the weak management exhibited by Director Hayden and flawed judgements with regards to Iran, Pakistan today; Azerbaijan and Egypt tomorrow. As you can see; this book made very angry and quite concerned about
the future state of intelligence policy in this country. Some one reassure me, I'm overstating the matter.

[Clarice]

I don't think you're overstating it, narciso. I share your concerns.

[Clarice]

Now Hillary's defending Bill's defending her. We are back to Dallas reruns or something.
Maybe this is all a bad dream.

[Clarice]

Hillary gets caught planting questions at Grinell:
http://cmondisplay.com/2007/11/09/clinton-campaign-gets-caught-planting-questions/>All the charm and talent of a turnip

[Rick Ballard]

"Maybe this is all a bad dream."

Nah. JR's deader than a doornail and Bobby keeps waking up screaming "out damned spot" for real.

But this is 2007, not 1991. There's this new innertubes thingy and the Liars from Little Rock may have a better organization but they sure don't seem to have learned any new tricks. That quote that Patrick cited from Brad DeLong is as true today as it was when it was uttered.

If we can't beat an unaccomplished shrew then we should consider another game. I'm gonna finish this one first though - she's just not that good.

At anything.

[MayBee]

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001616>Harpers on Hillary on Huma.
Has someone already posted this?

[Clarice]

I haven't seen it before, but I strongly suspect it's true that some Dem candidates are spreading the story. I read an account somewhere today that it was Obama who trained the press' attention on Hsu, too.

[Topsecretk9]

Maybee

I emailed you on "muy" --- FYI.

[Other Tom]

Christ on a God damn crutch. Will it never end with this pair? Please, God, get them the hell out of our lives.

[Clarice]

AMEN.OT!

[Other Tom]

I suppose I should have said, "Will no one rid us of this meddlesome pair?"

[Other Tom]

Or maybe, after a couple of see-through rammers, "Will none of the knaves eating my bread rid me of this turbulent pair?"

[Topsecretk9]

I could be wrong, but my spidey senses tell me that the media ain't so Hillary happy. It's not just the coverage it's the tone, they are letting too much through the cracks.

They really like Obama, the are OK will Siky. They don't really like Hillary, but they hate the opponent ....George Bush!

Seriously, GWB is who the media is running against.

[Topsecretk9]

the are OK will Siky

---

Heh ... Freudian slip?

Will Siky is a -- Slick Willy -- Silky Pony combo...which works!

Will Siky!

[Clarice]

What was needed was to get her to slip--she did--now people are emboldened to speak out.I truly believe the treatment of the waitress will cost her Iowa.

[vnjagvet]

I used to have confidence that the folks in Iowa could spot a phony a mile away. Then Tom Harkin was elected. Then Howard Dean won Iowa..........

Now I'm not so sure.

But I sure would love to see those folks vote against the Queen of the Night.

[Rick Ballard]

Vnjagvet,

Senator Waffle won the Iowa primary with Silky Pony second and Screamin' Dean third. Dean the Weanie was a precursor to Senator Ned Lamont (D) Nowhere.

Mucho hype - no va.

With a bit of luck that's how it will end for Senator Depends.

[PJB]

Deputy Director Kappes. Like in kinda capt ya? Like in a cap over yur head?. Like a cap on something?

Original 'Shadow Warroirs' came out in the 80s. studyg, unlike Plame. Se is disappointing.

[Rick Ballard]

"GWB is who the media is running against."

Tops,

He's just a symbol - what they're running against is ownership and the responsibility that comes with it. They know that the Dems lose when the third and fourth income quartiles own rather than rent. That wasn't true when the Yellow Dogs were still lovin' Roosevelt but it gets truer with each passing year.

The back story on the Feckless Family story was difficulty in protecting assets - damned little to do with kids. If it had been mama with brain damage rather than kids, the house would have been forfeit. That's the other edge of the ownership sword and the Republicans aren't doing a good job with it.

[vnjagvet]

Rick:

The Dean scream was seared, seared in my memory. But I forgot that it was for a third place finish.

It sure seems weird now that he was getting so excited just for a third.

His excitement was all so fleeting.

[Topsecretk9]

Rick

I know it's a symbol...but the root lies in the elected Democrats have been lying to their base.

They sold their soul to the devil - they sold the "Bush Lied" meme out of desperation (and then low level/ low class Joe came along). They were willing to LIE about the intelligence they saw and accessed before Bush was elected.

They screwed the pooch.

• Hoyer is now on record saying his Iraq vote was right and honorable.

• Biden has basically said the dems are beholden to a freak few

• Lieberman depicts a conversation of a Dem too afraid of the Net-freaks than to protect American soldiers

• Mukasey vote - HA HA HA

Eli Lake on John Edwards: "I remember him at Christoper Hitchens' house giving me the best arguments I'd heard from any Democrat on why we should invade Iraq. ... very neoconservative arguments ... humanitarian arguments." ... [First segment in podcast] 3:19 A.M. link

Via Kaus.

The Democrats L I E D out of desperation and they are FUBAR now that they CAN'T be HONEST now and they want to be honest now, because Iraq is looking good and they are liars.

[Topsecretk9]

OH...and Cheney Impeachment went really, really well for them!

[davod]

WRT the North Koreans. I listened to Bolton describe the change in the Bush negotiations. The nuclear plant is now going to be disabled not dismantled. I suppose this is State Department nuance.

[davod]

"OH...and Cheney Impeachment went really, really well for them!"

I hope the the House Republicans assist in getting the vote out does not come back to haunt them and the Administration.

[kim]

Still cooling, folks.

tinyurl.com/2szwh8
=============

[Jane]

I can't believe Guilanni would have backed him for home land security if he thought Bernard was connected with the mafia.

Ann,

The word on the street has always been that Guiliani has a lot of skeletons in his closet. I have no idea if this is one of them.

[Rick Ballard]

Vote Jmax

She's in the stretch and ahead by a nose - take a second and help her ahead.

[Jane]

Jess is up to 32% - can we make it 33%?

[Liee]

What is a code post?

[kim]

It's a little like calling spirits from the vasty deep.
=============================

[Liee]

Heh. The reason I'm asking is because I know a blogger who says she notices weird businesses coming to visit - when she checks their websites they seem vague, nebulous. She's wondered jokingly if they are spooks monitoring her. Is there a way to spot them in code?

[MayBee]

The Democrats L I E D out of desperation and they are FUBAR now that they CAN'T be HONEST now and they want to be honest now, because Iraq is looking good and they are liars.

Amen, girlie.
Like Schumer staging the little coup at the justice department for Comey and McNulty, then when that didn't work, having to take the heat to support Mukasey in the face of the faux "waterboarding is torture" scandal. Another little thing they'd overhyped to make Bush look bad.
I wonder if Hillary!s AG nominee will be asked to renounce extraordinary renditions.

[JorgXMcKie]

I am sooooo waiting for Hillary to look directly into the camera, wag her finger, and say, "I did not have sex with that woman . . ." I'd just die laughing.

Also, it would be, under the Clinton definition of sex, true. I just realized that under Bill Clinton's definition of what actually constitutes sex that lesbian sex may not even exist.

[JorgXMcKie]

Sorry, jane, I'm an Illini through and through.

;->=

[Porchlight]

Is there a way to spot them in code?

Well, the ones that show up here typically use the word "lucifer" at some point in the post, for what that's worth. They read as if they're all from the same person, but who knows...

[Letalis Maximus, Esq.]

Slick may be gray, a bit addled, and a bit more windy, but my money says that he still busts more clams than a sea otter.

And THAT, dear friends, is what the guy is really all about.

[TmjUtah]

topsekret9 said -

"I could be wrong, but my spidey senses tell me that the media ain't so Hillary happy. It's not just the coverage it's the tone, they are letting too much through the cracks."

Hillary is the narrative - compliant annointed...

... but then that was Dean's mantle in 2003. I will stipulate that he was Chosen for vastly different reasons and packaged by the gatekeepers differently but the strategy remains the same.

It's easier to write stories if you already have an end in mind.

But when Dean went tits up on an Iowa stage the only people who questioned the media's investment were silly bloggers. Old media had no interest in analyzing the strange disconnect between punditry proclamations and what voters actually did.

IMHO, the media covers Hillary as the The Annointed in prime time because it (the media) is itself a victim of The Package Deal/Narrative they've created... but is furiously trying to construct a fallback narrative for one of the other... highly qualified ... candidates crapped out of the back end of the leftward bound ass that is the remnant of the party of FDR, Truman and Kennedy.

[TmjUtah]

topsecretK9.

Please to forgive my sloppiness, top.

PMIF.

[Rick Ballard]

Good to see you, TMJ. I sure hope you reconsider your decision not to invest time in politics. I miss the acuity, clarity and force of reason which you bring to the table.

We need to get the weather gauge and break the line once more - even if the Admiralty is as full of idiots as ever.

[kim]

Once more into the breach.
=================

[DCPoliticsNews]

I really have to say that I love the idea that Bill Clinton will be around for the entire campaign season. He is fascinating to watch in a kind of creepy way. Sooner or later he will ignite a scandal -- he can't help it. I am hopeful that the more he stays in the public eye, the less successful he will be at convincing people to believe the revisionist history of the Clintonistas who pretend that that his 8 years in office were the good old days.

[Clarice]

Yes, he will ignote a scandal. The ID can't help it.

[Jane]

Well he won't be around if Hillary doesn't get the nomination.

[Clarice]

**ignIte**

Well, now, you have a good point there, Jane.

[Sly Bri]

I am convinced that Mr. Clinton does not want his wife to win, but only wants to look he wants her to. I highly doubt he wants 4 to 8 more years in the spotlight as second fiddle.

[Soylent Red]

what they're running against is ownership and the responsibility that comes with it.

Outstanding Rick! You have succinctly captured the quintessence of Democrat politics. Being of simpler linguistic tendency I probably would have said:

"Keep them stupid, poor and angry. Then promise them the world."

As for this: she's just not that good.

Isn't Hillary considered the brains of the outfit? You're right she's not that good. She may be more ideologically sound than Bill, but politically she's piss poor.

What wakes me up at night is that once the primaries are over she may turn out to be just good enough. Particularly with a complicit press. People seem very easily bamboozled these days.

busts more clams than a sea otter.
He is fascinating to watch in a kind of creepy way.

Does it strike anyone else as tragic that we now have a former President who can be (truthfully) referred to like this.

One more reason to fear a Hillary win. I don't believe that we have yet plumbed the depths of Clinton villainy.

[mariner]

Sly:

If Hillary is elected why would he feel the need to stay around as second fiddle?

Once she's elected he could just leave, having held up his end of their twisted bargain.

[Soylent Red]

busts more clams than a sea otter.

But I won't lie to you all...

This one made me snort coffee.