David

Karki

Read Davids bio and previous columns here

November 5, 2007

So, Empress Inevitable Hillary Clinton Has No Clothes

In the space of just a couple minutes in last Tuesday's Democratic debate, Senator Hillary Clinton showed everything that is wrong with her candidacy and why Americans would be wise to prevent her from a second stint in the White House.

Tim Russert asked her whether she supports New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants – a perfectly valid question as she also represents that state. Hillary, using that old Clinton strategy upon which Bill made their career so far, came to the fork in the road - and took it.

She answered that she thought it was a bad idea, but that didn't mean New York shouldn't do it. At least, that's as close a guess as I can make, given how thoroughly she simultaneously took both sides of the issue while trying not to take either side at all. I guess that's what one does when polls show even 72 percent of New York Democrats oppose it, while your primary opponents and far-left interest groups whose campaign cash you need are all for it.

Russert also asked about the failure to release documents and e-mails from the first Clinton Administration from the National Archives, something typically done at a regular time interval after the end of a term. This is a pertinent question, as we are being asked to put these same people back in power. If they won't be open regarding the last time around – while hypocritically accusing the Bush Administration of being hyper-secretive – why should we expect them to be so the next?

And then there's former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger's stealing of documents from the National Archives by stuffing them in his pants and socks – the major scandal a liberally-biased media quickly and quietly buried – something they never would have done if, say, Condoleezza Rice had done the same. Just what was in those documents such that Berger was willing to take such a silly risk? And was the motive that those documents were going to be declassified and released with the rest?

Finally, there was Social Security. Twice in debates in Iowa and New Hampshire, Hillary said she did not support lifting the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes from its current $97,500. Then Russert asked her the following:

“I want to clear something up which goes to the issue of credibility. You were asked at the AARP debate whether or not you would consider taxing, lifting the cap from $97,500, taxing that, raising more money for Social Security. You said, quote, ‘It's a No.’ I asked you the same question in New Hampshire, and you said ‘No.’

“Then you went to Iowa and you went up to Tod Bowman, a teacher, and had a conversation with him saying, ‘I would consider lifting the cap perhaps above $200,000.’ You were overheard by an Associated Press reporter saying that. “Why do you have one public position and one private position?”

Hillary similarly dissembled her way through that flip-flop, then promptly sent out her minions after the debate to claim martyrdom status and cry how mean Russert was to have unfairly targeted her so. These attitudes were echoed during a conference call with supporters after the debate. To quote an article from The Hill:

One caller from Oklahoma said the questions put to Hillary “were designed to incite a brawl,” and that Russert’s and fellow moderator Brian Williams’ moderating was “an abdication of journalistic responsibility,” according to The Hill newspaper. Another said Russert “should be shot.”

Yes, how dare a reporter ask questions? It's only his job, after all. And how dare we expect someone running for the most powerful office in the world to give the people a single straight answer. Silly us. We should just presume someone too gutless or phony to take a side will have genuine guts enough to take on a soon-to-be-nuclear-if-nothing-is-done Iran. And we should take it on faith that stealing and refusing to release documents has nothing to do with hiding the potentially damning contents therein. (Perhaps that's why Wellesley still won't release Hillary's senior thesis – presumed to be an ode to Marxism.)

Sheesh. Someone pass me a barf bag. This holier-than-thou attitude that Hillary shall not ever be questioned is absolutely revolting. It's also revealing, for it shows just how down-their-noses Hillary and her minions look at the rest of us and the utter contempt in which they hold anyone who threatens their presumptive return to power. People capable of this sort of attitude should not be let anywhere near office, much less again. (Speaking of which, why is a self-described “co-president” not also constitutionally term-limited out of office?)

We've been through this once already – Bill n' Hill showed up in 1992, riding in on their moral high horse,  denigrating Ronald Reagan, the 1980s and anything preceding their Baby Boom generation, and lying about middle class tax cuts while covering up bimbo eruptions. There isn't anything about what Hillary is now doing that's any different. It’s the same dishonesty and slickness, the same arrogance and conceit, the same all-consuming belief in power-as-personal-entitlement.

It's about time someone challenged Empress Inevitable. If this is how poorly she responds to even the most minor of queries, perhaps her victory is not as inevitable as a sympathetic media and the polls they generate suggest. If either her Democratic primary opponents, or her Republican opponent, or reporters not already in the bag for her stop fearing Hillary long enough to go and stay on offense, they just might find that the Empress has no clothes – and never did.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice . . .

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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