Posted on 08/18/2006 10:24:37 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
“My goodness,” he said.
Secretary Rumsfeld was responding to a question asked by Hillary Clinton, junior senator from New York and, of course, our former non-cookie-baking First Lady. They were conversing while Rumsfeld testified at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The question, like so many delivered in such hearings, was actually a long, prepared diatribe.
My question is much shorter than Senator Clinton’s: was this the official start of her campaign for the presidency, or just the beginning of a new phase in that campaign?
“Under your leadership there have been numerous errors in judgment that have led us to where we are,” Clinton said. “We have a full-fledged insurgency and full-blown sectarian conflict in Iraq.”
After his “My goodness,” Rumsfeld put the shiv in himself, saying that he had tried to keep notes to facilitate “responding to your prepared statement.” Then he went to work on the specifics (for example, Taliban attacks are up because they follow a seasonal cycle) and the exchange became testy. Clinton accused him of “happy talk” and Rumsfeld disputed that, saying “I have never painted a rosy picture. I've been very measured in my words and you'd have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I've been excessively optimistic.”
By day’s end, Hillary was formally calling for his head. Saying that the President should accept Rummy’s resignation, she said, “I just don't understand why we can't get new leadership that would give us a fighting chance to turn the situation around before it's too late.”
Never mind that troops the Senator’s husband deployed to Bosnia are still there eleven years later, and the troops he sent to Kosovo are in year eight. Never mind that successful campaigns against insurgencies are so difficult that the definitive book on the subject is called “Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife.” What struck me is that here was a guy who retired from being Secretary of Defense the first time in 1977. Here’s a guy who’s been in the defense game so long that he once flew F6F Hellcats (yes, a World War II propeller-driven fighter), a guy who held the rank of Captain in the Naval Reserve. Meanwhile, Clinton’s qualifications for being on the Armed Services Committee consist mainly of sleeping in the same house with the Commander-in-Chief for eight years.
For those of you who think she picked up a lot as “co-president,” consider this: My wife is a registered nurse, and I often helped her study and discussed what she was learning; I even found it quite interesting. I, meanwhile, have a business degree. Do you think I picked up enough knowledge to put an IV in your arm?
Yeah, I didn’t think so either.
Clinton was stirring the pot on an issue that is traditionally a disadvantage for her party, in which she has little experience in, and she went up against possibly the most experienced and articulate defense expert on the planet. She’s no dummie, so what is going on here?
Quite simply, in the words of commentator Bill Sammon, Hillary was defending her left flank. She’s seen what has happened to Joe Lieberman.
Lieberman is under assault in the Connecticut Democratic primary and is probably going to lose. There’s only one reason a man who votes with the Democratic leadership would be in trouble—the Iraq War. Lieberman voted for it and supports it still.
In 2000, Lieberman was well-respected in his party and was preparing to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. In 2004 he was treated as if he were a traitor to all things liberal just because he doesn’t see George Bush as the anti-Christ. Now he’s in the fight of his political life. The left fringe of the Democratic base has decided there will be no dissent on Iraq. In their view, if you wanted 25 million Arabs to breathe free and terror training camps shut down, you are a traitor to all that is good. A little-qualified hardcore antiwar candidate, Ned Lamont, is treating Lieberman that way. Lamont talks about George Bush’s record a lot, because if he talks about Lieberman’s record, people might remember that Lieberman is a Democrat.
Hillary has seen Lieberman’s future, and she is edging toward the Cindy Sheehan Left so fast the polyester in her pants might catch on fire. We’ll see her spend the next two years criticizing the war she helped start. Or, if the insurgency suddenly collapses before 2008, she’ll take credit for whipping the war effort into shape. She won’t go as far as calling for a withdrawal, however, knowing that will lose her the swing voters.
She will go into 2008 declaring that she voted for the war before voting against it. My goodness, that has a familiar ring…
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Silverback's column ping!
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Bump! What kind of response are you getting from the local readers?
She'd need the Great Wall of China.
Hillary's spreading herself a little thin, trying to protect either of her prodigious flanks, imho.
Like I said, no more calls after that...
Shes like a wind-up traitorous heinous lesbo doll.
I normally don't consider comments about appearance to be appropriate. I don't know what got into me. I think it was the easy target.
No harm, no foul. I doubt Hillary reads FR, and I am sure that if she would be willing to gain 200 pounds and be called "Her Fatness" as an official title if it came with the powers of dictatorship. :-)
Don't hold back, Sam. Tell us how you really feel.
Cool article, man. You provide terrific insights. The article describes Hillary's pathetic efforts to suck up to the crackhead Left really well. Thumbs up!
An F6 Hellcat pilot in WWII? That's a tough way to dodge the Draft isn't it.
...because he doesn’t see George Bush as the anti-Christ.
Very clever line given Mr. Lieberman's back-ground: He is still awaiting on the Messiah as I recall!
I didn't think they had 50 Megaton artillery shells.
Actually, he flew the Hellcat after WWII and after Korea, during the last year or so that it was operational. Before that he trained on the old SNJ trainer, which was known to the Army and Air Force as the T-6 Texan.
Thank you!
I hadn't thought of that angle (you're more insightful than I, apparently) but thanks for the compliment.
"Lieberman is under assault in the Connecticut Democratic primary and is probably going to lose."
I think Lieberman is going to win running away. But we'll have to wait until the election to know for sure.
I have a feeling that a Hillary candidacy for President would be received in about the same way by the left that a McCain candidacy would be received by the right.
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