Siege Mentality: How impeachment explains the Clinton campaign

The New Republic ^ | May 28, 2008 | Michael Crowley

[Aristotelian]

Do you know who I am? I'm the big rubber clown doll you had as a kid, and every time you hit it, it bounces back. That's me--the harder you hit me, the faster I come back up.

Bill Clinton to Newt Gingrich, Winter 1995

The Clintons find themselves victimized and under siege. The presidency is being stolen from them. The press is out to get them. They deride elites and champion the masses. They live in a constant state of emergency. But they will endure any humiliation, ride out any crisis, fight on even when fighting seems hopeless.

That might sound like a fair summary of how Bill and Hillary Clinton have viewed the past five months. But it also happens to describe what, until now, was the greatest ordeal of the Clintons' almost comically turbulent political careers: impeachment. That baroque saga hardened the Clintonian worldview about politics and helps to explain their approach to this brutal campaign season. The Clintons have been here before, you see. They're being impeached all over again.

(snip)

And, from the accounts of the Clinton impeachment, we also know how rarely she entertains the idea of quitting.

(snip)

But not everyone in Clintonland felt that way. One such person was Clinton loyalist Harold Ickes, a top Hillary adviser. As Congress was readying for impeachment, Baker writes, Ickes "considered the current scandal a dire threat to the Democratic hold on the presidency." He told senior Democrats that they needed to push Clinton out of power for the sake of the party--a now familiar line of argument. Needless to say, Ickes's advances went nowhere, and, as he'd feared, Al Gore lost. We'll see in November if the Clintons' refusal to quit has the same effect again.

[Aristotelian]

We'll see in November if the Clintons' refusal to quit has the same effect again.

It's the Clintons' fault if McCain wins. That will be the new liberal mantra. But what do the libs have to complain about, really? Obama or McCain. Either way, a liberal wins.

[Sacajaweau]

The Dems said that President Bush won in 2000 on "morality" issues. No talk about Hillary's lying, philandering in her campaign. Chelsea got a question...and said it's a private matter?? Really...Lying under oath in a court of law is "private"??...Lying to a few million TV viewers is private??...Messing with an intern half his age IN THE WHITEHOUSE....is private??

The FIRST criteria for POTUS is "moral character". Hillary has none. She has condoned EVERYTHING Bubba has engaged in....year after year after year. Just imagine WHAT ELSE she has on him.

Please God...Make them go away!!!

[Savage Beast]

One of the most odious things about the disgusting Democrat operatives (but I repeat myself) is their agility in turning against the Clintons now that it is to their advantage to do so, after having championed the Clintons when it was to their advantage to do so.

The Clintons have not changed. They are what they have always been. And Democrat politicians and their operatives have always known exactly what the Clintons are.

Yet Democrat politicians and their operatives enthusiastically foisted the Clintons upon the American people and the United States for their own self-serving purposes.

Now that the Clintons appear to be a liability--or no longer useful--Democrat operatives turn against them.

The unprincipled, self-serving crassness of Democrat politicians and their operatives--including the Democrat propagandists of the "Mainstream Newsmedia"--is well documented. But this glaring example manages to astound.

[Walkingfeather]

THIS CLINTON SIEGE WOULD END IF THIS HAPPENS....

In the crowds at the convention anytime Hillary is mentioned the chant rings out... “ Psycho Ex-girlfriend!” or Bunny Boiler ( reference to Fatal Attraction)