Posted on 12/09/2001 8:34:03 AM PST by Carl/NewsMax
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton said Sunday that it's unfair to blame her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky and the resulting impeachment for his administration's failure to pursue Osama bin Laden aggressively enough during the 1990's.
"I don't think it's fair. I don't think it's an accurate rendering of what did happen," Clinton told NBC's "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert.
"I don't know all the details," Clinton explained. "But what has already been reported in many other sources demonstrates clearly - and I know from personal experience - how absolutely focused the president was on this and the kind of action that was taken."
Russert had asked Clinton about a recent report in USA Today, from which he quoted:
"Even Clinton's defenders acknowledge that for much of his tenure fighting terrorism wasn't his highest priority..... In his second term when bin Laden emerged as a mastermind of plots against Americans, Clinton seemed enmeshed in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment."
Mrs. Clinton's reference to her intimate knowledge of "the kind of action that was taken" appears to be an allusion to her husband's Aug. 20, 1998 decision to launch a cruise missile attack on a suspected bin Laden terrorist encampment in Afghanistan.
But White House aides told the Boston Globe two months ago that President Clinton's attention was at best divided as he tried to cope with the bin Laden threat, with the cruise missile strikes coming just three days after he informed the nation as well as his wife that he had lied about his affair with Lewinsky.
Part of the "personal experience" Mrs. Clinton alluded to in her comments to Russert reportedly included berating her husband for his promiscuity, with one account saying she screamed loud enough to be overheard, "You stupid f - - - ing moron. How could you risk your presidency for this?"
Just two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, former White House political guru Dick Morris told NewsMax.com that Clinton was so distracted by his affair with the 23-year-old intern that he became "risk-averse" when it came to dealing with the terrorist threat.
"My sense is that the affair made him passive and risk-averse," the former top aide said. "As a result I think he was reluctant to interfere with the military or to order long term involvement."
But in her comments to Russert Mrs. Clinton tried to shift the blame to Congress.
"Let's remember, we didn't even have support in the Congress for the money laundering that we finally got after Sept. 11. We didn't have support for a lot of the intelligence sharing that we thought we needed. You know, we tripled the budget but it wasn't always focused the way it should have been."
Repeatedly employing the term "we" to describe the White House decision making process, Mrs. Clinton further explained:
"You know, I think the biggest difference, Tim, is that, you know, we could launch a cruise missile and tell the Pakistanis that it was on its way to try to get bin Laden - and missed him by, you know, a few hours apparently. But we didn't have the kind of cooperation (we needed)."
Russert did not press the New York Senator on widespread reports that her husband's administration declined to accept an offer from the Sudanese government to extradite bin Laden to the U.S. in 1996.
Neither was she asked about recent criticism from Afghanistan's leading feminist, Gen. Suhaila Siddiq, who chided Clinton for her comments on liberating the country's female population from Taliban chauvinism.
"She cannot defend her own rights against her husband. How can she defend the rights of my country?" Siddiq told the London Times last week.
And I thought it was Bill, Hill, and Al: 3 braying donkeys dressed for Leavenworth.
Every time she opens her big fat mouth it's to lie and blame others for the troubles her lies have caused.
Why is it so many democRATS are blind to this pure evil?
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a554805.htm
Topic: White Water
Osama bin Laden quote on Clinton on MSNBC
8/25 Vanity
MSNBC talking head John Gibson quotes Osama bin Laden on Bill Clinton:
"What he did with Monica Lewinsky was shameful. In Afghanistan, he would be stoned."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With three seconds thought process, the most obvious joke is evident; Will defer to the first one in here with it,
who wins the door prize...
Posted by: Swanks () *
08/25/98 19:27:38 EDT
For Educational and Discussion purposes only.
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1999 16:25:44 ET XXXXX
CLINTON AIDES NOW CHALLENGE BOMBING OF SUDAN PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT
Key participants" behind the Clinton Administration's decision to bomb the factory on Aug. 20, 1998 are now publicly questioning the decision, the NEW YORK TIMES is reporting in an exclusive set for Wednesday."
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a381665f3126d.htm
Unfortunately, he took that to mean hopping on planes to DNC fundraisers all over the country, not protecting and defending the nation.
Through a rather putrid combination of cowardice, negligence and overall incompetence, I think he has finally secured his legacy - and it's not pretty.
I used to think that his everlasting legacy would be impeachment, perjury, cigars and sex crimes. But I now know it's far worse than that:
1) He was too selfish to spend any precious political capital on something that was crucial to our national security, but didn't necessarily test well with polls and focus groups.
2) He was too cowardly to do something that might shave points off his precious f-ing poll numbers and face criticism that couldn't be dismissed by chastising questioners for delving into his "private life."
3) He surrounded himself with incompetents, blame-America-first kooks, mental lightweights and general kooks. Read the Vanity Fair article on how the Clinton State Department kept refusing to even look at the intelligence info that the Sudanes government was offering. Yes, I understand why they may have not wanted to take it at face value, but there was no harm in looking at it -- other than the fact that it flew in the face of their vaunted wisdom. The same "wisdom" and crackerjack intelligence that compelled us to bomb the snot out of an aspirin factory that was supposedly owned by bin laden and manufacturing nerve gas. Of course, neither was true.
So, more than 3,000 people were brutally murdered one morning because he couldn't keep his pants up, couldn't/wouldn't "do the work of the American people" as he was elected and expected to do, and staffed his Cabinet with bozos who systematically dismantled our intelligence operations.
He failed us miserably, and I will make sure that the public never forgets his culpability in this. This is personal for me, as I was in mortal danger that morning, thanks to a values-free cretin who cared more about keeping up the facade of "eight years of peace and prosperity" by heavily mortgaging the future.
While we were watching her this morning, it was quite scary to think that this sow thinks she's smarter than the rest of us and should therefore micromanage all our lives -- and wallets.
Two more words: Suha Arafart.
So's the crusty black pantsuit.
The really sad part is, how dumb the rest of us women are supposed to be. Time to bury my head in the sand, I guess.
TC
It is pretty obvious where the president was "focusing" at that time and just what "kind of action" he was taking. [...ahem...]
Man, I wish, just once, we could hear some newsperson at least ask her what she thought when she heard those "boo's" at the fund-raiser.
[Hillary's favorite George Harrison tune?? "I Me Mine"]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.