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For the first time in his life Bill Clinton gets within twenty miles of the truth and the faithful can't handle it. |
Posted on 09/03/2005 10:05:38 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
What the hell was Bill Clinton thinking, standing there next to President Bush and providing verbal cover for the administration's ludicrous claims that the problems plaguing New Orleans were unforeseeable?
He even defended the administration's catastrophic response to Katrina. When asked on CNN whether the federal response was fast enough, Clinton bobbed, weaved, and fell back on this utterly absurd claim: "You and I are not in a position to make any judgment because we weren't there." C'mon, Bill, "...we weren't there"? I know this sucking up business is hard, but you've got to do better than that.
This disaster has been extraordinarily revealing, exposing not only Bush's failure of leadership, and the deadly consequences of his distorted priorities but also the many, many years of political neglect of the poor and the needy by both political parties. You couldn't get a much clearer illustration of the myriad ways that we have indeed become Two Nations than the stories and pictures coming out of New Orleans this week. Not too many Bush Pioneers were forced to wallow in their own feces at the Superdome.
But it's mighty hard to have a teachable moment when you have Bill Clinton, still the reigning symbol of the Democratic Party, failing to connect the dots between the Bush administration's chronic abandonment of the poor and its recent abandonment of the poor in the Big Easy -- as well as the dots between the war in Iraq and the undermining of our security here at home. And as if all this wasn't enough, there he was defending the indefensible. "I'm telling you," he said in a White House sit-down with CNN (along with Bush, Sr.), "nobody thought this was going to happen like this...they had problems they never could have foreseen." Which is absolutely, incontrovertibly, and provably untrue (many, many times over). And he is too smart not to know it.
Instead of acting like a Bush lapdog and gratefully accepting his role as Co-Disaster-Fund-Raiser-in-Chief, imagine the impact Clinton would have had if he had stepped up and made the connection between the increase in poverty and the stagnation in incomes for the fifth straight year and the post-storm suffering among the poor in New Orleans. Or imagine if he had spoken out about how the GOP's beloved new bankruptcy bill is going to further the misery of those ruined by Hurricane Katrina.
Chances to radically shift the national debate, alter the nation's perspective, and rearrange our priorities don't come along very often. President Bush squandered the teachable moment provided by 9/11, calling us not to national service but to shopping. Bill Clinton is now making it harder to use the current disaster as a wake-up call about the pent-up anger bubbling just beneath the surface of our country, about the Other America largely hidden from view, and about the urgent need to redefine national security.
Even devoted Clintonites are scratching their heads and wondering what has happened to the man once lauded as "the first black president." Is his need to be a part of this country's wealth and power establishment so great that it blinds him to reality? Is his need to be fawned over so desperate that he has forgotten how to speak the truth?
Sadly, Clinton has been remarkably consistent when it comes to sucking up to Bush -- offering his support on everything from the invasion of Iraq ("I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq," he told Time last summer) to Bush's infamous phony State of the Union claims about Saddam attempting to acquire uranium ("You know, everybody makes mistakes when they are president," he told Larry King sympathetically. "I mean, you can't make as many calls as you have to make without messing up once in a while.")
And now providing cover for George W. Bush and undermining this teachable moment. Again I ask: What the hell is he thinking?
What happened to this womans brain...I think being on TV too much can cause a adverse reaction
"What the hell was Bill Clinton thinking, standing there next to President Bush and providing verbal cover for the administration's ludicrous claims that the problems plaguing New Orleans were unforeseeable?"
Well it is the right thing to say to maximize donations.
A more cynical person might suggest that Clinton knows he also cut funds for levees and hurricane protection and planning.
She speaks like Zsa-Zsa, was married to a packer-D-fudge and that makes Huffington qualified to comment on anything?
That was in 1998 and it was the Administration of President Bill Clinton. But we understand. In your pathetic deluded world where you think your hysteric Bush hatred actually MATTERS to anyone, you will just tune out this little bit of painful reality.
Also she has dough ...in her head
Nice piece (piece of what, I'll let the reader decide). Being a member of the liberal media has caused Arianna to have a layer of scum on her brain that is nearly impossible to penetrate.
Arianna and MoDo need a night out on the town together to find a man, and get some.
That's the very thing we asked about the guy who married you Huffy. The one you turned gay.
Common sense.
Instead of acting like a Bush lapdog and gratefully accepting his role as Co-Disaster-Fund-Raiser-in-Chief, imagine the impact Clinton would have had if he had stepped up and made the connection between the increase in poverty and the stagnation in incomes for the fifth straight year and the post-storm suffering among the poor in New Orleans.
As I live and breathe, I never thought I would live to see the day that Bubba actually had some class. Arianna, you are a complete a$$. And oh, by the way, maybe you should send your 'just like family' illegal immigrant housekeeper down to 'the Big Easy' (it makes me want to barf that she would take the liberty of using that term) or, better yet, maybe you Arianna should just hop onboard your private jet and get-on-down there to help. Stuff it you dim bulb!
Well Bill Clinton repeatedly cut Federal budget requests from Lousiana so perhaps he is trying to take the blame off the of the Feds so that journalists don't do some research that extends prior to Jan 21, 2001.
I think she's Hungarian, Like Soros and Zsa-Zsa
It amazes me how she and her little pal, David Brock, did a 180 re their political ideology. To her I say: Hie thee back to the cash register at the diner, where you belong.
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For the first time in his life Bill Clinton gets within twenty miles of the truth and the faithful can't handle it. |
"Are there any GOOD Greek-americans?"
I know you mean this as humor, but I'd like to point to Alex Spanos, owner of the San Diego Chargers, resident of Stockton, CA., who keeps a low profile but funds every cause that comes along - veterans (he personally funded the plane which took local WWII Vets to the opening of the WWII tribute in Wash., DC), 9/11, the tsunami relief, and is probably contributing heavily to Hurricane Katrina efforts. He's a good man, and, of course, a Republican.
Alas, Arianna, the one to be criticized here is Bush. He again gives Scumbag Willie some legitimacy. Willie will now be out on the government's dime, hustling cash and black support for his wife. Sure, Willie will raise some cash for New Orleans, but he'll also use federal rsources to buy support for Hillie. Someone make a note to check how many times in Hillie's 2006 race and prior to the election in 2008, field hand African Americans cite Willie's support of the black community in time of trouble as a reason to back Hillie. W does have some blind spots.
It's from drinking to much of that ( storm ) soup water in New Orleans after the storm.
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