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BEATING HILLARY
By DICK MORRIS
May 21, 2006 -- CAN SHE BE STOPPED?: HILLARY CLINTON WILL BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES UNLESS . . . BY JOHN PODHORETZ CROWN FORUM, 272 PAGES, $26.95
So we of the third party will welcome the bromide from New York Post columnist John Podhoretz's "Can She Be Stopped?" because it has a happy ending. Podhoretz assures us she can be. If the GOP nominates Rudy Giuliani and if the party doesn't rip itself apart over abortion and if Hillary's opponent can "smoke her out" on the issues and highlight her misguided health-care debacle. If, if, if.
The problem with Podhoretz's user guide to Hillary hating is that it was obsolete the day it emerged, fully clothed, from his computer. The Hillary scandal is a gift that keeps on giving.
In all likelihood, the ethical issue of 2008 won't be Whitewater, the pardon of Hillary's brothers' clients, the FALN terrorist pardons designed to win her the Hispanic vote or the theft of White House china.
Indeed, the issue may post-date the publication of Podhoretz's excellent book. It might turn out that the Emir of Dubai has funneled millions in income to the Clintons through billionaire Ron Burkle and the Yucaipa Corporation. Possibly the emerging connection between the budget items Hillary has earmarked in Congress and her campaign contributors will be fodder for the 2008 campaign. Or we may end up focusing on the almost total lack of legislative accomplishment during Hillary's Senate tenure, including little more than renaming post offices or courthouses.
The truth is that the chronicle of Hillary's ethical lapses is a work in progress.
... Podhoretz urges Republicans to set aside ideology and social issues and unite to prevent the ascension to the White House of one of the most liberal and unethical political figures of our time.
Obviously, Hillary hopes that the Republicans don't nominate Giuliani, John McCain or Condoleezza Rice. A nice white male conservative like George Allen or Bill Frist would be much more to her liking. Since she doesn't have a record to fall back on, apart from what she pilfers from her husband's accomplishments, she needs issues - polarizing hot buttons - to hold her troops in line. Giuliani and McCain and Rice deny her these issues. But Allen or one of his ilk provide them in droves.
Hillary also faces a hurdle that Podhoretz... overlooks: the Democratic primary. The supreme irony is that .... |
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We seem to have a three-party system in America today: the Democrats, the Republicans and the Anti-Hillary. The party opposed to the former first lady is not united by ideology, party, race, ethnicity, religion, geography, wealth or educational level. It is composed of the enlightened many who believe her to be devoid, at once, of character, integrity and principle.
... While America appears not to be ready for a female president under any circumstances, the post-9/11 realities pose special problems for a female presidential candidate. Add to these the problems unique to missus clinton. The reviews make the mistake of focusing on the problems of the generic female presidential candidate running during ordinary times.
Hillary Clinton's revisionist tome notwithstanding, 'living history' begets a certain symmetry. It is in that light that I make this not-so-modest proposal on this day, exactly 64 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor. 
