Posted on 02/11/2014 2:21:25 PM PST by SeekAndFind
He said this during a segment on Fox News in which he also insisted that Chris Christie’s presidential hopes are still very much alive. Because of course he did.
I did not realize that a few jabs at the Clenis aimed at parrying the left’s endless “war on women” attacks 32 months out from the next election might matter in deciding the presidency. Now I know better. Way to go, Rand.
Karl Rove took a shot at Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday for attacking Bill Clinton over his predatory behavior toward Monica Lewinsky, saying that its not good strategy for running for president.
Frankly, Rand Paul spending a lot of time talking about the mistakes of Bill Clinton does not look like a big agenda for the future of the country, Rove said on Foxs Americas Newsroom.
Right, it doesn’t. So what? Why would a week-long skirmish between Paul and the Clintons set any sort of agenda for anything? Christie attacking libertarians last year for challenging the NSA isn’t such a hot agenda either right now given the state of the polls, and unlike the Paul/Clinton fracas, that’ll factor heavily into the next campaign. Interesting that Rove seems less exercised by that than he does by this.
There’s lots of reasons for Rand to pick this fight. By punching up against a far more widely known Democratic pair, he raises his own name recognition. He also shows conservatives that he’s not afraid to get rough if that’s how Democrats want to play. Accuse Republicans of waging a war on women and he’ll remind the media that Hillary’s co-president wasn’t above exploiting his power to bother the interns. At the very least, it might make Democrats think twice about their own demagoguery; if it goes on long enough, it might make them reconsider using Bill Clinton as a campaign weapon this fall. But it probably won’t go on much longer. Judging by his brawl with Christie, Paul likes to attack in a flurry over a few days or weeks and then back away, probably for the same reason that Rove mentions. If you go too negative too often, you become known for it and it overshadows your agenda. If, like me, you think Paul’s a true believer in his libertarian-lite philosophy and its ability to win the election for him (of course he is, he’s a Paul!), that’s the last thing he wants. He’ll drop this once it’s served its purpose.
And that’s the irony of Rove’s criticism. There’s no candidate in the 2016 field on either side who’ll be challenged, by his own party and by the opposition, as much on policy as Paul will. And he knows it, which is why he’s spent the last three years trying to find a way between libertarianism and conservatism. Mainstream righties will scrutinize him to see if he’s too much like dad on foreign policy; libertarians will scrutinize him to see if he’s enough like dad, and whether he’s showing signs of backing off on domestic surveillance or drug war reforms to try to get elected; and Democrats will scrutinize him because they’ll soon be convinced by their party’s leadership that he wants to repeal the Thirteenth Amendment or something. He can call Bill Clinton a predator all he wants but the fate of Paul’s campaign inevitably will turn on whether he can somehow forge a majority coalition in favor of policies that have been marginalized in the past. That being so, why is Rove grumbling about this, unless it’s just his way of suggesting that Paul’s too tin-eared politically to take a chance on in the primaries?
Here’s Scarborough grumbling this morning about the same thing, in case you think the “centrist scold” POV isn’t sufficiently represented by Rove.
1) Clintons own words show his often expressed innate hostility to, and utter contempt for, the core principles of the American founding:
``If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the governments ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees. -- President Bill Clinton, August 12, 1993
``The purpose of government is to reign in the rights of the people - Bill Clinton during an interview on MTV in 1993
``We cant be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans that we forget about reality. -- President Bill Clinton, quoted in USA Today, March 11, 1993, Page 2A, ``NRA change: `Omnipotent to powerful by Debbie Howlett
When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly that they would work for the common good, as well as for the individual welfare However, now theres a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say theres too much freedom. When personal freedoms being abused, you have to move to limit it. Bill Clinton, April 19, 1995
2) Clinton inevitably pursued his own political advantage at the expense of American interests and national security. Here is just one of many possible examples:
It is well documented that Clinton and the Democrats took illegal campaign money from groups and individuals tied directly to the Chinese Peoples Republican Army. It is therefore not surprising that In January 1998 Clinton went against the advice of then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Pentagon experts by lifting long-standing restrictions against the export of American satellites to China for launch on Chinese rockets. Not only did he move control over such decisions from the more security-focused State Department to the Commerce Department, but he intervened in a Justice Department investigation of Loral Space & Communications, retroactively enabling Loral to sell critical missile technology to the Chinese. Interestingly enough, Clintons decision was made at the request of Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz, whose earlier $1.3 million campaign donation made him the single biggest contributor to the Democratic election effort.
The result, as stated eloquently by syndicated columnist Linda Bowles, was that the Democrats got money from satellite companies and from Chinese communists; China got supercomputors, advanced production equipment and missile technology; Loral got its satellites launched at bargain basement prices . . . and the transfer of sensitive missile technology gave China [for the first time] the capability of depositing bombs on American cities. Incidentally, Loral ultimately failed to benefit from this permanent injury to Americas security interests: in July 2003, the company filed for bankruptcy protection, and in order to raise cash was forced to sell its most profitable business a fleet of communications satellites orbiting over North America.
3) On two occasions, Clinton used military action for the specific purpose of distracting the American public from the fallout of the Lewinsky affair:
On August 20, three days after Clinton finally admitted publicly to the Lewinsky affair, the news media was poised to focus on that days grand jury testimony by Monica Lewinsky. That same morning, Clinton personally went on national television to gravely announce his bombing of a Sudanese chemical weapons factory, and a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. It was the first time most Americans ever heard the name of Osama bin Laden. The factory bombing in Sudan killed an innocent night watchman, but accomplished little else. It later was proven that the plant was making badly needed pharmaceuticals for people in that poverty-stricken part of the world, but no chemical weapons.
Several months later, the U.S. Center for Nonproliferation Studies, part of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, stated: "...the evidence indicates that the facility had no role whatsoever in chemical weapons development." Kroll Associates, one of the world's most reputable investigative firms, also confirmed that there was no link in any way between the plant and any terrorist organization. As for the Afghanistan bombing, it failed to do any damage at all to bin Laden or his organization. Clintons action was accurately characterized by George W. Bush when he said right after 9-11: "When I take action, Im not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt.
Clintons pointless and murderous military actions did not make Americans safer that day, although they did destroy an innocent life, and for all the good they did certainly could have been delayed in any case. But they did succeed in diverting media attention from Lewinskys grand jury testimony for a 24-hour news cycle, which was the main point. So I guess, they werent a total loss.
On December 16, 1998, on the eve of the scheduled House vote on his impeachment, Bill Clinton launched a surprise bombing attack on Baghdad. As justification for this exploit, he cited the urgent threat that Saddams weapons of mass destruction posed to America, and the need for immediate action. Almost immediately, the House Democrats held a caucus and emerged calling for a delay in the impeachment proceedings. House minority leader Dick Gephardt made a statement: "We obviously should pass a resolution by saying that we stand behind the troops. I would hope that we do not take up impeachment until the hostilities have completely ended."
Conveniently, a delay so near the end of the House term would have caused the vote to be taken up in the next session when the newly elected House membership would be seated with more Democratic representation, thereby improving Clintons chances of dodging impeachment.
The Republicans did, in fact, agree to delay the hearings, but only for a day or two. Amazingly, Clinton ended the bombing raid after only 70 hours -- once it became clear that in spite of the brief delay, the vote would still be held in the current session.
Once the bombing stopped, Clinton touted the effectiveness and importance of the mission. As reported by ABC News : We have inflicted significant damage on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction programs, on the command structures that direct and protect that capability, and on his military and security infrastructure, he said. Defense secretary William Cohen echoed the point: We estimate that Saddam's missile program has been set back by at least a year.
Whether or not one buys Clintons assessment of that mission, it is difficult to believe that its timing was so critical that it required commencement virtually at the moment the House was scheduled to vote on the impeachment. I think the most reasonable conclusion is that Clinton cynically deployed US military assets and placed military personnel in harms way for purely political reasons.
4) Clintons reckless sexual behavior was a threat to American national security:
Clinton and his supporters have been very effective in persuading large numbers of Americans that the Lewinsky scandal was only about sex. But I see a bigger issue here, because Clinton is on record as saying that he would have done anything to keep knowledge of the Lewinsky affair from becoming public.
To me, that statement raises a very serious question: What if, instead of sending her recorded Lewinsky conversations to Ken Starr, Linda Tripp had instead secretly offered them for sale, say, to the Chinese government? Or to the Russians? Or even to agents of Saddam?
What kind of blackmail leverage would those tapes have provided to a foreign government in dealing with America on sensitive trade, security or military issues? One of the few things Clinton ever said that I believe is that he would have done anything to keep the Lewinsky affair secret. Given his demonstrated track record of selling out American interests for personal or political gain (and there are more examples that I could have cited here), how far would he have gone in compromising Americas real interests in order to protect his own neck when threatened with blackmail?
Pretty far, I believe. Equally distressing is the prospect Clinton might, in fact, have succumbed to foreign black mail on other occasions in order to hide different sexual episodes that ultimately did not become public. There is no way to know, of course, but I prefer presidents for whom such a scenario is not a plausible possibility.
And dont even get me started on the war crime in Kosovo.
WAR IN KOSOVO
During Bill Clintons 1999 NATO-led war in Kosovo which according to some estimates cost as much as $75 billion we bombed Belgrade for 78 days, killed almost 3,000 civilians, and shredded the civilian infrastructure (including every bridge across the Danube.)
We devastated the environment, bombed the Chinese embassy, came very close to engaging in armed combat against Russian forces, and in general, pursued a horrific and inhumane strategy to rain misery on the civilian population of Belgrade in order to pressure Milosevic into surrendering.
Why did we do all that? The US did not even have an arguable interest in the Balkans, and no one ever tried to claim that Serbia represented any kind of threat to our nation or our interests.
But for months the Clinton administration had told us that Milosevic was waging a vicious genocide against Albanian Muslims, and needed to be stopped. The New York Times called it a humanitarian war. In March 1999 the same month that the bombing started Clintons State Department publicly suggested that as many as 500,000 Albanian Kosovars had been murdered by Milosevics regime. In May of that year, as the bombing campaign was drawing to a close, Secretary of Defense William Cohen lowered that estimate 100,000.
Five years after the bombing, after all the forensic investigations had been completed, the prosecutors at Milosevics War Crimes trial in the Hague were barely been able to document a questionable figure of perhaps 5,000 bodies and body parts. During the war, the American people were told that Kosovo was full of mass graves filled with the bodies of murdered Albanian Muslims. But none were ever found.
BILL CLINTON ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE
During the election cycle of 1992, George H.W. Bush lost his job after Bill Clinton hammered him relentlessly for having caused the worst economy of the last 50 years.
In fact, as CNNs Brooke Jackson has reported: Three days before Christmas 1992, the National Bureau of Economic Research finally issued its official proclamation that the recession had ended 21 months earlier. What became the longest boom in U.S. history actually began nearly two years before Clinton took office. See (See http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/31/jackson.recession.primer.otsc/).
By the same token, Clinton is generally perceived as having a stellar economic record during his own presidency, in spite of the fact that the economy was already starting to decline during the last year of his term after the stock market crashed in March 2000.
According to a report by MSNBC: The longest economic expansion in U.S. history faltered so much in the summer of 2000 that business output actually contracted for one quarter, the government said Wednesday in releasing a comprehensive revision of the gross domestic product. Based on new data, the Commerce Department said that the GDP the countrys total output of goods and services shrank by 0.5 percent at an annual rate in the July-September quarter of 2000. See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3676690/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/t/gdp-figures-revised-downward/.
Simple, Mr. Architect, because the Democrats beat up on Republicans for things they did decades ago (Bush - drinking) but it’s okay for Democrats to smoke pot (Obama), cheat on their wives (Clinton, et al), and other indiscretions from years past.
Because Bill has been canonized and we need to be reminded of what a skankie guy he is before we decide whether he moves back into the White House.
Because people need to be reminded what a couple of scumbags the Clintons are before people like Karl Rove start propping up the GOP guy who is next in line to lose to the Progressive.
When did members of one party criticizing the prospective candidate of another party become something that needed to be explained?
What business is it of Karl Rove??
Why Is Rove Defending Clinton?
Does someone as “magnificent” in intelligence as he not realize he will not win this intrarepublican fight?
Who elected Karl Rove? Doesn’t he have some place to go? Are we stuck with him?
Hillary Clinton was an enabler for Bill’s sexual harassment in the workplace. Women were intimidated by police threat and staff. Testimony was bought off (such as Monica Lewinsky’s with a six figure salary through a friend of Bill).
I suspect that the same techniques were used to silence those who held information in the other Clinton criminal investigations as well.
Hillary played the victim during the 1992 campaign saying she wasn’t some little Tammy Wynette standing by her man. We are supposed to believe that Bill’s actions were unapproved. Theirs was an open marriage. The problem was he got sloppy and got caught by outsiders. She was angry that he didn’t boink someone who has a bit more discretion. Of course it was Bill who told Monica he’d leave Hillary...
NOW said it was all okay. First grope is free.
Their tizzy about boss taking the willing secretary (who got the job because she’d put out) on weekend trips is just a thing of the 70s. They didn’t really mean it. Hillary Clinton was an enabler for Bill
Rove threw the Election of 2008 to Obama
by SAVAGING Gov. Palin and her children for Romney.
In 2012, Rove and Romney savaged the conservatives
and handed the government to Obama and Soros
again. And Rove stole the donated money before
the volunteers even got home.
That is what they do. SSDD.
The Bush’s love Bubba so they dispatched Karl to deal with it.
Let’s ask Juanita Broderick if she feels any better now since its been such a long time..?
His income stream depends on him convincing the CoC types that he can drive wedges between conservatives and the GOPe LIVers.
Karl’s just sticking up for one of his own.
He needed to say something that needed to be said. And, it’s not Bill he’s after - he’s just a dog, and that’s all that has to be said - it’s about his “wife”, who to this day, I can’t BELIEVE women could respect.
Remember that when Rove was in power the media hated him as evil. Now they are promoting him because he is bad for republicans.
I despise Rove. But I’ll tell you Rove and people like him have done a great job turning many republicans against conservatives.
Bring up Republican so-called war on women, we bring up the only President ever accused of rape, the only President to be impeached and disbarred for lying to a federal judge in a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Its an excellent strategy. Democrats respond to criticism of Clinton as if someone is dripping acid on their brain. Eventually the Clintons will respond and may make a monumental error. The Left has always said off the record that Clinton’s sexual infidelities must be understood in the context of Hilary’s homosexuality and the nuances of a political marriage. If somehow Rand Paul’s prodding gets Hilary in some way to come out publicly, it may be a game changer. The MSM has been barraging the public with pro homosexual propaganda. Still it is not clear that Americans will vote for an openly gay candidate.The Duck Dynasty backlash was unexpected by the Left.Sure the Clintons are conducting extensive polling on this issue and may not be liking the results. Never know how this tactic will turn out and Rand Paul has nothing to lose at ths point.
Why is Karl Rove beating up on a fellow Republican?
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