Free Republic

December 5, 2004FANTASY POLITICSIf I Had Hillary Clinton's Ear... By MICHAEL SLACKMAN HERE was the old Hillary Rodham Clinton, the one who said she wasn't "some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette," who led a failed and ridiculed effort to overhaul the nation's health care system, who so inflamed a nation's passions that her book "It Takes a Village" became a punch line at political rallies and on late night television. And there is the new Hillary Rodham Clinton, the reserved junior senator from New York who was elected after making a "listening tour" of the state,...

If I hear "Frosty the Snowman" one more time, I'll rip his frozen face off. It's a scientific fact, or should be, that Christmas music can turn you into a fruitcake. It either sends you into a Pavlovian shopping trance, buying stupid things like the Robosapien, or, if you hear repeated Clockwork-Orange choruses of "Ring, Christmas Bells" drilling into your brain with that slasher-movie staccato, makes you feel as possessed with Christmas spirit as Norman Bates. I've never said this out loud before, but I can't stand Christmas. Everyone in my family loves it except me, and they can't fathom...

The fundraising chairwoman of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2006 reelection campaign said Friday that Clinton shouldn't have to pledge to serve out a second full six-year term, leaving the door open for a White House run in 2008. "I want to be very honest with you," campaign chairwoman Ann Lewis told ABC Radio's Sean Hannity. "Professionally, this is all about 2006. But if you ask me personally, I don't think Hillary Clinton should be held to a higher-double standard, different from people like George Bush - who also ran for reelection in 1998 then went on to a national...

HHillary, Hillary, Hillary. Is there any other name that creates the political buzz that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's does? Maybe not, but some friends and allies advise against placing bets that the former first lady will be the nation's 44th president. They report that the New York Democrat isn't so sure about a run for the White House. "She's not running," says one supporter. The thinking in the "don't run" campaign is that Clinton is well aware of the partisan feelings she generates. "People love her or they hate her," says an adviser. "There's very little gray area to...

It's the End of an Era. A momentous change. Last night, on NBC, one tall and handsome white male anchor with bespoke clothes replaced another tall and handsome white male anchor with bespoke clothes. Even Tom Brokaw is a little surprised that he has been succeeded by someone who looks like the love child he and Peter Jennings never had. "I honestly thought, eight or nine years ago, that when we left," Brokaw said, referring to himself, Peter and Dan Rather, "that it would be the end of white male anchor time." Nah. Those guys are hard to kill off....

Medford, MA, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death could open a new opportunity for a lasting peace in the Middle East. Clinton, D-N.Y., Wednesday night addressed a supportive crowd at Tufts University on the United States' Middle Eastern policies, covering points such as the ongoing military action in Iraq and Iran's nuclear program. Clinton, who spoke a few hours before Arafat's death was announced, said: "Yasser Arafat could not make the transition from guerrilla leader to national leader. At the end of the day, Mr. Arafat was unwilling or unable to take...

SCRANTON - Returning to her father's hometown, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, criticized the Bush administration for what she called an attempt to undo 60 years of domestic progress. "I realized they weren't out just to turn the clock back on the 1990s. They wanted to turn the clock back on the 20th century," she told the crowd at Lackawanna College's Mellow Theater on Wednesday morning. Democratic campaign officials estimated the crowd at nearly 1,000. "Don't be fooled by what could very well be the sleeper issues of this campaign," Clinton said. President George Bush plans to privatize...