Letters to the Editor
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madame fauntleroy
"She says she worked in the civil rights movement. Yeah. Did see her gleefully holding the hose for Bull Connor."
Your implication is correct [and, figuratively so, in one sense]: She was too young to have fought the battles the movement endured between 1960 and 1965. She was, what, 17 when John Lewis got his head stoved in on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, in Selma? And, her father certainly wouldn't have given her his permission to have her stand in Civil Rights picket lines or sit-ins, anyway.
But, it's telling what he DIO give her permission to do, at 15-16 years, and that was to actively campaign as a Goldwater Girl, in the Chicago environs, for "Mr. State's Rights."
If it seems as if I'm a bit fixated on Mr. Rodham's social and political views and Hillary's political activities during the time [as she told a black congregation-- in a dialect that had to heard to be believed] of her "involvement" in the greatest social movement since the American Civil War it's only because I've grown more and more exasperated with her chutzpah.
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Hillary Clinton's long strange journey on Iraq
I'm amazed and saddened that someone as bright as you would honestly believe that Sen. Clinton honestly believed that Bush was not going to take this country to war with Iraq. First of all, almost everyone in Washington, and millions outside of D.C, knew Bush was hellbent on going to war. If Clinton took Bush at his word, then she has to be the most naive politician in America.
Second, if she voted for the war because she truly believed in it, she should have at least been curious enough to bother to read the N.I.E. report, which said Iraq had no WMD's.
Thirdly, if she voted for the war because she needed to seem tough in foreign policy to enhance her bona fides to run for president, then she is beyond cynical. Perhaps she thought the war would go well and taking a hawkish position would help her. If so, she had zero sense of the history of Iraq & why war would be a disaster, which Bush's father had the sense and sound judgment to know during Gulf 1.
I also can't believe you would take Clinton at her word on why she went along with Bush... especially since she's been recently proven to be someone who greatly exaggerates, if not flat-out lies, about her foreign policy experience re: Kosovo and the Northern Ireland peace process.
She also didn't tell the truth during the Democratic debate at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood when she said she voted against the Levin amendment because it gave the U.N. authority to supercede the United States' ability to take military action. Sen. Levin himself said that wasn't the case -- in his amendment, the U.S. always had to the ability to take military action without needing permission from the U.N.
The reason Clinton cannot give the kind of speech on Iraq that you'd like to hear is because she doesn't have the courage of her convictions because on this matter, she doesn't seem to have any heartfelt convictions.
I know you've tried to be balanced on both Clinton & Obama, but the latter has shown more insight, courage and honesty on Iraq, as well as a myriad of other issues, than Clinton is incapable of showing or leading on.
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Ah, if only it were ONLY her Iraq vote...
You give Hillary too much credit by listing her Iraq authorization vote as the reason that some Obama supporters won't vote for her.
She has an established pattern of votes where she has sided with the Republicans, with George W. Bush, against her own party...and against the obvious interests of the working/middle class that she now claims to be ready to "fight" for.
(Parenthetically, I think she means she'll "fight" for the middle/working class the way that one dog will fight another one for a nice juicy steak. It's better not to think about what happens to the steak in the ensuing battle.)
The PATRIOT Act. Anyone with half a brain could see that it was a criminal infringement on the basic civil liberties of Americans, a violation of our Constitutional rights.
Hillary voted for it.
The bankruptcy bill. Written by the credit industry, it essentially eliminated the right of bankruptcy for the poor and middle-class (but not the rich, never the rich). Most bankruptcies happen because a family provider suffers an unexpected medical crisis; now, such families will never be able to get back on their feet. They'll be paying their creditors forever. How much did the credit industry donate to Hillary's campaigns?
Needless to say, Hillary voted for it.
The Iran "terrorist" bill. There was little argument at the time that if Bush and Cheney decided to attack Iran, this bill would be the lion's share of their claimed justification. It was the Iran authorization bill all over again, embodying the same deadly mistake.
And Hillary voted for it.
Here's the thing. Hillary wants us to believe that she was tricked about Iraq by George W. Bush. She fell for his lies, and those of Joe Lieberman, Colin Powell, and all the other talking heads.
I don't believe her. She's NOT a stupid woman, although admitting that she didn't read the NIE on Iraq before voting to authorize attack does seem incomprehensible. No, I think she made that vote for one reason only: for the same reason she sponsored that idiotic flag-burning bill, because she believed that it would enhance her chance to take the Presidency in 2008. She didn't read the NIE because it didn't have anything to do with winning the Presidency...or so she thought.
John Edwards voted for the Iraq authorization bill. Was it stupidity? Probably not. I believe he made that vote for the same reason Hillary did. But at least HE had the integrity to admit his mistake.
She won't. And she's made it clear, over and over, that she'd vote that way again - AND HAS!
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this has bothered me all day
portland1 wrote:
So sad to see how many Hillary haters are on this site. One thing I know , if she does not get the nomination I will vote for McCain in November.
What's sad is that you're letting *your* hatred for Obama cloud your judgment, because I see no other reason to make a statement like this unless you:
a)supported Hillary's war vote, and
b)think this war should drag on and on and on
Because while I don't hate Hillary, I don't like her for many reasons. However, I could no more vote for McCain if she gets the nomination than I could say "You're doing a heckuva job, Georgie."