LET'S GET DIRTY!

You just know it was going to happen. Lots of people have been predicting it. Now it has come to pass.

Facing a punishing defeat for the Democratic nomination, the Clintonistas are getting down and dirty. Barak Obama is in for a nasty couple of months.

Bill and Hillary are inveterate political street fighters. They'll fight fair and clean, just so long as they are winning. And even then, the opportunity for a cheap shot can be just too tempting. It's not just to win, they want to destroy anyone with the temerity to oppose them.

Barak Obama, it seems, has become just the sort of insolent upstart that Hillary's hobnailed boots were made for.

Should there be any doubt, let's not forget the 900 or so raw FBI files that were found in the Clintonistas' possession in the White House. These were the sort of files that didn't make it into official FBI reports, since they included every accusation and rumor about their targets. Only careful vetting and sifting of such information could complete the official reports. However, these were the sort of files that can be used to blackmail, punish, or destroy anyone who fell into the Clintonistas' disfavor. For the record, Google comes up with 1,400,000 hits when you search for "Hillary Clinton; FBI Files"

Is that too speculative for you? Well what about the scorched earth policy aimed at Bill's famous "Bimbo Eruptions"? First of all, the affairs and the philandering are a part of public record. Second, it was Bill's own Arkansas chief of staff, Betsy Wright, who coined the term. Among the 135,000 Google hits for the words "bimbo eruption", was the Wikipedia entry that documents her role in minimizing the damage from all those women coming forward to tell of their affairs with Bill. The books by Carl Bernstien ( A Woman in Charge) and Jeff Gerth and Don van Natta ( Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton) clearly document the lengths that she would go to pillory anyone who would sully either Clinton's character by telling the truth.

Here's some names, a sort of Blast From the Past: Gennifer Flowers, Juanita Broderick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, Marilyn Jo Jenkins, to name just a few. All of them have been ravaged by the Clinton attack machine for daring to disclose Bill's peccadilloes.

Then there was the White House Travel Office, and the way they weren't just fired, they were libeled and slandered, brought up on false charges, bankrupted, audited by the IRS, and, in general, had their day ruined. And why? Just so a Clinton cousin and a couple of Hillary's Hollywood friends could take over the position.

Ken Starr received extra special attention. Until he was brought into the sights of the Clintonistas, his reputation was impeccable. Lanny Davis and the boys, however, leaked all the grand jury testimony and blamed Starr for the leaks.

I could go on and on about the '90's, but this column today is about the 2008 campaign. Let's not doubt that the Clintons' attack machine is being wound up and aimed right at Barak Obama.

Whatever my differences with Obama politically, I have to admit he is running a pretty classy campaign. Although his rhetoric is vacuous, he at least tries to appeal to our better human natures. Specifically, he has not made the elections about race. Which, considering the Democrats' wont, is something of a breath of fresh air.

So what is the Clintonista response? The Iowa county chair Hillary volunteer sent out an e-mail, detailing the various connections between Obama and Islam, saying the following:

“Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major
public office in the United States , Barack Hussein Obama has joined the
United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.”

Of course, Media Matters, that Hillary front group, tries to make the case that it was right wing talk radio that was responsible for forwarding "the accusation made by a website controlled by Rev. Sun Myung Moon...", but we've seen this tactic before, haven't we?

Then we have Bill Shaheen, a big time Democrat from New Hampshire and a Hillary supporter. In an interview, he said this:

"The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight ... and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use. It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?' There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome."

The beauty of this bit of misdirection is that you get the story (Barak Obama is a junkie and a dealer) out there while leaving the blame on your ultimate opponents, the Republican Party. Never mind that the Republicans didn't really care about Bill's "I tried marijuana, but I didn't inhale." In the mind of a Democrat (which is where Shaheen's comments were aimed) the Republican will stoop to nothing to achieve their goals. When the uproar began, rightfully so, Bill Shaheen, like the good Clintonista he is, fell on his sword and resigned from her campaign. But you know either he or his wife, also an up and coming Democratic politician, will get some consideration for their troubles.

I've already catalogued "Fast Eddie" Rendell's indictment of "racist America" in my column And Now, Back To The Front Runner. Now we have the spectre of alleged homophobia looming out of the back pages.

World Net Daily reports that one Larry Sinclair has come forward with the claim that, in 1999, when Obama was a state legislator in Illinois, he had shared cocaine and oral sex with Obama. Failing to get any notice, he posted his claims on YouTube and is offering to take a polygraph test to back up his story. Regardless of whether he is telling the truth or not, does anyone want to bet that the Clintonistas didn't have at least something to do with this story getting out?

Then there was the kerfuffle of Obama's alleged plagiarism. Despite Hillary's claim that it was the media that made the connections between an Obama speech and one by Deval Patrick, the Associated Press shows the lie, telling of Clintonista Howard Wolfson's conference call to reporters hammering home the plagiarism angle.

Learning the lessons from Al Gore and his attempt to steal the 2000 elections, the Clintonistas are gearing up to battle the DNC for the nominations, even if Hillary loses the primaries. It's not enought that the fix is in at the DNC's Credentials Committee where, as UPI reports, all three of the chairs are held by close Clintonista pals. The Credentials Committee is the group that decides which delegates are seated at the Democratic Convention. Having some pull with the chairs of that committee gives a huge advatage to Hillary, regardless of the vote in the primaries.

Then again, there are also the delegates from Florida and Michigan. These delegates, as per DNC rules, were not to be seated, nor were the Democratic candidates supposed to campaign there, since those states had moved their primaries too far up. Anyone want to bet against me that Hillary doesn't try a lawsuit to get those delegates seated, since she didn't bother to adhere to the rules and won the primaries in Florida and Michigan? Better read the International Herald Tribune first. Al Sharpton is already threatening a march on Washington DC (That's like so '60's!) if Hillary tries that.

You know, I kind of feel sorry for Barak Obama. He's going to be dragged over the coals by Hillary. If he wins the primaries, there will be legal blood spilled before the convention is over and done. Hillary just might tear the Democratic Party apart.

John McCain, however, still has to make the case that he's a better choice for president. I haven't seen any sign of evidence to this effect yet.

But that's another column for another day! In the meanwhile: Here's mud in your eye!

Copyright Feb. 20th, 2008

THROUGH RACE COLORED GLASSES 2/12/08

One of the many joys in my life is to watch Political Correctness run, head on, into itself. This year's presidential election is perhaps the most extreme case I've seen in my life.

Political Correctness (or "PC" for the remainder of this column) is strictly in the province of the Left. In simplest terms, it is a form of thought and speech control, wherein any deviation from the precepts of PC are to be met with howls of "Racist, Homophobe, Misogynist, Zenophobe!" Or, in other words, anyone who disagrees with a Liberal.

For instance, if we were to point to the serious troubles in the black family, we are told that we are "blaming the victim". Similarly, if you took the trouble to examine the actual statistice that undermine the theory of the Glass Ceiling for women, you are obviously lying, since the oversimplified statistics show just a ceiling.

Another way of looking at PC is that it is completely given over to identity politics, or the issues of people as part of ethnic groups or some other such artificial division, rather than as individuals.

In New York City, we have the very Liberal Mayor Mike Bloomberg going on a very PC war on tobacco, banning tobacco from almost every enclosed public space. Yet, in Astoria, Queens, he is unable, or unwilling as a leading proponent of PC, to confront the proliferation of Arab coffee houses that feature hookahs, or waterpipes, for the tobacco enjoyment of their patrons. This has become a bone of contention for restaraunts and bars in the area that aren't Arab-centric. Neighborhood bar? Outside with your cigarettes! A hookah? Sure, no problem! Go ahead and light up!

But the most amazing collision of PC with itself has been in the Democratic primaries of this presidential election season. On the one hand, we have Hillary Clinton, formerly the annointed candidate of the Democrats and her identity group of women and feminists. On the other, we have Barak Hussein Obama with all the hopes and dreams of Liberal blacks and other minorities. Suddenly, we find the Democratic Party and the Left in collision with themselves, all thanks to looking at life and politics "Through Race Colored Glasses".

Hillary Clinton, by past record, shouldn't have any troubles like this. After all, Toni Morrison, in 1998, had already crowned her husband, Bill as America's First Black President, citing his upbringing in a single-parent family and his serial adultery as credentials. (Personall, if I were black, I'd be insulted by this.) Hillary, Bill, and even that tree, Al Gore, have all spoken before black audiences, often, embarrassingly, adopting the speaking style of black preachers.

Now, though, Toni Morrison is endorsing Barak Hussein Obama. What's Hillary to do? Oh, sure! She can get Andrew Young, that icon of the Civil Rights Movement and former ambassador to the United Nations, to point out, simultaneously, Obama's youth and Bill's "blackness" saying: "Bill is every bit as black as Barack. He's probably gone with more black women than Barack." But this just doesn't seem to be enough.

Obama, meanwhile, has identity politics troubles of his own, albeit minor troubles. His leading star-power endorsment is Oprah Winfrey. Now, Oprah, while herself black, isn't perceived necessarily as black. She is the uber fem, the avatar of WOMAN. This makes her something of a feminist icon, since she is also the richest woman in America. The British Times Online, however, reported last month on the backlash from women and feminists (these are not necessarily the same folks, although most feminists are women) calling Oprah "a traitor to her gender", by not supporting the female candidate.

So here we have the Establishment Civil Rights guys (Jackson, Rangel, Young etc.) lining up behind Hillary along with the Feminist intelligentsia. Meanwhile, the younger Turks are ginning up for Obama, notably the Hollywood set. Throw in the Kennedy's for a little Establishment gravitas, if you will, and we have the Democratic Party in extreme meltdown mode.

Today is the Potomac Primary and it looks like Hillary is about to get her clock cleaned. Obama is running away, apparently, with the Democratic votes. But don't you dare think that Hillary is going to go off and lick her wounds. Rush Limbaugh, today, made the prediction that, whoever wins in the primaries, Hillary will be sure to get the nomination.

And if she does, what happens in the Democratic Party?

Let's imagine, for a moment, that Obama wins the majority of delegates to the Democratic Convention. Florida and Michigan, punished by the DNC won't have their delegates seated at the convention, based upon rules agreed to by all the Democrat candidates. Does anyone seriously believe that Hillary won't demand that those delegates be seated and counted as hers? After all, they were won by Hillary since she "just didn't have time" to remove her name from the ballots in accordance to the DNC's decision. And just who runs the DNC? Why it's the Clintons, since Bill was their most recent president.

Now let's imagine the response by black Democrats to the usurping of the primaries by the white candidate. Hmmm... Not pretty would be my guess!

Of course, if anyone in the Democratic Party had any sense at all, not only would they be Republicans, they would see this sort of happy nonsense coming a mile away. These are the logical results of identity politics and PC. This is the direct result of looking at people as groups, rather than individuals. These are the fruits of looking at life "Through Race Colored Glasses".

Ah! Life is good! I love watching the Left crash on the rocks of their own irrationality!

Copyright Feb. 12th, 2008

THE RODHAM TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Like the title of the Dick Morris biography on Bill Clinton, Hillary is running for president "Because She Can". This is one frightening woman. That's not because I fear powerful women. Have you ever heard her get wound up on the stump? There's a reason some wags call her "Shrillary". It has been said that, when she speaks she could be talking about giving every man a million dollars, and all that man will hear is his ex-wife yelling, "Have you taken out the garbage yet?!"



Hillary Rodham Clinton was educated in that bastion of old fashioned American values, Wellsley. She was radicalized there, eventually doing legal work for the Black Panthers. Big on all feminist causes, she did what Gloria Steinem did: she hitched her wagon to a guy who was going places. Much to her chagrin, it was Little Rock, Ark.



While in Arkansas, Hillary did what any self-respecting feminist would do. She coupled her legal career with Bill's political career, taking time out here and there to destroy the next Bimbo Eruption and make a killing on the cattle futures market. Hillary Clinton was hired by the Rose Law Firm on the day Bill was sworn in as Arkansas attorney general. And on the day he became governor, she was made a full partner.



Bill valued Hillary's input into governance. He put her in charge of reforming education in Arkansas. Ross Perot sang her praises when he pointed out that she took Arkansas from 48th place in education to 50th place, a record only recently broken by Washington DC and Michigan.



Hillary continued her stellar performance as First Lady. Once in Washington she was brought out to do for America's healthcare system what she did for Arkansas' schools. Fortunately for those of us capable of banging the rocks together from time to time, she failed. However, while she was kludging her fiasco into a written policy, she managed to violate a few Sunshine laws, sold whatever healthcare stocks she owned short, and tried to destroy anyone who might be opposed to nationalizing 1/7th of the national economy.



Then came those dark days: the Whitewater investigation, Vince Foster and who sanitzed his office, Travelgate, Filegate, who hired Craig Livingston, Troopergate, Cattlegate, ad naseum!



After all the fireworks ended, she and Bill had succeeded in putting the Republicans in the majority of both houses of Congress for the first time in almost seventy years. It was then that Bill found the perfect job for her: good will ambassador around the world. For the next couple of years, Hillary made appearances in many different countries. She also was an important speaker at a forum for Women's Rights, in the country that's a hotbed of feminist ideology, Communist China. It didn't matter what she did or where she did it. As long as it wasn't in the United States.



Unfortunately, Bill missed Hillary so much that he couldn't help himself: he stained the dress of one of his interns. News broke ten years ago that the President of the United States was having an affair with a twenty-something intern. Now the pressure was on! Now was the time to bring Hillary back into the spotlight!



Masterfully ( or is that "Mistressfully"?) Hillary stormed the networks, defending Bill's honor, which was more than he ever did for it! She denied all the allegations made about Bill, as if she were actually around to witness his innocence. She told Matt Lauer that it was all about "this vast right-wing conspiracy". But, she also said, if the stories were true, "that would be very serious".



Serious, indeed!



Behind the scenes, Hillary had her troops mobilized. Sidney Blumenthal and Paul Begala were the public hatchet men, men who would stop at nothing to end the talk about Bill. Of course, there was also Pelicano and Lenzner, Hillary's PI buddies, who would do the real, but necessary, dirty work: intimidation, blackmail, and the like. Meanwhile, the Legacy Media circled the wagons and said, "What story? It's only about sex! Big Deal?" It looked like Bill, with Hillary's unwavering support might --just might -- find his way out.



But such was not to be. On the day that Monica Lewinski was to testify, Bill sent a few cruise missiles at al Qaeda, careful that Madeleine Albright warned them through the Pakistani intelligence agency, and manfully destroying an aspirin factory and a couple of empty camps. Ken Starr, however, was not distracted by this dazzling show of military prowess, and proceeded to find out that Bill was not only lying to Hillary, he was also committing perjury, suborning perjury, and obstructing justice. Now what should Hillary do?



Well, she swung into action all over again. Now, despite claims back during the '92 campaign, she was Tammy Wynette, "Stand by My Man", and "I forgive you, Bill". She started to go to church with Bill, holding his hand. They went on vacation to the Bahamas, where they were accidentally on purpose photographed dancing in a lagoon, wearing their bathing suits. When no one seemed to notice the photo in the papers for a couple of days, Mike McCurry went out a guaranteed a story by complaining about the intrusion ( at the Clintonistas' insistence) of the photo.



The House of Representatives amassed whole storerooms of evidence about the perfidy of Bill Clinton and his Clintonistas. They voted for impeachment of the President. The Senate, flopping to the challenge, set the rules of the impeachment trial such that it would be impossible to convict, and then promptly ignored all the evidence amassed by the House. Arlen Specter, in a rare show of candor, said that the House manager of the impeachment had failed to prove their case.



Hillary's reward for all of this: she was finally allowed to get out of Arkansas, that land of exile in service to the man who made her what she is today. She came to New York and announced her candidacy for the US Senate, scuttling bids by such New York luminaries as Carl McCall (more about him in a bit) and Nita Lowey. Once she secured her election (this is, after all, in the People's Republic of New York) she bought a house in Chappaqua to satisfy the residency requirement and avoid being called what she really was: a carpetbagger.



In the Senate she quickly eclipsed Chuck Schumer, much to his chagrin, who became the other Senator from New York. She promised on the campaign trail that she would not run for the presidency, although only an idiot would have believed that. She did little in the Senate other than running against Republican earmarks. Once she secured her reelection and was once again in the Majority in the Congress with the 2006 election, she promptly brought home to New York a multi-million dollar earmark to fund the Woodstock Museum.



Oh, while in the Senate, she did repeat the intelligence gathered in the past decade about Iraq and its ties to terrorism, as well as the potential for Weapons of Mass Destruction. No surprise, Bill had made several speeches on the subject and even took out a building janitor in Baghdad to drive home the point. In the end, Hillary voted for the invasion of Iraq, only to spend her ensuing years trying to explain why Bush is so stupid that he got us into a war, and so smart that he fooled even her, the reputed "Smartest Woman in the World".



Bill Clinton is once again on the campaign trail, this time to become the First... er... what? Husband? Man? Laddie? I'm not sure, but he's been in search of a legacy ever since the impeachment.



Hillary started off as the "inevitable" Democratic candidate in the 2008 election. She had the name, the pedigree, the (for lack of a better term) experience. She and Bill were serious players in politics. They still had the copies (allegedly) of the FBI reports to prove it. Besides, after all the crap Bill put her through, she deserved it.



Reality, however, can be a real pain! It's proving to be a real struggle for Hillary. She moderated her tone, trading in her shrieks for her cackles, trying to be the strong woman in control of all around her, even crying, in an Oprah moment, about what the press has done to her. Finally, when she won the New Hampshire primary, she told her supporters that she had "finally found my voice". This from a sixty-year-old, '60's radical who tried to nationalize 1/7th of the national economy.


No, I didn't forget about Carl McCall. Although Bill has been hailed as "America's First Black President", despite his pallor, Hillary hasn't exactly been a friend to black Democratic candidates. To get into the Senate, Carl McCall, a very prominent black New York politician, had to abandon all his political aspirations to make way for the carpetbagger... er... I mean Hillary. Now, in the presidential campaign, Hillary's minions are out their suggesting that Barak Obama might have something to hide about his past, hinting broadly at racial stereotypes. Through it all, the Hillary-istas are claiming that Obama is playing the race card. Hillary herself claimed that the primaries weren't about race or gender or even Hillary, while talking endlessly about race and gender and using the pronoun "I" more than a dozen times in one statement.




Oh, Hillary still wants to nationalize healthcare, make no mistake. This time, instead of a 10,000 page opus with detail and penalties all spelled out, she got smart. Her proposal is now a ten page Clift Notes version, without all those pesky details.



And she wants to raise any taxes she can. She wants to confiscate property from the Big Oil, Big Pharmacy and Big Anyone Else who has money in his pockets. She has proposed Baby Bonds, giving each child born in the nation a $5,000 check, just for being born. For a clearer description of Hillary's philosophy on taxes and government programs, please see Montag's Fourth Immutable Law of Nature.



Watching Hillary's various stances on the Iraq War is like being a spectator at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. She's for it/she's against it, we're winning/we're losing, she'll pull our troops out/she'll leave some in/she'll leave more in/she'll leave fewer in. If this keeps up, we'll need John Edwards to sue her for giving us whiplash!



Hillary says, with the utmost confidence, that she will personally lower the price of gasoline merely with the words of her first State of the Union address. You see, the world will see just how serious she is about making America energy independent (not drill our own oil, silly! Just cut back and try alternative energy) that the oil producing nations will have no choice but to drop their prices.


And let's not ever say that Hillary doesn't know where her priorities lay. In each and every debate thus far, she boldly states who the real enemy is: President George W. Bush. Of course, this ignores that pesky little fact that Bush isn't on the ballot this year. But why confuse the issues with the facts?


Basically, should Hillary get elected to the White House, we can expect a return to those halcyon days of the 1990's: tax hikes, pointless military engagements, stained dresses, scandal upon scandal, and -- oh yeah! Lots and lots of Chinese money.


"It's deja vu all over again!"







Copyright January 20th, 2008