(Via Hot Air Headlines) I don’t know if Mediaite deliberately omitted the reason for former President Bill Clinton’s refusal to attend a Keith Olbermann-boosted ‘free clinic event.’  It’s entirely possible that the actual reason (warning: FDL link) - that Clinton thinks that the event in question is a thinly-veiled primary campaign event against Senator Blanche Lincoln (D, AR) and for Democratic Senate hopeful Bill Halter - was simply uninteresting to Mediaite, which is of course that site’s privilege.

That being said, this kind of allegation is newsworthy.  A former President accusing a more-or-less prominent Leftist television commentator of playing internal Democratic party politics with people’s health care coverage?  This should have been front and center on the site.  Heck, it should be above the fold on the New York Times.

‘Should,’ not ‘will.’

Moe Lane

PS: Does MSNBC… approve of this?

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

The Somali “pirates” are at it again, and this time they’ve provided the United States with that foreign policy crisis that VPOTUS Biden predicted would occur.  The pirates terrorists are now targeting US-flagged and manned vessels, and that puts our Eunuch-in-Chief in a position where he must (heaven forbid) make a real decision.  To no one’s surprise, he and his administration have decided to play nicey with the terrorists and negotiate with them.

The FBI sent in hostage negotiators and is investigating the Somali pirates, raising the possibility of federal charges against the men if they are captured.  But Obama has remained silent on the standoff so far.

“Obama has remained silent”.  Somehow I have this vision of him in his closet in a fetal position with his blanky and his binky (apologies to TOTUS), rocking back and forth and calling for his mommy because he is utterly incapable of dealing with a real crisis.

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The irony of Hillary Clinton saying that. The article cracks me up in general.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image’s lack of decay. . . .

After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”

Meanwhile, Bill is thinking he wants to pay a visit after Hillary’s assessment that the virgin is marvelous.

Not in so many words, but he generally echoed something that I noted yesterday: our President is not being reassuring enough. Like all good poisoners, Clinton makes sure that the fatal dose is well-mixed with things designed to mask the taste. In this case, GOP-bashing:

Bill Clinton: Obama Should Sound More Hopeful

[snip]

Regarding Obama’s bleak warnings that “the economy could get worse before it gets better,” and that the economic stimulus program is only the beginning of the end of the economic crisis, Clinton said, “I like the fact that he didn’t come in and give us a bunch of happy talk. I’m glad he shot straight with us.”

But he added, “I just want the American people to know that he’s confident that we are gonna get out of this and he feels good about the long run.”

Clinton thinks Obama should talk to the public in greater depth about the economy.

“I like trying to educate the American people about the dimensions and scope of this economic crisis,” Clinton said. “I just would like him to end by saying that he is hopeful and completely convinced we’re gonna come through this.”

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For all the stories that have come out in the last month about how President Obama has executed the smoothest administrative transition in memory, and how Obama has chosen to enforce the “strictest ethics rules ever applied” to the administration vetting and recruitment process, the facts sure do seem to point to an altogether different conclusion — especially in terms of cabinet nominees and senior staff.

Let’s take a quick look at a few members of the crack team Obama has tried to surround himself with since being elected President three months ago.

• Bill Richardson: Nominated to be Obama’s Secretary of Commerce; withdrew when it became public that he was “being investigated by a federal grand jury in his home state for…steering state bond business from the New Mexico Financial Authority toward…a significant campaign contributor.”
• Tim Geithner: Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary (and head of the IRS) failed to pay owed payroll taxes for several years, despite accepting reimbursement from the IMF for those taxes and signing certifications that he had paid them.
• Tom Daschle: Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services owed nearly $102,000 in taxes “on the car and driver a wealthy friend let him use from 2005 through 2007″ and neglected to “report $83,333 in consulting income in 2007.”
• Leon Panetta: The only experience Obama’s choice to be Director of Central Intelligence during the War on Terror and multiple international crises had with the CIA was fighting battles against the leadership and attempting to slash its budget while a staffer in the Clinton White House.
• William Lynn: Within hours of declaring his new no-lobbyists rule, Obama made an exception for Lynn, a lobbyist for the 3rd largest defense contractor in the nation and now an Obama nominee for Deputy Secretary of Defense
• Hillary Clinton: While a Senator, Obama’s nominee for Secretary of State “intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband’s foundation.
• Lobbyists of the World, Unite!: Despite repeatedly promising during his campaign that lobbyists would not be welcome in his administration, Obama bent his own new rules and hired over a dozen lobbyists to fill senior staff positions.

The absurd attacks by leftists (and by “conservative” poseurs) on John McCain for his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, and the supposed incompetence of his vetting staff that selection displayed, look very hollow indeed when measured up against the apparent lack of any vetting whatsoever President Obama’s nominees for half a dozen cabinet positions (and countless more senior staff jobs).

Between the lack of vetting, the memory-holing of vital documents posted on WhiteHouse.gov during the Bush years (like, for example, the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, which is now only available via html cache), and Obama’s repeated violation of his own “ethics” rules for the purpose of filling his cabinet and senior staff rosters, the title “smoothest transition in history” appears to be almost exactly the opposite of what this incoming administration’s actions over the last few months deserve.

In fact, the only parts of this transition that have gone smoothly are the parts President Bush handled himself.

Now that should be a scary thought for all those liberals who proclaimed January 20, 2009 to be the day “competence” returned to the White House, shouldn’t it?

Via RS’s sister site Human Events, it turns out that Speaker Pelosi’s office is working hard to react to yesterday’s strong, principled, and unanimous opposition to the Obama/Pelosi/Reid debt bill. The only problem is, knowledge of political history seems pretty limited in Pelosi’s circles, which is pretty bad since she was in office when the relevant events happened!

In other words, she’s wrong, and she’s not even predicting the kind of events that I think she wants to predict here.

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The Senate Judiciary Committee hours ago voted 17-2 to approve the nomination of Eric Holder to be the next Attorney General.  A floor vote on his nomination is expected for next week.   The only two Conservative stalwarts voted no: John Cornyn (R-TX); and Tom Coburn (R-OK).  Eric Holder, former Deputy Attorney General for President Bill Clinton, has taken actions that disqualify him from Senate consent to be the next Attorney General of the United States.

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