Redstate

Posted at 10:21pm on May 4, 2008 On Albert Hunt's Mishmash Column

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Albert Hunt has written an editorial in which he wonders--at long last, one might add--what has happened to Bill Clinton:

Hillary Clinton will have nightmares about her botched run for the presidency; it'll be worse for Bill Clinton.

Clinton's impressive Pennsylvania primary victory exposed Barack Obama's general-election vulnerabilities. However, there is nothing to suggest Clinton would be a stronger nominee.

Thus, Obama remains the clear favorite to win the nomination, and the New York senator's painful legacy, in the most important professional endeavor of her life, will have been picking the wrong people and putting together a deeply flawed campaign.

In time she will have fresh opportunities; perhaps a Senate leadership role, or she may emulate Edward M. Kennedy as a truly great lawmaker, or, if Obama loses, make another run for the White House with lessons learned.

It's going to be tougher for her husband. The most talented and resilient politician of this generation has damaged his standing with gaffes, political miscalculations and a series of paranoiac, volcanic eruptions.

A common question these days among political heavyweights, including longtime Clinton devotees, is this: How can a guy this smart act so dumb?

Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | Bill Clinton — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:17am on Apr. 11, 2008 Super Rich Clintons continue to bleed taxpayers

It's not about giving so much as taking.

By Kevin Holtsberry

Not content to have parlayed their public service into great wealth, the Clintons continue to cost the taxpayers money. It seems that, despite having written a book on it, former President Clinton feels more comfortable getting paid for charity than giving it:

The Clintons have made a $100-million fortune since leaving the White House, but a Politico analysis found that hasn’t kept Bill Clinton from taking full advantage of the publicly funded perks offered to ex-presidents.

In fact, his presidential retirement benefits cost taxpayers almost as much as those of the other two living ex-presidents combined.

The price tag for Clinton’s federal retirement allowance from 2001 through the end of this year will run $8 million, compared to $5.5 million for George H. W. Bush’s and $4 million for Jimmy Carter’s during the same period.

Since 2001, Clinton has received more of almost every benefit available to former presidents — from his pension to his staff’s salaries and benefits to supplies. His $420,000 phone bill and $3.2 million office rent tab both nearly surpassed the totals rung up for those purposes by Bush, Carter and the late former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan combined. As a group, they spent $484,000 on telephone service and $3.8 million on rent in the same span.

For why this is emblematic of the Clintons see below.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | 2008 Presidential Campaign | Bill Clinton | Hillary Clinton — Comments (17)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:25pm on Apr. 9, 2008 Pardongate Flashback: The Return of Hugh Rodham

By Kevin Holtsberry

Hugh Rodham has been on the campaign trail for his sister:

The brother of Senator Hillary Clinton told about 60 farmers on Thursday that he heard their concerns about dairy pricing and would bring them to the presidential candidate.

"I really appreciate what you told me today," Hugh Rodham said. "I will convey what you said in the strongest terms to my sister."

Rodham was speaking at a farm along Schoolhouse Hill Road owned by Ken and Connie Teel, during a rally organized by the Progressive Agriculture Organization.

The rally was the first stop in a bus tour by Rodham across the region in the next seven days at 18 locations, including New Milford and Towanda on Thursday.

Why is this important? Well, Hugh Rodham has a rather colorful past and one that you would think would keep him as far away from Hillary's political career as possible.

Posted in 2008 | Bill Clinton | Hillary Clinton | Pardongate — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:21pm on Apr. 9, 2008 Bill And Hillary Split

By California Yankee

The Hillary Campaign acknowledges that, like Hillary's recently demoted strategist in chief Mark Penn, Bill Clinton "supports a free trade agreement with Colombia that she [Hillary] strenuously opposes:"

Posted in 2008 | Bill Clinton | Columbia | Hillary Clinton | Mark Penn — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:11pm on Mar. 20, 2008 Hillary and the character question

Is Hillary's scandal filled past relevent?

By Kevin Holtsberry

This is a question that has been nagging me for quite some time. Is there any way that Hillary's past ends up having a major impact on this campaign? Obviously, that past has already had an impact in that it has played a role in a certain segment of the population choosing not to vote for her; some indications are that it is a sizable and committed segment of voters.

But what I am getting at is whether that information is already "baked in" or whether there are voters considering voting for Hillary, or who are noncommittal, who could be reminded of the huge pile of baggage Hillary carries and change their minds.

The media focus on Hillary's release of her schedule this week is a perfect example. I understand the desire to find new information, to break a story, but there is so much information we already know about her that is less than flattering that I wonder if people think it is a legitimate subject of discussion.

Do Democrats simply not want to believe that Hillary played a role in all the scandals and problems of the Clinton White House? Does character and integrity not matter?

Read On.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | 2008 Presidential Campaign | Bill Clinton | Hillary Clinton — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:23pm on Mar. 15, 2008 Hillary's Scorched Earth Tactics

Why would she suddenly decide to rise above it all and put her party first?

By Richard H Collins

Democrats have to be asking themselves how they got to this point. Hopes of a quick and definitive primary have disappeared and they find themselves embroiled in a bitter stalemate punctuated with accusations of racism and sexism while the GOP nominee uses the time to raise money and mend fences.

The irony of course is that Hillary Clinton has gone from being the inevitable and early nominee to waging a desperate battle until the convention; from planning an above the fray campaign with feints to the center to throwing everything she can think of at her opponent no matter the ideological coherence or potential damage to the party.

And with the awkward question of what to do with the delegates from Michigan and Florida still left unresolved, Democrats have to be wondering how far and how ugly this can go.

A few things are clear: Hillary won’t give up as long as there is a slim chance for victory and she will use all available weapons. If there is a remotely plausible scenario where she wins, she will hang on. If a tactic has a chance of giving her an advantage, no matter how temporary, she will use it.

What sometimes gets lost in the mythology and nostalgia surrounding the Clintons, particularly among hardcore Democrats, is that their primary mode of politics is to attack in order to survive.

Read on for more on this pattern and its implications.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | Barack Obama | Bill Clinton | Hillary Clinton — Comments (18)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:11pm on Mar. 11, 2008 Obama backers getting fired for telling the truth about Hillary?

By Kevin Holtsberry

Crossposted at the Stop Her Now blog.

First we had the whole Samantha Powers "monster" comment. Now, Hillary may not be an actual "monster" but everyone knew what she meant and a sizable portion of the country agrees with her. Hillary may very well be a wonderful daughter, and a great mother - and all indications are just that - but she is a cold hearted operator when it comes to political combat.

She once told a close friend in the White House: "Your problem is that you are not mean enough." She was hell on wheels when her husband was president and caused untold damage in the process. Find me a person who worked with her regularly in the White House who enjoyed it. I bet you can't do it.

And does anyone want to argue that she has changed in this campaign? She and her advisers are willing to throw out any accusation not matter how specious and any spin not matter how farcical just to stay in the game. They play to win not to make friends.

This is really all Powers was saying. Was she a bit naive for thinking that Hillary would act differently with fellow Democrats or for thinking she could say something like that "off the record"? Sure. But she simply blurted out the truth in a moment of weakness.

So along comes an Obama supporter who has just about had enough of the Clintons, but who made the cardinal sin in the Democratic Party: he brought up the huge pile of skeletons in Hillary's closet. This is a Republican tactic! It is just like Karl Rove! It can't be allowed. Said supporter is promptly asked to resign and the Obama campaign repudiates his statements.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | Barack Obama | Bill Clinton | Hillary Clinton | Samantha Powers — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:15am on Feb. 21, 2008 How Hillary Got Here

Her unique blend of arrogance and stubbornness has been her undoing.

By Richard H Collins

Everyone, with the possible exception of Mark Penn, must realize that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is hanging on the precipice. Her opponent Senator Barrack Obama has more money and a better organization; he has won more states and built more momentum – Tuesday's Wisconsin and Haiwii wins were his ninth and tenth in a row. Even her husband has admitted that she needs to win Ohio and Texas if she expects to continue.

Remarkably, however, the candidate herself refuses to admit this obvious fact. In a recent interview with the Columbus Dispatch she denied that Ohio was a must win state. Some might view this as typical political spin, but anyone familiar with Hillary’s history will recognize her unique blend of arrogance and stubbornness.

Hillary has a long history of refusing to acknowledge obvious truths and stubbornly clinging to her own version of events. This pattern can be found in the scandals and failures of her husband’s administration and in her faltering presidential campaign. It is a constant in any even perfunctory review of her public life.

More after the jump.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | 2008 Presidential Campaign | Bill Clinton | Hillary Clinton — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:44am on Feb. 18, 2008 Bill Clinton's true colors

By Alexham

Stay classy, Slick Willie:

At a later event today in Steubenville, OH, Bill Clinton snapped hard at an anti-abortion protestor who had interrupted him.

“I gave you the answer. We disagree with you," Clinton said. "You wanna criminalize women and their doctors and we disagree... I reduced abortion… Tell the truth, tell the truth… If you were really pro-life, if you were really pro-life, you would want to put every doctor and every mother as an accessory to murder in prison. And you won’t say you wanna do that because you know that because you know that you wouldn't have a lick of political support. Now, the issue is who … the issue is, you can't name me anybody presently in politics that did more to introduce policies that reduce the number of real abortions instead of the hot air putting out to tear people up and make votes by dividing America."

“This is not your rally. I heard you. That's another thing you need is a president, somebody who will stick up for individual rights and not be pushed around, and she won't."

Finally, a campaign theme for HRC: "Hillary '08: Sticking up for the right to abort innocent babies!"

You know, I don't know many people who are more active in the pro-life movement than I am, and I cannot recall ever hearing a prolifer express an interest in prosecuting or jailing women. To be sure, there are plenty of prolifers who favor going after doctors who perform illegal abortions. Indeed, I am one of them. But the prolifers I know have no desire to prosecute women who seek out abortions in a post-Roe world. No, what they need is our mercy and support. Bill Clinton, of course, knows this to be the case. But when you cannot debate the merits straight up, I suppose the only thing you can do is attempt to mischaracterize your opponent's arguments or engage in baseless personal attacks.

Has there ever been a man less worthy to occupy the White House than Bill Clinton? I think not.

Update: You can view the video here (LvJS).

Posted in Abortion | Bill Clinton | Culture — Comments (21)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:30pm on Feb. 16, 2008 Bill Clinton's sad hubris

Dems to repudiate the Clinton '90s

By Mark Kilmer

The 1990s (1992-2000) were great and exciting years of spectacular progress! History was made! Lives were changed forever during this momentous decade which will be forever remembered as better-than-JFK!

"You can trust me." [bites lip]

So says Bill Clinton when attacking Barack Obama:

You have one candidate who's made the explicit argument that the only way we can change America is to move into a post-partisan future and therefore we have to eliminate from consideration for the presidency anybody who made good things happen in the '90s or stopped bad things from happening in this decade," said Clinton, who was winding up a day of East Texas campaign appearances for his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I emphasized what I did not because it is more important; rather, it is more infuriating than irritating. In the 1990's, Bill Clinton's appeasement of terrorists – strike us at will! – certainly built the idea in the minds of al Qaeda that the United States was a "paper tiger" which would disintegrate when they brought down the towers. We were under new management when they got around to attacking, and their plan didn't work as they willed it, but for Clinton (Bill) to argue that he stopped bad things from happening in this decade when he clearly gave false hope to those who perpetrated the acts of 9-11 is galling hubris.

Read More…

Posted in 2008 | Bill Clinton | Hubris | rejection — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:39pm on Feb. 12, 2008 The Clintons' Terror Pardons

By Kevin Holtsberry

If you haven't already, you will want to be sure and read Debra Burlingame's excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal on Bill Clinton's outrageous granting of clemency to 16 imprisoned members of the FALN terrorist group. Read the whole thing, but here is a question that bears repeating far and wide (maybe an aspiring journalist might even ask Hillary about it):

It would be a mistake to dismiss as "old news" the story of how and why these terrorists were released in light of the fact that it took place during the precise period when Bill Clinton now claims he was avidly engaged, even "obsessed," with efforts to protect the public from clandestine terrorist attacks. If Bill and Hillary Clinton were willing to pander to the demands of local Hispanic politicians and leftist human-rights activists defending bomb-makers convicted of seditious conspiracy, how might they stand up to pressure from other interest groups working in less obvious ways against U.S. interests in a post-9/11 world?

Posted at 2:22pm on Feb. 12, 2008 The Chelsea Question

When does she deserve public scrutiny?

By Kevin Holtsberry

My employers at Stop Her Now made an early decision to not make fun of Chelsea Clinton in the satire they produce. Besides questions about taste, it is clearly an area fraught with risk. Better to leave it alone. And I have followed this advice in my own blogging on Hillary.

But the recent contretemps about David Shuster's comments raises the issue in a different context (as Alex has noted). An article at Slate makes a compelling argument that journalists should re-think their approach to Chelsea even in the face of the Hillary campaign's attempt to punish Shuster and MSNBC and use it to their advantage.

I realize I am not the first person to point this out, but could it be that Bill and Hillary's, in many ways understandable, reaction to Shuster's comments nevertheless disguise an attempt at political advantage? Guy Branum certainly thinks so and he makes a strong case.

More after the jump . . .

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | Bill Clinton | Chelsea Clinton | Hillary Clinton — Comments (30)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:14am on Feb. 2, 2008 Hillary is “The Decider”

By Richard H Collins

Instead of the heavy-weight fight the media was hoping for, Thursday’s Democratic debate in California turned into a love fest; one with lots of pandering to the liberal Hollywood audience. But beneath the pleasantries it was once again clear that Hillary is seeking to have it both ways on a host of issues. She is the master of the non-answer and relentlessly offers her pat answers. One thing she never does, however, is admit a mistake.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | Barack Obama | Bill Clinton | Hillary Clinton | Presidential Debates — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:09pm on Jan. 31, 2008 Hillary! says she can control Bill

By streiff

In a performance on par with calling a press conference to declare you're not crazy, Hillary! TheSmartestWomanInTheWorld™ has stated, against all evidence, that she can control her husband.

I'm suddenly enthusiastic about the possibilities of a Hillary! candidacy based on entertainment value alone.