Hillary (& Bill) Clinton

excerpts from the Iowa Daily Report

official draft Hillary website:

December 1-15, 2003

Hillary Clinton, interviewed in Kuwait, said that the U.S. needs to give Iraq more time to make sure that the process and the Iraqi people have enough time to make sure they are being successful. She also called for more troops in both Afghanistan and Iraq. internationalizing the situation and giving up contro, according to Reuters:

"In Iraq, I still think the administration should internationalize the military, political, civilian presence," she said.

"And that means to go to the United Nations, to go to NATO and to go to other willing allies and be willing to share the authority and power as well as the responsibility." (12/1/2003)

Hillary Clinton is back and she is portraying we can’t win in Iraq, and we need to do something different to win. That something different involves the Democrat panacea of the United Nations. The Washington Times covers various sources of where Hillary has been making the rounds:

"I think an exit strategy, unfortunately, is being driven by our political calendar, not necessarily what's in the best interest of a long-term, stable Iraq," she said.

Mrs. Clinton also told AP that military personnel with whom she had spoken wanted to know "how the people at home feel about what we are doing."

Mrs. Clinton said she told the troops, "Americans are wholeheartedly proud of what you are doing, but there are many questions at home about the administration's policies."

While the criticism of Hillary is always strong, she is in for it in ways probably not received before -- this time it is about her, and not her husband. Former Political consultant to the Clintons, Dick Morris lays her out in an editorial run in the NY Post:

Sen. Clinton will do anything she can to attract attention and, where possible, divert it from the Democrats who are really running for president. But this trip, at this time, in this manner, in that place was wrong politically and morally.

The Washington Times also reports that Hillary has now earned the moniker of ‘Tokyo Hillary’ and ‘Hanoi Hillary,’ as well. (12/2/2003)

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is going head-to-head against pundit Al Franken for a Grammy. The New York Democrat was nominated yesterday for the audio version of her autobiography "Living History." Talk show host Bill Maher also was nominated.

"That's tough competition," said Mrs. Clinton, noting that former President Bill Clinton also was nominated for a recorded book he made with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and actress Sophia Loren.

"I'm glad he's not my competition," she said, noting that recording a book is "very, very hard work. It's done so precisely, you have to be careful about breathing too hard." (12/5/2003)

We are sure to hear more talk about how Bush is not getting the war against terrorism right from Hillary Clinton on Sunday. However, we will see another cold war between Hillary and former Clinton White House aide George Stephanopoulos come to an end. She will appear for the first time on his struggling "This Week" program on ABC.

The former First Lady saw him as a betrayer after he recommended a special prosecutor handle the Whitewater scandal. The problem stems from Stephanopoulos 1999 memoir, "All Too Human," where he told how she berated the President over a bowl of cereal.

But Clinton's interview likely won't help Stephanopoulos' sagging ratings too much - she's also appearing on CBS and NBC Sunday morning. (12/5/2003)

While in Texas, Sen. Hillary Clinton took the time to take a personal swipe at the President, according to the NY Daily news:

"We've made a hard right turn to pursue an extremist agenda that was certainly not advertised by the campaign President Bush ran," the former first lady, told the Austin (Tex.) American-Statesman. In Texas for a fund-raiser and to sign her book "Living History," Clinton said Bush is trying to undo everything her husband's administration built over eight years. "I took that kind of personally," she said. The Bush policies also cut into years of work by previous administrations, she said - not just her husband's. "Just on every front it became clear to me they wanted to undo the New Deal," she said. (12/6/2003)

Hillary made the Sunday morning talk show rounds and bashed Bush, as would be expected. However, she did offer the insightful admission that going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do. She did qualify whether America was safer now than before because of the war in Iraq on Meet the Press:

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe that Iraq is more or less a terrorist threat to the United States now than it was nine months ago?

SEN. CLINTON: I don’t think we know that. I think that Saddam Hussein was certainly a potential threat. I mean, he had, after all, not only invaded his neighbors and gassed the Kurds and Iranians but had tried to kill former President Bush, was seeking weapons of mass destruction, whether or not it ever turns out he actually had them. He had not made any direct attacks on our homeland, but we don’t know what the future would have held. It is, however, fair to say that now we have a very unstable situation with not only the former regime loyalists but terrorists and foreign fighters coming in to try to use Iraq as a basing point against us.

Hillary brought up her “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, accusation and that led into her recent accusation that Bush is out to destroy FDR’s New Deal:

MR. RUSSERT: What if Republicans or conservatives said that environmental groups, labor groups, women’s groups are part of a vast left-wing conspiracy, that they have an inordinate amount of influence on a Democratic president and Democratic senator?

SEN. CLINTON: Well, again, I would say if they are, they’re doing not as good a job as the other side. And I think part of the challenge is to look at where we’ve come as a country. You know, when I first saw the Bush administration in action, I thought that they wanted to undo everything Bill Clinton had done. Basically, I took that a little personally because I thought that a lot of good had happened during the 1990s. Then I realized that, you know, they’re taking aim at the New Deal. They really do have a mission in mind to radically restructure the social safety net, the kind of consumer and worker protections that have been at the base of building the American middle class. I don’t think anybody voted for that in 2000, and I regret that it has been pursued so relentlessly. (12/7/2003)

The NY Daily News reports that Bill Maher has made another stab at career suicide. Hillary was accepting an Oceana Partners award in Los Angeles last Wednesday for her work on environmental issues. The event also honored marine explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau, as well as Ron Howard and his Imagine partner, Brian Glazer. Maher was the master of ceremonies of the event. The news reports:

"Maher began bringing up 'Bill Clinton's [bleep] jobs' - with Hillary sitting right there in front of him eating her chicken," says a witness. "It was just cruel. Ted Danson's wife, Mary Steenburgen, is a longtime friend of the senator's. I can't believe they approved of this."

The former President, although not there, was listed as a co-chairman of the event, which raised $600,000. (12/8/2003)

Bill Clinton announced that he would not endorse a candidate until the Democrat nominee was known. He so far has refused to comment on whether he knew about Gore’s endorsement in advance.(12/9/2003)

Adam Parkhomenko of votehillary.com will be visiting Hillary’s office this Friday to drop off petitions for her to run for President.

He will be delivering 5,000 to 6,000 letters signed by supporter who want her to run. There are not only letters from every state but several countries, according to Parkhomenko. (12/10/2003)

Wesley Clark suggested that he thinks Hillary Clinton would make a good VP candidate for his campaign if he wins the nomination. However, Hillary sent word to this latest suitor that she is keeping herself chaste to her promise of finishing her senate term.

"Senator Clinton is flattered by the praise but has repeatedly said that she will serve out her full six-year term," spokesman Joe Householder said.

Earlier on ABC Sunday morning talk show she confirmed that she would not run.

"That is not going to happen," she said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "That is so far out of the realm of the possible. That is not going to happen.

"Look, I'm going to support the nominee," Clinton added. "I hope we're going to have victory. And then I'll support the nominee, whoever it is, assuming that person does a good job, for re-election in '08." (12/10/2003)

The Wall Street Journal editorial claims that the flu vaccine shortage is in part Hillary Clinton’s fault:

"The reason for today's shortage — as well as seven previous preventive vaccine shortages since 2000 — is that there are just five vaccine makers. This lack of suppliers is partly thanks to Hillary Clinton, who as first lady turned government into the majority buyer of vaccines and pushed prices so low as to make business unsustainable. (This price control approach, we'd note, is what Democrats would now like to inflict on the Medicare drug program.)  (12/10/2003)

"Al Gore made it crystal clear [Tuesday] that one of his prime goals in endorsing Howard Dean for president is to kiss Bill Clinton's Democratic Party goodbye," Deborah Orin writes in a news analysis for the New York Post.

" 'We need to remake the Democratic Party,' Gore said as he threw his support to Dean at a breakfast just down the street from Clinton's Harlem office and gave the front-runner a big boost toward the 2004 Democratic nomination.

"Gore singled out Dean's opposition to the Iraq war as the reason why he's endorsing a candidate who disagrees with him on everything from the assault-weapons ban to middle-class tax cuts to Medicare," Miss Orin said. "That puts Gore directly at odds with Sen. Hillary Clinton — who voted for the war — and sets up a civil war inside the Democratic Party over Iraq. ... "Gore tried to set himself up as the Democratic kingmaker and in effect the party leader — usurping a role that Bill Clinton sees as his by right."  (12/11/2003)

VP ………..  maybe?

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she has no interest in being a Democratic Cabinet member, isn't ready to say if she will run for re-election, and hedged a bit when asked about running for vice president next year. Asked, during a visit to Troy, N.Y., what she would say if Dean asked her to be his running mate, the former first lady said: "I'm not going to speculate or look into the future. I want to be the best senator I can be."  (12/11/2003)

'Twist of the knife'

"Once upon a time, the Clintons and the Gores shared everything, from political tickets to intimate White House dinners," reporter David Saltonstall writes in the New York Daily News. "But those days seemed long gone [Tuesday] after the former vice president charged that the Democratic Party — the party of Bill and Hillary Clinton — needed to be 'remade' as 'a force for justice and progress and good in America.'

"The usually loquacious Sen. Hillary Clinton offered a stony, one-word answer when asked whether she agreed with her husband's once-loyal veep.

" 'No,' said Clinton.

"Behind the scenes, observers said the frosty response had more to do with 2008 — when both Gore and Hillary Clinton are projected as potential presidential contenders — than current affairs," the reporter said.

"Under this view, Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean [Tuesday] was aimed at seizing long-term control of the Democratic Party, in part by gaining favor with front-runner Dean and his growing base of active, left-leaning Democrats.

"That Gore chose to make his endorsement in Harlem — down the street from former President Bill Clinton's office — was just an added twist of the knife."  (12/11/2003)s

Hill PAC -- the fundraising arm of Hillary Clinton -- is using the same tactic as the Republican National Committee. Like the RNC, Hill PAC is using all the bad things being said about Hillary to appeal for money. The Republicans are using what is being said about President Bush, of course. The good news for Clinton supporters is that Hillary just shrugs off the attacks, according to an email asking for funds. By the way, it is vast and it is right wing:

But, and I emphasize, BUT, we are faced with another political reality. I have worked with Hillary for the last 12 years. And for all of those years, she and her husband have been the target of an ongoing Republican assault. It's vast, and it's right-wing, and the only reason it's not a conspiracy is because it is very much out in the open.

"She is ruthless She's unaccountable," says Bill O'Reilly.

Neal Boortz refers to her as "Hitlary."

Human Events, a conservative publication, is selling a deck of cards called, "The 52 Most Dangerous Liberals." They advertise it by exclaiming, "Move over Saddam -Hillary is the new Ace of Spades."

"Hillary's main following is made up of a core of emotional idiots. This core is a personality cult similar to rock groupies, blind and oblivious to the real world as they swoon over their dear leader," says Newsmax columnist Charles Smith.

Now, I don't mind being called a rock groupie, but "emotional idiot" is way out of line!

Clearly this stuff is nonsense -- ridiculous, outrageous, blatant lies. But, the scary thing is that some people - because they see it on TV, or read it on the web, or hear it on the radio - believe it's true.

Hillary is not intimidated by this hateful stuff. She shrugs it off and goes about the business that she was elected to do - making the lives of New Yorkers - and all Americans - better. That is her job. (12/13/2003)

Hillary Clinton’s top financial fund-raising aide, David Rosen, is under federal investigation in connection with a Hollywood celebrity fundraiser. There appears to be no wrong doing by the Clintons. In fact, it appears that in the very least they were robbed of money taken by Aaron Tonken.

Rosen, a Chicago-based political consultant would have coordinated with Aaron Tonken, who on Tuesday pleaded guilty to federal charges that he diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors and underwriters of Hollywood charities and galas that he organized. Tonken helped organize the August 2000 event, a tribute to President Bill Clinton, which raised $1 million for Hillary’s Senate campaign. The Washington Post also reports that there were other campaign violations for the event:

Peter Paul, a onetime Clinton booster, media entrepreneur and ex-convict who says he fronted nearly $1.9 million in expenses to stage the event, has claimed the Clinton campaign never properly reported the money to federal election officials.

Paul said he agreed to underwrite the event to ingratiate himself with the president, in hopes that Bill Clinton would work for his firm, Stan Lee Media, after he left office. (12/13/2003)

Ronald Brownstein in his LA Times column Washington Outlooks covers the growing rift between Al Gore and his former boss Bill Clinton. The divergence is over Clinton's assumption that Democrats could not win solely by mobilizing their hard-core partisans. Clinton’s strategy was to craft policies that attracted swing voters while maintaining the allegiance of traditional Democrats.

In contrast, Howard Dean and now Al Gore target their messages at mobilizing their base. The goal is to inspire non-voters with an agenda that energizes traditional party constituencies such as labor, feminists and gay civil rights activists. (12/15/2003)

Hillary Clinton will give a major foreign policy speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. The question is which of the major candidates will measure up to her foreign policy speech today. Aides say Clinton will call for "a return to post-Cold War bipartisan foreign policy consensus that recognizes the importance of allies and international institutions," arguing that the capture of Saddam creates a fertile climate for renewed international cooperation. It's a tune sung by several 2004 hopefuls on Sunday, including Edwards and John Kerry.

She will call for replacing the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq with an Iraq Stabilizing Organization, an international body formed and led by the United States. She also will propose increased military involvement in Afghanistan, contending that not enough attention is being paid to the struggling nation. (12/15/2003)

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