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June 12, 2003 It is the unwritten rule. Once a president has served out his term(s), and has provided sufficient fodder for "Saturday Night Live," he is to fade into the shadows to write his memoirs, give the occasional speech, and relax after decades of serving his country. Bill Clinton, ever the juggernaut, has intrepidly ignored this decades-old tradition; but what did we expect from a publicity-monger whose least transgression is his close relationship with Larry Flynt? Former President George Herbert Walker Bush, who was given an infinite of ammo, declined to publicly criticize, or even comment, on Clinton treating the White House like it was Rohypnol Night at the fraternity. That's class. Bill Clinton has returned the favor by taking every opportunity to take cheap shots at President Bush. There's no rest for the wicked. It's easy to blame Bill Clinton's, unfortunate, refusal to go gently into that good night on his unquenchable lust for attention. There's only one thing former president Clinton loves more than an audience, (especially a female audience of one); the one thing he and Hillary love the most in this world: The White House. Capitol Hillary's new eight-million-dollar-down- the-drain comedy novel was released this past week. With typical liberal (il)logic, the purpose of this 500 page fairy tale is to paint Capitol Hill in a more sympathetic light, while, somehow, not reminding people about her duplicity in her husband's scams and her amazing sieve-like memory. For a woman who is so smart, she sure doesn't remember a lot. It has been put forth by Rush Limbaugh, Susan Estrich and Sean Hannity that, revisionist history aside, the function of this walk-through- fairyland is the same as her husband's unwillingness to relinquish the limelight: to take the spotlight off the current Democratic candidates. Is this the Clinton's evil plan to take over America again? Earlier this year, when her liberal brethren were wringing their hands about the imminent civilian bloodbath in Iraq, Senator Clinton spoke carefully about "not rushing to war." Not that we shouldn't go to war, per se, but we did need the approval of remote African villages and Madagascar before we went to war to make the world safer for everybody. Some called her thoughtful and rightfully cautious, defining qualities of a future leader. Others recalled that her husband bombed Iraq based on the same U.N. and C.I.A. intelligence. Eventually, she signed the senatorial resolution supporting the war, and then vanished. Not that she gives interviews and holds press conferences that aren't spin-controlled first, but Senator Clinton kept a low profile during the war, answering even less questions than her usual 'no questions.' She is now on record supporting a war and a President that over 70% of the U.S. supported. She is also a member of the Armed Services Committee. When 2008 rolls around, the Republicans won't be able to accuse her, like her fellow let's-negotiate-with terrorists-because- they're-right-it-is-all-our-fault liberals, of being "weak on defense," to coin a phrase from Sean Hannity. She will have the resume on national defense of a Republican, not liberal Democrat. Say what you will about Senator Clinton's character, is she a savvy politician? Of course she is. That's how she's managed to stay out of jail this long. That's why she will never be President. The aforementioned assertion that Bill and Hillary, or Billary, are making another push for the White House presupposes that Joseph Lieberman - the certain Democratic nominee - will beat Bush next November. Billary doesn't want Lieberman to defeat Bush. Anyone strong enough to topple the most popular president since Ronald Reagan would squash Capitol Hillary like a panicked Japanese in a Godzilla movie. So Billary, if they even vote, will be voting "Bush" in '04...the ironies of ironies. Which brings us to '08, the year Hillary is eyeing to make her run as the first socialist leader of America. This is a poll taken by abcnews.com. "While 44 percent of Americans express a favorable opinion of Mrs. Clinton, 48 percent view her unfavorably — an unusually high negative rating, and an unusually strong one. More than twice as many people view her "strongly" negatively as strongly positively. And she's no more popular among women than among men. Mrs. Clinton's popularity largely is limited to Democrats, and is countered, and exceeded in intensity, by her unpopularity among Republicans. Sixty percent of all Republicans, and 71 percent of conservative Republicans, view her strongly unfavorably. By contrast, just 32 percent of all Democrats, and 42 percent of liberal Democrats, view her strongly favorably. (Moreover, conservative Republicans outnumber liberal Democrats by 2-1.) In a stark example of the problems Mrs. Clinton would face as a national candidate, only about four in 10 Americans say she should ever run for president, while a majority, 53 percent, says she never should run. Again, there's no substantive difference between women and men." So why is Billary even considering a run for the White House? Because they really are this egomaniacal and powermad. They assume by 2008, America will have forgiven and forgotten the eight years of Clintongate, not to mention Hillary's alleged vote buying in New York during her Senatorial run, and author Steven Brill's assertion that, in writing his book, After: How America Confronted September 12th, Senator Clinton's people tried to lean on him to inflate Hillary's participation in helping a post 9/11 New York over that of Senator Charles Schumer. Who is going to vote for her if no one trusts her? During an interview with Tim Russert, Bill O'Reilly brought up a brilliant GOP candidate for '08: Condolezza Rice. As Bill pointed out, Dr. Rice has been around Capitol Hill for years, she is a genius, and people know her, respect her, and trust her. What a gambit this would be for the Republicans. The first-ever Black president and female president not coming from the self-appointed and self-aggrandizing party of "diversity, tolerance and inclusiveness." If Dr. Rice is elected President, that will be the end of the Democratic party. The tenuous hold they now have on minorities will be completely obliterated. (Why do you think Democrats are so opposed to judicial nominee, Miguel Estrada, who the liberal American Bar Association gave him the highest judicial fitness rating by unanimous vote?) The GOP will see a massive insurgence of those minorities, and, as Sun Tzu, suggests: beat your enemy at his own game. And, of course, to keep Billary from the White House again. We want to speak of former Presidents as legends. Not in infamy. ------------ Visit LannyGrant.com or email Lanny Grant: lannygrant@aol.com Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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