A trip down Hillary lane -- 2006 edition

By Edward Copeland

I've gone through the archives of my barely breathing political site the Copeland Institute for Lower Learning to compile what I've caught and kept on Hillary and Bill in relation to all sorts of issues, to remind Democrats what these megalomaniacal charlatans have done in the past. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it or, even worse, will get stuck with a McCain presidency and the final rightward tilt of the Supreme Court. It's lengthy, so only 2006 entries for this installment.

JAN. 26, 2006

Some Democrats acted similarly following the 2004 election. Many Dems started mealy-mouthing their pro-choice positions, despite the fact that the polls continue to show a majority of Americans supporting abortion rights.
Hillary goes nutso and starts endorsing legislation against flag burning and for fines for retailers who sell video games to minors.

It seems that because the GOP managed to motivate its conservative base better, media figures and politicians interpreted that as a sign that they must kowtow to the right, some for votes, others for ratings.

Paul Begala on this week's Meet the Press promoting his book with James Carville told a very interesting story of what Bill Clinton told him on Election Night 2004 about how Dems should follow Barack Obama's lead, not by flip-flopping on their issues but by showing how their positions are consistent with faith and values.

I guess that Fox News Channel has won then, unless the other news outlets and candidates wake up. Do they think that if they act more like Fox (or Republicans), they are going to win over Fox viewers or the most rabid of right-wing voters?
To paraphrase Harry Truman, when given the choice between a Republican and a Democrat who acts likes a Republican, voters (or viewers) will always choose the Republican.

From my blog post concerning CNN and MSNBC's attempts to lure right-wing viewers

MARCH 29, 2006

We can police ourselves, they insist, defeating the bipartisan measure in a bipartisan 67-30 vote. It's worth noting that of the potential 2008 Democratic presidential candidates, only Hillary Clinton voted against the Office of Public Integrity. Of the potential Republican presidential candidates, only John McCain voted for it. Meanwhile, the Senate is also moving on an ethics bill with less teeth.

MAY 7, 2006
Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos, in case you don't know) had a good op-ed piece in today's Washington Post about our Hillary problem.

By Markos Moulitsas
Sunday, May 7, 2006; B01

Hillary Clinton has a few problems if she wants to secure the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. She is a leader who fails to lead. She does not appear "electable." But most of all, Hillary has a Bill Clinton problem. (And no, it's not about that. )

Moving into 2008, Republicans will be fighting to shake off the legacy of the Bush years: the jobless recovery, the foreign misadventures, the nightmarish fiscal mismanagement, the Katrina mess, unimaginable corruption and an imperial presidency with little regard for the Constitution or the rule of law. Every Democratic contender will be offering change, but activists will be demanding the sort of change that can come only from outside the Beltway.

Hillary Clinton leads her Democratic rivals in the polls and in fundraising. Unfortunately, however, the New York senator is part of a failed Democratic Party establishment -- led by her husband -- that enabled the George W. Bush presidency and the Republican majorities, and all the havoc they have wreaked at home and abroad.

MAY 9, 2006

By Caroline Daniel in Washington

Rupert Murdoch, the conservative media mogul whose New York Post tabloid savaged Hillary Clinton’s initial aspirations to become a US senator for New York, has agreed to host a political fundraiser for her re-election campaign.

The decision underlines an incongruous thawing of relations between Mr Murdoch and Mrs Clinton, who in 1998 coined the phrase “vast rightwing conspiracy” to denounce critics of her husband, such as Fox News, the conservative cable channel owned by Mr Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Mr Murdoch will host the fundraiser, due to be held by July, on behalf of News Corp.
One person involved in the event said it reflected his views of her as a senator, rather than as a presidential candidate. “They have a respectful and cordial relationship. He has respect for the work she has done on behalf of New York. I wouldn’t say it was illustrative of a close ongoing relationship. It is not like they are dining out together.”

MAY 10, 2006
Sure, she'd been pressed to come up with something nice to say about Dubya, but if she believes King Idiot has charm and charisma, how can you trust her judgment on anything?

By DEVLIN BARRETT
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Asked to say one nice thing about President Bush, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton went one better: She named two things.

"He is someone who has a lot of charm and charisma, and I think in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I was very grateful to him for his support for New York," Clinton said Tuesday night during a talk at the National Archives about her life in politics.
Clinton, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, said that despite their "many disagreements about many, many issues," she has always had a good personal relationship with the president.

"He's been very willing to talk. He's been affable. He's been good company," said Clinton, D-N.Y.

JUNE 28, 2006

The Senate barely rejected a constitutional amendment banning flag desecration in a vote so close it can hardly be called a victory for free speech.

Further proving that she stands for absolutely nothing, Hillary Clinton voted against the amendment mere months after backing the idea.

JULY 9, 2006
Apparently the ambitious and principle-free New York senator didn't have enough time to hold her finger to the wind to decide what she thinks after New York's top court rejected same-sex marriage.

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton -- widely considered a 2008 Democratic presidential favorite -- was surrounded in San Francisco on Friday by Democrats outspoken on the issue of same-sex marriage: a mayor who issued a landmark city decision to declare same-sex unions legal, a state assemblyman at the forefront of same-sex marriage legislation, and the party's pro-gay marriage candidate for governor.

But even standing alongside San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and state Treasurer Phil Angelides, the Democratic candidate for governor, on the morning after New York's highest court upheld a state ban on same-sex marriage, Clinton steadfastly ignored questions about the issue.
It was a marked contrast from a visit to San Francisco on a 1996 book tour, when the then-first lady expressed her views without reservation.

"Children are better off if they have a mother and a father,'' Clinton said in the San Francisco interview with the then-Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner. "My preference is that we do all we can to strengthen traditional marriage ... and that people engaged in parenting children be committed to one another.''

But Clinton refused to revisit the topic Friday morning at a meeting with reporters after a $1,000-a-person fundraiser for Angelides' campaign. But her views now appear surprisingly similar to those in a majority ruling from New York's highest court; the decision's author, Judge Robert Smith, suggested children are better raised in so-called traditional families.

AUG. 7, 2006
A new poll of New Yorkers find that Hillary's Senate re-election is secure, but hypothetical polls that put her up against Rudy Giuliani or John McCain for the 2008 presidential race, finds her trailing both men in New York.

AUG. 23, 2006
She claims it's because of cuts in funding to New York, but critics see Sen. Nothing-But-Ambition's maneuver as involving other critical 2008 electoral states as well. Still, her move has mystified and angered AIDS/HIV activists.

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 23, 2006; A01

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is holding up renewal of the primary federal law that battles HIV/AIDS, the 1990 Ryan White Act, causing a rift among activists on the subject and threatening approval of the legislation this year.

Clinton (D-N.Y.) said she opposes the measure because it would lower funding for her home state. But some AIDS groups also see broader political motives at work. Other states that would lose out include California, Florida and Illinois -- all places Clinton would need to win if she seeks the presidency. Her critics also note that many of the states that would receive higher funding under the new formula are rural and Southern, which tend to vote Republican.