Mainstream media decides the Clintons must go!

Oh happy day! I have been ripping Hillary and Bill Clinton for a long time…but now the mainstream media is hopping on board. Here are some excerpts that serve to illustrate my belief that the Clintons are utterly devoid of class – and Bill’s behavior is absolutely unbecoming of a former U.S. President.

Is the right right on the Clintons? (L.A. Times)

Something strange happened the other day. All these different people — friends, co-workers, relatives, people on a liberal e-mail list I read — kept saying the same thing: They’ve suddenly developed a disdain for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but I think we’ve reached an irrevocable turning point in liberal opinion of the Clintons.

The sentiment seems to be concentrated among Barack Obama supporters. Going into the campaign, most of us liked Hillary Clinton just fine, but the fact that tens of millions of Americans are seized with irrational loathing for her suggested that she might not be a good Democratic nominee. But now that loathing seems a lot less irrational. We’re not frothing Clinton haters like … well, name pretty much any conservative. We just really wish they’d go away.

The big turning point seems to be this week, when the Clintons slammed Obama for acknowledging that Ronald Reagan changed the country. Everyone knows Reagan changed the country. Bill and Hillary have said he changed the country. But they falsely claimed that Obama praised Reagan’s ideas, saying he was a better president than Clinton — something he didn’t say and surely does not believe.

This might have been the most egregious case, but it wasn’t the first. Before the New Hampshire primaries, Clinton supporters e-mailed pro-choice voters claiming that Obama was suspect on abortion rights because he had voted “present” instead of “no” on some votes. (In fact, the president of the Illinois chapter of Planned Parenthood said she had coordinated strategy with Obama and wanted him to vote “present.”) Recently, there have been waves of robocalls in South Carolina repeatedly attacking “Barack Hussein Obama.”

I crossed the Clinton Rubicon a couple of weeks ago when, in the course of introducing Hillary, Clinton supporter and Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson invoked Obama’s youthful drug use. This was disgusting on its own terms, but worse still if you know anything about Johnson. I do — I once wrote a long profile of him. He has a sleazy habit of appropriating the logic of civil rights for his own financial gain. He also has a habit of aiding conservative crusades to eliminate the estate tax and privatize Social Security by falsely claiming they redistribute wealth from African Americans to whites. The episode reminded me of the Clintons’ habit of surrounding themselves with the most egregious characters: Dick Morris, Marc Rich and so on.

When Bill Clinton attacks (L.A. Times)

Harrrumph! The husband of the first female front-runner for president appears on the campaign trail red-faced and testy, slings mud at his wife’s rival and berates a reporter for asking a legitimate question. This looks bad. When he happens to be a former president himself, and his wife’s rival is the first black presidential candidate with a chance of winning, it looks even worse. But two principles can guide us through this political swamp.

First, presidents past, current and future are required to comport themselves with decorum — the more so when others don’t. Former President Clinton demeans his considerable legacy by serving as his wife’s attack dog in chief. To be fair, his attacks on Barack Obama have nothing to do with race and everything to do with the nasty political reality that both Clintons have learned the hard way: Never let an attack go unanswered, because some mud always sticks. But Obama kept his cool while the former commander in chief had a meltdown. Round One to Obama.

Second, don’t bring your spouse to the office to fight your battles for you. A feminist icon such as Hillary Rodham Clinton, no matter how battered on the campaign trial, should not bring out her man to defend her. Candidates routinely tap famous surrogates — including generals, celebrities, experts and kamikaze politicians — to attack their opponents, defend their honor and “amplify” their messages to the media. But deploying one’s spouse for negative campaigning duty should beverboten,just as sending a spouse in to negotiate with one’s boss is a workplace don’t. Hillary has convinced us that she’s tough enough to be president, so why does she need Bill to fight dirty for her? True, she stood by him when he was a presidential candidate whose adultery had become public — and she was roundly criticized for doing so. In our marital score book, that means he owes her. But she should display the good judgment not to try to collect on that private debt in public.

“Hillary Slumming” – 90’s Pic with Obama Ally she Ripped (New York Post)

Bill and Hillary Clinton got walloped yesterday when a photograph surfaced showing them posing with an alleged fraudster whom the former first lady had called a “slum landlord” and linked to Barack Obama in Monday’s debate.

In the picture, Hillary Rodham Clinton is grinning alongside Chicago builder and Democratic moneyman Antoin “Tony” Rezko – who stands between the Clintons.

Rezko has been indicted on federal fraud charges and goes to trial next month. The charges involve an alleged scam by Rezko to extort payoffs from companies looking to do business with two state boards in Illinois.

Just days ago, Sen. Clinton slammed Obama for his connection to Rezko, after the presidential rivals got in an angry personal exchange about Republican ideas.

“I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago,” Clinton fumed.

NBC revealed the photo yesterday when Clinton appeared on the “Today” show.

“I probably have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures. I don’t know th
e man. I wouldn’t know him if he walked in the door. I don’t have a 17-year relationship with him,” Clinton said when asked by host Matt Lauer for her explanation.

I am so incensed at the ongoing behavior of the Clintons that I am going to send an online donation to the Obama campaign today. It is high time to be done with the Clintons and to enter a new age – one where our President is for the people, not for the greedy accrual of power and prestige.

About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.