HILLARY CLINTON: THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING — CONCLUSION

HILLARY CLINTON: THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING — CONCLUSION

By

Ken Eliasberg

Last week, as you will recall, we discussed 2 of Hillary’s most significant accomplishments, i.e. personally delivering a Republican Congress for the first time in 40 years (plus a majority of State Legislatures and Governors), and demonstrating her legal brilliance by getting her husband impeached. We then started to look at what might prove to be her greatest contribution (to the Republican Party, in particular, and to the country, in general) — the improbable election of John McCain to the presidency; something the Republicans themselves could never have engineered, given today’s climate, without her help. Let’s finish up that discussion this week.

As noted, Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat , supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee investigating Watergate. Hillary got thejob working on the investigation through the good offices of her former law professor, Burke Marshall (who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair). When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation — one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.

Why?‘Because she was a liar,’ Zeifman said in a recent interview. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.’”

Zeifman’s thoughts are revealed in greater detail in his two books, Without Honor — The Impeachment of President Nixon And The Crimes of Camelot, Thunder’s Mouth Press (1995), and, more concisely on point, Hillary’s Pursuit of Power, Xlibris Corporation (2006)

Indeed, a careful examination of her career leads one to recall Talleyrand’s assessment of the Bourbons — “They forgot nothing and they learned nothing.” Thanks to his wife’s incredibly bad judgment (not to mention his own failings in this regard) Bill Clinton was impeached, committed perjury and had his legal license suspended. Way to go Hillary!!

Now, we come to her most significant accomplishment and her greatest gift to the Republican Party — the possible Presidency of John McCain. In a year when almost every pundit predicted a Democratic landslide (and in a year when such a prediction seemed not only plausible but very likely), Hillary, through her ruthlessly ambitious pursuit of power and complete indifference to the welfare of either her Party or her country, may well have given the Republicans an opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Well, maybe I was a bit hasty about her indifference to the welfare of the country; perhaps she realized all along that it was in the country’s best interests not to have a Democrat in the White House — ya think?). Don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful to the clumsy ineptitude of Senator Clinton, and, in the final analysis, history may record that this was her finest moment —facilitating the Republicans maintaining control of the White House at a time when the country was in serious peril.

How did this happen — how was a sure thing converted into what appears certain to become an also ran? Simple, the world’s smartest woman proved once again that she is anything but that. As noted, all of the auguries were for a Democratic landslide in November — the country, thanks to the unrelenting beat of the mainstream media, has grown war weary (notwithstanding the danger of this state of mind when the country is presented with an existential threat); the economy is in the slough of despond, with both energy and food costs mounting; the President, as a result of the foregoing and, as usual in the 7th year of an 8-year term, is quite unpopular; and his unpopularity is exceeded only by that of a do-nothing Congress. Given that atmosphere, change seemed not just likely but certain.

And then there’s the smartest woman, so sure of what amounted to a likely coronation, that she never saw Barack Obama in her rear view mirror, and, as a consequence, made no plans to deal with him. In fact, so sure was she of her being elected by popular acclaim, that she made no plans beyond Super Tuesday — by which time Obama was hard on her heels. Thereafter, she quickly went from front runner to contender — which, considering how essentially unlikeable she is, was not all that big a fall.

She then proceeded to lose a number of primaries, further weakening her claim to the Presidency. But, so relentless was her pursuit of power, she hung in there, delaying what appeared to be the eventual result — and Obama victory (all the while bloodying up the new front runner whenever she got the opportunity to do so — to John McCain’s great benefit). In doing so, she revealed what most people already knew — that when it comes to power, Hillary Clinton will do anything to secure it, no matter what the consequences to her Party or to her country. She hung in there, hoping that Obama might self destruct. And then along came Jeremiah A. Wright — a black supremacist who lent hope to Hillary’s ambition.

She did something for Republicans that John McCain seemed ill disposed — through a misplaced sense of gallantry — to do. She revealed that the post-racial healer was nothing more than your typical grievance pedaling race baiter. And now the race is on. McCain, who was written off for all but dead, is very much alive. In fact, in my opinion, the race is his to lose, whomever the Democratic candidate might turn out to be. That said, am I wildly optimistic? Hell no!! I am a Republican, and, as such, I never underestimate our ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

However, that said, the Dems have a real predicament. If Obama takes the electoral and popular votes, and the Super delegates give Hillary the nod, the black vote, or at least a sizeable portion of it, might be lost to them. And the Dems cannot win without the Black vote. On the other hand, If Obama gets the nod, Jeremiah Wright will be a mill stone around his neck — one that I believe will sink him. So, Dems, have fun!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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