Varifrank: Then there were the strawberries

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Then there were the strawberries

"Ahh, but the strawberries that's... that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with... geometric logic... that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist, and I'd have produced that key if they hadn't of pulled the Caine out of action. I, I, I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officers..."
Humphrey Bogart - 1954's The Caine Mutiny.

The only thing missing from Chris Wallaces' Fox News Sunday interview of President Clinton was the sound of clattering steel bearings in the Presidents hands. President Clinton could survive the onslaught from conservative talk radio in the 1990's, but if President Clinton was to face the Blogosphere of today in his adminstration, he would be cut to ribbons in no time. Back then, President Clinton just had to deal with "The Drudge Report". Now there are 100,000 Drudge Reports and network television has half the ratings they did in his time. "Controlling the message" today is much much harder than it was in his time.

You can say what you want about President Bush; but the truth is that he can take a punch. The man has taken a swift kick in the crotch for breakfast every day for 6 years and he keeps getting up with a smile in his heart and a sense of swift determination to see the job through to the best of his abilties. You dont have to like him but you have to respect the simple physical resiliancy of this man.

My favorite parts of the interview?

- "I have never criticized President Bush - BUT..."
...and then spends the next 5 minutes doing just that. And you know for just a minute I was worried that he might actually be forced against his will to do the decent thing and respect his successor with the same grace, style and respect that his predecessor showed him.

- Where he uses the current number of troops in Afghanistan vs. Iraq to try to say that "Bush doesnt take Osama Bin Laden seriously" because of an apparent over emphasis on Iraq rather than Afghanistan.

This strikes me as odd because I seem to remember a fixation by the Clinton administration on Iraq during the 1990's. A fixation rightly based on the FACT that Iraq and the Saddam regime was a threat long before George W. Bush became "Gov. O'Texas",much less the President. Yes, there was the attack by Clinton on the 'asprin factory' and the cruise missile attacks on bases in Afghanistan, but there was also attacks and threats of attacks on Iraq all through the 1990's. Wasn't it President Clinton who ordered the US government to work on "regime change in Iraq"? For my money, President Bush is simply carrying out the recommendations of the previous administration on Iraq.

- "They had 8 months to work against terror and did nothing"

See, I dont remember that. What I remember was Washington D.C. personnel and infrastructure at total loggerheads because the previous adminstration did everything short of lighting fire to the office buildings to keep the incoming Bush administration from being able to set up its government. It was an unprecendented display of childish,unprofessional, sophomoric crap. I remember lots of little cutesy games being played with keyboards and superglue and the near universal removal of the "W" from all computer keyboards. I remember President Clinton doing just about everything in his legal power to make it hard on the incoming Bush administration to be able to get started. I remember walkouts by union staff in D.C. office buildings and other forms of soft sabotage in the first few months of the Bush Administration. Did that stop President Bush? Well it sure as hell didnt help, and if it effected just "George W. Bush - the person" well thats fine, but the truth is that crap like that cost the government many, many manhours and those manhours had to come from someplace, didnt they? I also remember a dangerous little incident with China over a P-3 Orion and a Chinese fighter that had to be handled with deftness in the first few months, this was a might distracting to the government at the time Here you are, new to the job and the very real prospect of "war with the Chinese" and you havent even gotten your name on the White House stationary yet.

I remember "Jumpin Jim Jeffords" switching sides and throwing the Senate into the opposition partys hands just in time for the nomination process to slow to a crawl in the summer of 2001. I remember Robert Hanssen of the FBI being arrested for spying for Russia and I remember that it took until nearly August for most of the major offices, such as the head of the FBI to be filled, thanks to the antics of people like Jumpin' Jim Jeffords.

President Clinton wants to paint the 'Summer of 2001' as a period of peaceful calm, where the birds were singing and the squirrels were carefully gathering nuts on the Capitol Mall, but President Bush had his hands full trying to keep the collapsing Clinton economy from becoming a full on disaster. That summer, the world was certain that Bush would not get his tax cuts because of his weak political situation, but he got them, not because he was a great politician but because everyone knew, on both sides of the aisle that unless swift action was taken, we were looking at the very real possibility of an economic depression. The world losing faith in our banking institutions and our stock market was a very, very real threat in the Summer of 2001. It was dealt with successfully, and like all of President Bushs' successful stories, quickly forgotten and jammed into the 'memory hole'. In September of 2001, whatever cool designs we were drawing on the etch-a-sketch of that years history were obliterated forever.

If the Republicans can be blamed for distracting President Clinton during his administration then President Clinton and administrations antics during the transition can certainly be used as a 'reason' for President Bushs' slow start at the beginning of his administration.

For every day of the last six years, President Bush has been called everything under the sun by everyone opposed to him, he's had his administration undermined in unprecedented ways by President Clinton and the Democrats. President Clinton has even felt it necessary to tell people overseas that "the Bush administration was wrong to attack Iraq". Can you picture Harry Truman ever saying that sort of thing against the Eisenhower administration? Don't even get me started on what President Jimmy Carter has done to the Presidency and to this country to defend his ideas of right and wrong against the "evil Bush regime".

But through all of it, I don't remember President Bush losing his temper with a reporter with quite the same verve and style that President Clinton has done with this reporter.

So, are we picking on President Clinton and his record on fighting terrrorism in the 1990's?

Sure. thats our job in the blogosphere. After all - "Dissent is Patriotic", isnt it? all we are doing is dissenting from the official line put forth by the Clinton Administration.

Poor guy. I actually feel sorry for him. He is condemmed to spend the rest of his life trying to figure out why everyone is laughing at him behind his back. The rest of us are just looking at the historical record with a somewhat objective fashion but that poor bastard actually believes what he thinks he remembers about his record.

He is now doomed to live the rest of his life in a battle with the incurable disease of nostalgic disappointment, the sort of battle waged by aging ex-quarterbacks of the losing team in the big game or by Sea Captains passed over for the big promotion for the last time.

Posted @ September 25, 2006 11:28 PM | Current Affairs

Bill Clinton is destined to be the "Uncle Rico" of American statesmen.

Posted by: DC at September 26, 2006 04:28 AM

> He is now doomed to live the rest of his life
> in a battle with the incurable disease of
> nostalgic disappointment, the sort of battle
> waged by aging ex-quarterbacks of the losing
> team in the big game or by Sea Captains passed
> over for the big promotion for the last time.

I'd like to believe that, Frank. But it's not a done deal, not yet.

The man is clearly desperate to have the history books depict him as a hero. Since he is in no way a hero, and people are increasingly willing to say so outright, his desperation continues... and you know he'll want to take another shot at it.

How can he do so? By getting his wife elected. I could imagine him working frantically on the Hillary for President campaign for that reason alone.

Plenty of people have spoken of Hillary's chances in 2008, and beyond; no need to rehash that here. But let's just remember that, if we ever have a First Husband Bill in the White House, he'll be thirsting to prove himself, as though eight years and the nation's second-ever impeachment weren't enough. And he'll be doing it for himself, not for the good of the country.

Stay on top of things, buddy. And don't forget to vote in 2008.

respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline

Posted by: Daniel in Brookline at September 26, 2006 07:23 AM

Whatever Bill does now, I really doubt it's going to affect how he's remembered in history. I think he's going to be stuck with a Buchanon or Hoover like legacy. When he's remembered at all, he'll be the guy who was president just before "interesting times." he'd likely be remembered better as the first "first husband" than as having been a president.

I actually think Hillary has a shot at the presidency if she can get nominated. She seems to take the wwar on terror seriously and has been relativly reasonable in her partisan attacks. Compared to the other Dems, she's an adult I disagree with on many issues, not some raving nutjob.

Posted by: RPD at September 26, 2006 08:27 AM

she has no chance to be President. She has a huge battle just to be nominated. In a country where the two political parties are almost even in terms of both electoral votes and the popular vote, to be President you have to win all of your party and a small portion of the other party.

Bill is a master politician. He can convince people to do things they would otherwise not do, in 1996 he convinced a lot of republicans to stay home. Hillary is not a master politician. She has never had to compete for a vote. She will have a difficult time even securing the base of her own party, and a near impossible task of getting any part of the republicans to her side. If she survives the nomination process, she comes out of it bloodied and tarnished. If she doesnt its academic but it will in the end come down to people quickly recognizing that "she is not him".

And her stance on the war, while sensible to you and me will be her undoing by her supposed base. Its not an asset, it should be, but its not.

Posted by: Frank Martin at September 26, 2006 08:43 AM

While I share your opinion of Clinton, I think that if the democrats regain the whitehouse in 2008, or even a majority in the house and senate, you will see them and their cronies in the MSM and various 'leakers' from assorted government agencies try to do a whitewash of history that would make Orwell slap his forehead in disbelief.

Posted by: Tim P at September 26, 2006 06:51 PM

You also forgot to list the transition period. Until the election of 2000 was finally decided, the Clintons did everything they could to prevent any type of transition planning to be done, so instead of a normal 100 days it was compacted into a 35 day period.

Lets not forget how George invited even Carter to his inaguration dinner. The Demo's have no honor and no shame.

Posted by: Wayne at September 26, 2006 07:44 PM

No, no Frank. You've got it all wrong.

Bill PLANNED the outburst. It was another...you know...another master-planned drama staged to show all the party faithful how they should find the strawberries...erm...react to any Conservative talking points.

FIGHT back! Wag your...your FINGER and blame Bush, Rove, (extreme) right-wing hit jobs!

*CLACK* *CLACK*

Bush tried to do it Old West with "Dead or alive" but a Democratic administration would do it properly! They'd try to kill him...in...in a multi-lateral police action with NATO commanders spending untold Euros (spent on the zip-tie handcuffs, no doubt) scouring all the right places for UBL (Niger, to start, I suppose)

A Dem majority would FORCEFULLY end terrorism by coddling the terrorists and negotiating with the foreign regimes (read: buy them out just as we did the NKor's)

And by GOD we'd find that duplicate key.

Posted by: Bennie at September 28, 2006 11:59 AM

Great job. I was looking for someone who could remember how Clinton delayed the transition team work so that Gore could continue to try to subvert the Constitutional transfer of office. Also, the sophomoric dirty tricks the outgoing Clintonistas pulled... and the Senate making it as difficult as possible for the Administration to put people in offices... other things to in blame the Dems for the war on terror... not just Clinton and Gore's obstructionism...

Posted by: rightwing at September 28, 2006 09:26 PM

Cereally though, the delays that the outgoing administration and Congress put the Bush administration through are unlearned lessons. John Bolton will not be confirmed this session of Congress-and he'll be fought every step of the way when the next session begins.

I'll believe the Donks are serious about WoT when they start lining up with others who are serious, certainly including the President, Rumsfield, Bolton, and even Lieberman.

As it stands, their line forms markedly to the left.

Posted by: Bennie at September 29, 2006 10:45 AM