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Random commentary and senseless acts of blogging.
The first Republican president once said, "While the people retain their virtue and their vigilance, no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can seriously injure the government in the short space of four years." If Mr. Lincoln could see what's happened in these last three-and-a-half years, he might hedge a little on that statement. Blog critics Gryffindor House Slytherin House Ravenclaw House House Elves Beth Jacob Prisoners of Azkaban Muggles
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Sunday, June 30, 2002
Blame it on Bill Nathan Newman has a good piece on the hypocrisy of Republicans blaming Clinton for the current crop of business scandals. Republicans spent the 90s loosening the rules for accounting and stock manipulation while Clinton tried, although pretty half-heartedly, to maintain some more protection for stock owners than the GOP wanted. The current tendency to blame Cliton for not stopping terrorism runs along the same lines. Republicans weren't attacking Clinton when he was in office for being too cautious in using force. They were doing the opposite, attacking his use of force. I was listening to right wing talk radio during the Kosovo campaign, and they ranted at great length about Clinton's 'aggression' against Yugoslavia, stopping just short of holding pledge drives to buy the Serbs anti-aircraft missiles. The charges that were made that Clinton 'wagged the dog' and used the military for his own political purposes had a strong effect in restricting his military options. It was very clear to Clinton that if he attempted a more extensive campaign which led to US casualties, he would be accused of killing American soldiers to keep his poll numbers high, and much of the media, which went along with so many other unsubstantiated and now discredited Clinton pseudo-scandals, was likely to go along with it. Today the same people who did all they could to tie Clinton's hands are attacking him for not being aggressive enough.
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