He said what?
Writing by treason on Sunday, 30 of October , 2005 at 6:08 pm
I am a Cubs fan, so there’s a masochistic streak running through me that I can’t deny. I landed on C-SPAN and saw Bill Clinton yesterday. Ordinarily I’d switch him off immediately, but I sensed that the 2008 campaign is underway and I wanted to hear his pitch for re-entry to The Oval Orifice. I guess FNC was listening, too, but they heard something very different. When I tuned in this morning they were all a buzz about Bill’s criticism of the Democratic Party. Funny, that’s not what I heard at all.
No, what I heard was the usual “I was just trying to do my job as president for the American people when those mean Republicans came along and kept me from doing what I needed to do to fix all the problems of the last 200 years for the folks.” Then he thanked one of the mean Republicans - Laura Bush - for inviting him to speak (and speak, and speak, and speak) at the Texas Book Festival.
“I’m grateful to Laura Bush for asking me to come down to do this, which was a hazardous undertaking for her since I’m of political persuasions that I am in one of the few friendly places I can be in Texas to say all the stuff I’ve got to say.”
An hour and a half went by. But what FNC heard - and other news outlets reported — was Bill criticizing the Dems. What Bill actually said was:
“You can’t say, ‘Please don’t be mean to me. Please let me win sometimes.’ Give me a break here. If you don’t want to fight for the future and you can’t figure out how to beat these people, then find something else to do.”
Translation (and what I heard): The Democrats aren’t winning because they’re just too nice. They can’t be as mean as the Republicans. They just aren’t as good at launching personal attacks and destroying people. They need to stand up and be heard and stop being so civil. They need to save the American people from the mean Republicans.
To my ear, that’s not a criticism of Democrats; instead, it’s the usual Clinton attack on Republicans. Again, he did nothing wrong, the Republicans just made stuff up and were out to get him. Mean, mean Republicans.
Bill’s on the campaign trail. But I will give him credit on something. He did say that Democrats have to talk openly about hot-button issues like abortion. On this point, I agree with him. My “stop the muzzling” theory applies here. T walks out of the room when a political debate turns into two people shouting over each other. Where is the real debate? The real discussion of issues? I long for the days of Firing Line. And here’s Bill Bennett trying to speak honestly about something and he’s vilified.
I want the Democrats to state their positions. I want to hear their plans. I want them to explain their vision. I’m waiting.
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