Team Clinton, she explains, is clearly on the campaign trail and not above exploiting the misfortunes of hurricane victims as show-and -tell props for personal political gain.
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Riding the One Trick Pony With Team Clinton
By Carol Turoff
September 20, 2005
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath of misery have been analyzed and rehashed endlessly. This is a topic not requiring more words. Then, the ever-reliable William Jefferson Blythe Clinton appeared on the scene hurling condemnation for personal profit.
Unable to contain himself at the juicy prospect of reoccupying the White House, Bill Clinton has broken ranks with customary decorum and voiced blistering criticism of his successor, President George W. Bush. On subjects ranging from the evacuation of Gulf Coast residents to the Iraq War and budget deficits, Clinton came out swinging.
Ripping at the administration’s response in the aftermath of Katrina, blame is placed on President Bush rather than the horrific and unprecedented natural disaster. Harsh truth following a calamity is often difficult to abide, but perhaps the question of why the financing and building of gambling casinos and sports complexes took precedence over the fortification of the levees surrounding the lower than sea level city of New Orleans should be answered. Should the residents of The Big Easy bear no responsibility for their ill-advised choices?
The majority of those directly affected were poor and Black. Obviously, evacuating the city was more difficult for those of little means. Such race issues have doubtlessly influenced Bush’s pledge for the federal government?s extraordinary goal of rebuilding the ravaged cities. How this massive project is accomplished while the war on terror rages and without tax hikes is a mystery replete with enough suspense to keep most of us breathlessly awaiting the next installment.
On the heels of this puzzle, Democratic politico Donna Brazile, the campaign manager of former Vice President Al Gore, has written of her support for President Bush’s planned restoration of her hometown of New Orleans, Biloxi and other devastated regions. Make no mistake. Her words signal no rebirth of affection towards him. Her underlying message is clear and cloaked in classic Democrat demagoguery. This privileged, dim and out-of-touch president has big-time debts to repay.
Bill Clinton, anointed as ‘our first Black president’ by author Toni Morrison in a 1998 essay in New Yorker magazine, can’t resist picking up that mantle again as his wife sashays towards the 2008 Democrat presidential primary. The prospect of rehabilitating himself after impeachment is enthralling.
Clinton hammered the Bush administration’s decision to"invade Iraq, virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction.”
On a roll, he termed efforts to craft a constitution that gained widespread support in Iraq “heroic but so far unsuccessful.” Apparently, he remains indifferent to the commitment of Iraqi people who have turned out in record numbers for elections and risk their lives to ensure democracy for themselves and their children.
His bride, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) holds the Bush administration responsible for everything from laxity on the environment and women’s rights to unemployment and ‘abusing power.’ Along the way, she has co-opted GOP issues, struggling to go a tad softer on her previous hard-edge pro-abortion stance and championing the use of increased technology in securing the border.
Bill Clinton chastised the U.S. budget deficit, as ‘driven by foreign wars,’ conveniently forgetting his calculated forays to divert attention from the Lewinsky scandal; bringing into question whether his confession of adultery and the ensuing legal and political entanglements were sufficient distractions to bungling his incursions into Afghanistan, Bosnia and the Sudan.
Never straying from the party line, Bush’s tax cuts, he said, ‘benefited only the richest one percent of U.S. citizens.’ Perhaps they are the ones to get the break, since they pay the heftiest share Certainly, cuts can’t be given to those who pay no taxes.
Clearly, Slick Willy is back on the campaign trail. The Team Clinton effort is intriguing to observe. Yet Brazile earns credit for out-slicking him. "President Bush spoke to the nation from my city,” she said. "I am not a Republican. I did not vote for George W. Bush—in fact, I worked pretty hard against him in 2000 and 2004. But on Thursday night, after watching him speak from the heart, I could not have been prouder of the president and the plan he outlined to empower those who lost everything and to rebuild the Gulf Coast.”
For both Brazile and the Clintons, flood victims become useful fodder for political gain. They are all too aware that things should dry out sufficiently to get the faithful out to the polls for an election still two years away.
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Carol Turoff is a former two-term member of the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments. During her eight years on the commission, she participated in the selection of four of the five current Arizona Supreme Court Justices as well as 17 judges on both Division I and II of the Arizona Court of Appeals. Appointed by two governors, Turoff served with three chairing Supreme Court Justices.
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