McCain on Clinton Before he Needed Her Supporters
19 June 2008 8:00 am by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
There’s a lot of trumpeting of McCain’s high opinion of Hillary Clinton these days, especially by anti Obama zealots. Democrats who are intent on ignoring McCain’s record regardless of what’s at stake. There is
no doubt that he and Hillary are friends. But he’s had some very bad moments
where Hillary is concerned, even mocking her just like the wingnuts do, with
special glee. He’s been just as insulting as anyone else when it comes to Clinton, as he talks nicely out of the other side of his mouth.
McCain taking a look at a nursing school’s training mannequin asked if the
dummy’s name was Hillary.
“I was very glad to meet the dummy, named ‘Hillary,’” McCain said
to laughter after a tour of the school. “Is that the name?”
On Chelsea Clinton, McCain let fly one of the worst “jokes” ever.
Nevertheless, this year’s presumptive Republican presidential nominee,
John McCain, had to apologize for telling this joke at a Washington dinner
in 1998: “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her
father.”
It’s appalling that some former Hillary supporters are giving McCain a pass, while
Obama gets blamed for being the only one ignoring the sexism coming Hillary’s way. Hardly the case. McCain’s recent compliments are simply self-serving. He wants anti Obama zealots to vote for him. It may work with some, those who are as willing to ignore the facts as they are McCain’s record.
Republicans
attack Hillary all the time, but voting McCain is just fine because he’s not Barack.
RNC Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan released the following statement
tonight:“Senator Clinton will do and say whatever she has to win, and that’s
what she did in Nevada. She is the first person to tell you that she wants
to be president, but she’ll be the last person to tell you the truth
about her misguided policies. She won’t tell the truth about why she
said she would ‘of course’ support funding the troops, then turned
around and voted against funding our men and women in uniform. She won’t
tell the truth about how she plans to pay for her $110 billion-a-year health
care plan, or how she wants to raise taxes on all Americans. The truth is
Americans can’t trust Senator Hillary Clinton.”
The Republicans Hillary hits are endless. Remember
Alex Castellanos?
“Her problem is she’s Hillary Clinton. And some women, by the
way, are named that (bitches) and it’s accurate.” – Alex Castellanos
As those anti Obama voters also give McCain a pass for voting yea on impeachment,
but also having a horrific
environmental record, even as he now preens as a Teddy Roosevelt “Republican.”
“In the Senate, McCain has been a rock-solid vote on just about every
core G.O.P. issue, winning high ratings from the Christian Coalition and other
conservative groups. He supported every item in Newt Gingrich’s Contract with
America and voted to convict Bill Clinton on every article of impeachment.
And his environmental record would make Teddy Roosevelt cringe. McCain has
voted many times to cut funding for toxic-waste cleanups, he has supported
subsidies for mining on public lands, and he favors reopening national forest
lands to logging. (In 1998 the League of Conservation Voters gave him a zero
rating.) He is a longtime friend of the National Rifle Association’s, voting
against the Brady Bill in 1993 and the assault-weapons ban in 1994. He’s against
the licensing and registration of handguns. He has repeatedly voted against
minimum-wage increases and equal pay for women, and labor considers him a
reliable anti-union vote.
On
Hillary’s Iraq speech, McCain’s spokesperson let fly:
“At a time when Senator Clinton knows that American and allied forces
are making real progress in Iraq, it is unfortunate that she would look to
score political points by mischaracterizing Senator McCain’s statement with
intellectually dishonest attacks. The differences between Senator McCain’s
position, that we must win this war, and Senator Clinton’s position, withdrawal
and de facto surrender on day one, are important enough to have an honest
debate over. It would be the height of irresponsibility to stick with campaign
promises to the left-wing of the Democratic Party and proceed with withdrawal
regardless of what the situation is on the ground in Iraq in January 2009.
The point that Senator McCain was making was one about American troop presence
versus American combat presence. He was speaking of a post-war scenario, not
a hundred year war, when he suggested that the American people could support
maintaining a military presence in Iraq should the Iraqi and U.S. governments
determine it to be in their mutual interest, just as the U.S. and German,
Japanese, and South Korean governments did after conflicts. One would suspect
Senator Clinton is aware that American troops have been present peacefully
in Germany and Japan for more than six decades. The American people deserve
more than blatant mischaracterizations, and we invite Senator Clinton to participate
with us in an honest debate.”
But nothing gets into the gutter deeper than John McCain talking about the Clinton administration, which provided more jobs and a better economy than anything the Republicans have done in recent memory.
“I don’t intend to discuss the Clinton scandal,” McCain said. “I’ve always believed the scandal in Washington was not Monica. It was the abuse of the institutions of government by Clinton and Gore. The scandals are absolutely disgraceful.” – AP
Hey, but that’s so 1999.
The next time someone hails McCain on Clinton someone should send them this
list. Sure he’s friends with her, but before he needed her supporters’ votes he wasn’t exactly Mr. Nice Guy. Any claim to the contrary is myth making.
