Confucius Say...
By Arianna Huffington, via Common Dreams:
Bill Clinton's Muddled Attempt to Own the Middle.................the rest is HERE.
Since leaving office, Bill Clinton has tried out a variety of positions: Elder Statesman, Prolix Memoirist, King of the Public Speakers, Hospital Bed Campaign Advisor, First Husband-in-Waiting, Disaster Fundraiser, Global Visionary.
But judging from his latest TV appearances, he seems to have landed on a brand new incarnation: Equivocator-in-Chief.
Forget all the nonsense you might have heard about the former president taking on the current one (Drudge linked to a story calling it "a withering attack" and right-wing blogs followed suit) -- in truth, he consistently played both sides of the fence.
On a variety of key issues -- especially Iraq and Katrina -- instead of offering clarity and leadership, he offered a steady stream of have-it-both-ways, “on the hand… and on the other” reasoning.
Let’s start with the Katrina relief effort. After spending the early days of the catastrophe providing cover for Bush (including making the ludicrous claims that the flooding of New Orleans could not have been foreseen, and that we could not make any judgments on the response without being there), he belatedly decided to cast a discerning eye on the administration’s woeful handling of the disaster. “You can’t have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle-class people up,” he told George Stephanopoulos. True, but not exactly “withering”.
And he took a page out of the GOP playbook by spreading the blame around, pointing the finger for the lack of an effective evacuation plan squarely where it belongs: uh, everywhere. “Maybe the mayor, maybe the governor,” he said when asked who was responsible. And maybe the dog catcher too.
Of course, this is the same guy who 13 days earlier had adopted the administration’s talking points and counseled against playing the blame game, saying “I don’t think we should do it now”.
This too-little-too-late criticism smacks of the worst kind of bandwagon hopping -- and a transparent attempt to placate Democratic anger at his shilling for Bush. Not exactly leadership in action.
The Equivocator-in-Chief was equally all over the map when it came to Iraq...........
Ouch! Kinda reminds ya of "Don't ask, don't tell", doesn't it? Another wishy-washy reasoning that has certainly compromised our military.
