17 Months

I'm sorry I've neglected this important work for so long. Commitments to work and family proved to be greater than expected, and I had to reconsider my priorities. Yesterday, I was reading a piece by Paul Hogarth out of San Francisco, who summed up my own sentiments nicely:

[I]t is depressing to see Hillary Clinton pick up support for the nomination, when Democrats – and the country – deserve so much better.

It is just that: depressing. Over the past year and a half, Clinton has dominated the field in fundraising, press coverage and polling. Too many of us are sitting on our hands, allowing a Republican-lite candidate to be thrust upon us yet again. What's worse, Clinton would have the world believe that Progressives are a flock of sheep with internet access, basing judgment on whatever statement she's released the day before. In the past 17 months, Clinton has changed or "moderated" her official stances on:

• The war
• Healthcare
• Wal-Mart
• Marriage equality

There's an old Chinese proverb, "silence is approval." While many of us have spoken up, we clearly haven't spoken up enough. The comment section is open for everyone who has an idea on what to do to make sure that our party--and our country--gets the kind of president we deserve.

Catching up on things...

For those of you who, like myself, may have missed Senator Clinton's latest transgressions against our movement (and the actions taken to remedy them) over the past month, here's an attempt to sum them up:

• John Tasini has caught our attention as a strong opponent against Senator Clinton in September. He possesses the credibility and the principles we'll need to force her to get serious about adhering to our progressive principles.
• Senator Clinton has maintained her support of Ariel Sharon's apartheid wall, and was arrogant enough to post pictures of her smiling in front of a map of it on her campaign website (there's also a shot of her smiling with the butcher himself).
• Senator Clinton has been cozying up to arch-conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
• Senator Clinton was a guest of her imperialist pals at a "job and internship fair" in Syracuse hosted by several prominent military contractor.
• Senator Clinton was cited as having accepted money from Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
• Senator Clinton got a slap on the wrist for flagrantly violating campaign finance laws for a 2000 fundraiser where her campaign lied to the voters about nearly $1,000,000 in receipts.

Please let me know if I've missed anything. Be sure to know that this last absence aside, the folks who run PAH will be with you every step of the way as we move toward September and the fight to put a real progressive in office heats up.

Wait-and-see...she might turn into a Republican!

Senator Clinton has adopted a "wait-and-see" policy on ending the military's continued occupation of Iraq. Clinton's 'red shift' is nothing new, but the AP writer who posted the story really called her on it, to a greater extent than I've ever seen.

With Americans embroiled in a heated debate over the US invasion of Iraq, Senator Hillary Clinton has taken a position considerably to the right of many in her Democratic party, including that of her ex-president husband.

* * *

Those comments are the latest sign that Clinton -- known during the eight years of her huband's presidency as a "bleeding heart liberal" -- has reinvented herself in the Senate as something of a hawk.

***

"If you look at the polls carefully, they show that Americans are disaffected with the Bush administration policy in Iraq, but have very little confidence in the Democrats on that score either," said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

"Her position is a much better general election position" in that it will enhance her credibility among conservatives and moderates, said Sabato.

[emphasis mine]

There's something to be said about the fact that coverage of Senator Clinton's "principled positions" are being followed by punditry from political science professors...

Now Open for Comments

My apologies: it seems the user name "Progressives Against Hillary" was too long to allow for the comment link to appear after any posts. In sharing comments, please be sure to post the links of whatever you are citing so that other readers (myself included) may follow up on them. So far, the only issues explored have been Senator Clinton's acceptance of corporate/military dollars, her politicking and her support of the Israeli wall and the Iraq war. Please try to keep the discussion as fact-based as possible: what she's doing poses a serious danger to much of what our movement stands for, and it needs to be addressed in a responsible manner.

Hillary on the fence

I'm not saying that the Palestinian fence should be the end-all in deciding whether someone is a good Progressive, but when you're willing to sell out an entire people that's been treated like second-class citizens by a regional power for decades in exchange for solidifying your support amongst downstate voters in New York, there's something wrong. It's safe to say, that if Hillary Clinton were a senator from Michigan or another state with a larger number of Arab-American voters and fewer Jewish-American voters, she'd have been speaking from the other side of that fence.

Meanwhile, just in case his opinion in Casey didn't give it away, the Washington Times is reporting that Judge Samuel Alito is severely anti-choice: it'll be fun to see what tricks Senator Clinton performs after she rolls over on this one too. Just to review, by January, we will have had two anti-choice, anti-Roe justices added to the Supreme Court over a six-month period. Senator Clinton needs to end this charade of pandering to the right and put her foot down; it was one thing to replace Rehnquist with Roberts, but O'Connor was an important swing vote on many issues, and the stakes have risen. Certainly, she can vote against his nomination and put out a couple of angry press releases, but that's not the Senator Clinton many of us are getting ready to help in 2006. If she wants to lead America, she can start by leading the resistance to Alito instead of hiding behind her staff. Senator Clinton needs to stand on the steps of the Supreme Court with a mob of young Progressives and loudly tell George W. Bush that the American people will not stand for what he's doing. We need to put forth a united front against this dangerous attack by the radical right, but so long as Senator Clinton continues wasting her influence "triangulating," there's very little to hope for.

Clinton Continues Pandering, at Home and Abroad

Senator Clinton will be traveling to Israel. One stop on the trip: the fence.

Mrs. Clinton is also planning to visit part of the security fence in the West Bank that the Israeli government built to protect its citizens from incursions by terrorists. Mrs. Clinton's advisers say she supported construction of the fence, which has been criticized by Palestinian leaders and others.

The Times cuts right to the chase on her motivation for this excursion.

This will be Mrs. Clinton's second trip to Israel since she took office. In the 2000 Senate race, the security of Israel became an issue in the campaign, with Mrs. Clinton's Republican opponent, Representative Rick A. Lazio, challenging her commitment to Israel.

We should all hope that Senator Clinton would be less supportive of the state of Pennsylvania erecting a fence that encompassed Binghamton, but Pennsylvania is, after all, worth 21 electoral votes. It's also highly unlikely that Senator Clinton will use the trip as a chance to hold a press conference condemning the illegal war she's supported for over two years.

Senator Owned

A quick look at the numerous corporations who have donated to Senator Clinton's campaign will make your stomach turn. Just to name a few:

Wal-Mart - champions of labor exploitation, union busting and sweatshops.
BlueCross - nothing shows a commitment to healthcare reform by taking money from the people who stand to lose the most by it.
Cigna - ditto.
ExxonMobil - 'nuff said.
Lockheed-Martin - military contractor.
Northrop Grumman - military contractor.
Raytheon - military contractor.
BAE - military contractor.
Boeing - military contractor (and corporate welfare recipient).

And these were just in the first three quarters of 2005. Congratulations, Senator Clinton: you have the campaign finance record of a Republican.