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.

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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.

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"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.