Red Re..I think he did his best to get things done and I think all the Republican opposition and hate is a testimony to that. People only attack those who they fear or view as threatening.
People also attack people they dislike and people they don't trust. The republicans dislike Bill because Bill used them as a whipping boy every time he needed votes. In congress things are often done with a wink and a nod. You vote for my bill and I will vote for yours. Give me 1 billion for fixing the roads in my state and I will vote for that new submarine which will be built in your state's shipyard type of thing. Politics always involves give and take. The problem with Bill was, he wouldn't keep his word. His wink and nod was just a means of getting you to agree to something he could rip you apart with later in the press. The negotiations for fixing medicare is a good example. Everybody in congress and the president agreed that in order to fix Medicare, everybody had to give up something, and the bill had to have partisian backing' plus the president had to agree to sign such a bill before anybody would even agree to introduce a fix. Finally in 93 after both sides and the president agreed in private on a fix for medicare, the republicans introduced a bill they had agreed on in advance which would have kept medicare from insolvency for another 15 - 20 yrs. Both dem. and rep. in both houses sent a bill to the president. But what happened. Dick Morris through his polls, told Bill that this bill was unpopular with the seniors; and if he vetoed said bill, he would have a popular campaign issue which could win the up coming election. And that is exactly what Bill did. He vetoed the bill and started a savage campaign in which he accused the republicans of trying to take away medicare. And it worked. Bill was able to resurrect his presidency on two issues in 1996. One was the medicare bill and the other was shutting down the government. On both, a compromise was worked out in advance, then when the bill was sent, Bill vetoed it and blamed the republicans. Since then it has been a war between the republicans and the president; but don't think for a minute Bill is blameless. I am not trying to say the republicans were totally blameless because Newt used petty politics to gain the job as house majority speaker and then used partisian tactics to keep the house republicans voting in a block. But Bill was the president and could have overcome that. The simple fact is that by blaming the republicans for everything, including the Lewinsky affair, he set a bitter partisian tone in Washington which left both sides devastated. In fact, I can't think of 1 major bill which was passed during Bill's second term in office. Bill's only major accomplishment during the last four yrs. had to do with foreign affairs. The war in Bosnia and the peace pact in Ireland.
What I learned out of that experience is that there are those elected officials who are both popular and actually trying to make progress and to do things that are positive. Those officials tend to be the ones under attack.
Hogwash. Every politcian, good or bad is under attach with this attack campaigning. The guy who attacks first and is the meanest and has the biggest stick usually wins. Bill constantly beat the republicans because the had the bigger bully pulphet; and he had more money. Bill was great at that. But does that make Bill a great leader. NO!!!! A great leader has to have the ability to lead his troops. But if nobody is obeying his commands, he ceases to be a leader. Bill fought with congress rather than try to compromise and get bills passed. The fact that the president and congress were gridlocked left the door open for Greenspan to run the economy, and AG did a great job. It also didn't hurt that Washington was so gridlocked during Bill's last four yrs that no large spending programs were approved, which kept spending down. That probably would never have happened without gridlock.
More threatening is H. Clinton.....she is not damaged like her husband. And so the Republicans need to be afraid....very afraid.
Two wks. ago before Bill and Hillary's disgraceful exit, Hillary could have been a force. Now I think she will have a hard time recovering from the damage. She may be all smiles in public, but backstage ; if you listen to George Stephanopolus; she was a hard woman. It was she rather than Bill who witheld the Whitewater papers, eventhough they were subpoened. It was she who instigated Travelgate. It was she who took the china and silverware off of Air Force one; and other things out of the White House which weren't theirs to take. And lets not forget that, with that harsh attitude, its likely that future books about the Clinton legacy won't be too kind to her. |
