Nation Topics - Hillary Clinton | The Nation

This article presents the author's view on the American political left. The author describes how supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton responded when asked how exactly they planned to win the battle of ideas in the 2008 presidential race. The author also asserts that many progressives waited until Hurricane Katrina before they got indignant about, or even learned about, the scale of poverty blighting American cities.

Focuses on the growing consensus among Democrats that the U.S. should withdraw troops from Iraq. Demonstrations held in support of Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a killed soldier who has urged U.S. President George W. Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq; Candidacy of former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, an outspoken supporter of the movement to withdraw troops, for an open Senate seat in Maryland; View that Democratic Senators including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Harry Reid simply echo the Bush Administration's insistence that the U.S. "stay the course."

Presents the author's views on how Democratic politicians and Democratic Party policy are being effected by the Iraq war. Reports that former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Joe Biden has been vocally denouncing U.S. President George W. Bush's handling of the war while supporting the war effort itself; Comments made regarding the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by speculative Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton; Question of why Democrats continue to develop pro-war candidates while the American people continue to favor the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Presents letters to the editor in response to articles published in previous editions of "The Nation." Responses to the article "Labor Splits Open," on the clash between leaders of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Unions, in the July 11, 2005 edition; Responses to the article "Brand Hillary," on Hillary Clinton, in the June 6, 2005 edition; Others.

Focuses on the possibility that Hillary Clinton will run for U.S. President in 2008. Clinton's tour of upstate New York, which is more like the agricultural Midwest and less like the Northeast, and therefore gives Clinton an idea of swing-states might play in 2008; Opinion that Clinton is either putting on a moderate mask to hide her left-wing elitism, or that she really is more moderate and people can see it in her position as Senator; Description of Clinton's unique approach to politics.

Did Larry Klayman, the conservative lawyer/provocateur who spent much of the 1990s suing Clinton-related targets via his Judicial Watch and accusing the Bill-and-Hillary crowd of vast corruptions, recently try to skirt campaign-finance law to obtain an illegal million-dollar boost for his back-of-the-pack US Senate campaign in Florida? Klayman started Judicial Watch in 1994 and became famous--in a cable TV sort of way--by filing what seemed like thousands of lawsuits against Clintonites. On September 23, Klayman left Judicial Watch, which issued a terse three-sentence statement that could be read as a sign that the parting had not been amicable. That day, Klayman announced he was running for the US Senate from Florida and that he intended to be Hillary Clinton's "worst nightmare" In the first three months of Klayman's campaign, he raised $610,555, mostly through direct-mail fundraising conducted by Viguerie's American Target Advertising, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The author comments on claims by U.S. conservatives that they are being unfairly attacked by liberals. What's the matter with conservatives? They have the White House, both houses of Congress, the majority of governorships and more money than God. They rule talk-radio and the TV political chat shows, and they get plenty of space in the papers; for all the talk about the liberal media, nine out of the fourteen most widely syndicated columnists are conservatives. What I want to know is, Why can't they just admit it, throw a big party and dance on the table with lampshades on their heads? Why are they always claiming to be excluded and silenced because most English professors are Democrats? They've taken to lecturing the opposition on manners whenever it shows signs of life. Ted Kennedy says the Iraq war was "a fraud made up in Texas" and Bush complains that he's" uncivil." As "New York Times" columnist David Brooks, at least, acknowledges, the right is in a weak position when it claims to be shocked, shocked, shocked by liberal speech today. Well, they wanted state power, and thanks to the Supreme Court Five, they got it. But unfortunately, running the country turns out to be harder than it looked when Bill Clinton was killing off Hillary's lovers between Cabinet meetings. He made it seem so easy! Now, unemployment is way up, the government's awash in red ink, Iraq is a mess. So, everything has to be someone else's fault -- mean liberals who really, really want to win in 2004, Osama loving pranksters who forward e-mail jokes about the President's IQ, Bill and Hillary, still magically pulling the strings three years after leaving the White House, having thoughtfully arranged for 9/11 before they departed. They can dish it out, but they sure can't take it.

The sullen attitude of most Democratic politicians toward young people is reflected in Hillary Clinton's memoir, Living History, in which she laments that people between the ages of 18 and 21 "still [have] the lowest registration and voter turnout of any age group. Their apathy makes it less likely that our national politics will reflect their concerns and safeguard their future." It's their own fault if they don't appreciate what their elders did for them in the 1960s and '70s, not the fault of Democrats who made Social Security and prescription drugs their principal issues in 2002, and who communicate in language comprehensible only to devotees of C-Span while periodically indulging in attacks on youth culture. Not only do young people represent a sizable segment of undecided voters, their energy and enthusiasm influence many older voters, just as their taste in fashion and entertainment influences the larger pop culture.

Hillary Clinton's autobiography, 'Living History,' comes out barely a week after Martha Stewart is indicted for obstruction of justice and fraud related to alleged insider trading. Two blond middle-aged icons of female pre-eminence, each virtually unique in the testosterone-drenched worlds of politics and business, are ruling the headlines and obsessing the talk shows at exactly the same moment. Hillary's book comes just in time. In the third year of the Bush Administration, it was beginning to look "like conservatives might finally have to acknowledge that Bill Clinton is not President anymore. Hillary's book is handy, too, in helping Bill Kristol and his fellow talking heads brush aside pesky questions about the shifting rationales for invading Iraq, and those missing WMDs. Martha's reputation as a first-class bitch (on full view in Cybill Shepherd's portrayal in a recent NBC movie) hasn't put a dent in her cult.

Reviews the book 'The Clinton Wars,' by Sidney Blumenthal.