After returning yesterday evening from an afternoon & evening of socializing and entertainment, I logged on to find another whopper from the master of the whopper, the man who joins Democrats Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson (Democrats as well) as the only presidents re-elected without winning a majority of the popular vote:
It’s like when they issued the evacuation order. . . . That affects poor people differently. A lot of them in New Orleans didn’t have cars. A lot of them who had cars had kinfolk they had to take care of. They didn’t have cars, so they couldn’t take them out.
Yep, while interviewed on ABC’s This Week by his former acolyte George Stephanopolous, Bill Clinton spoke those words. The former president forgot to mention that it was the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans who let his city’s fleet of buses sit idle and so failed to evacuate the less fortunate residents of the Crescent City.
Perhaps, Clinton was upset that many of those affected the hurricane liked the president’s speech last Thursday. Even the woman who managed his designated successor’s presidential campaign was proud of the president and the plan he put forward.
Clinton didn’t just take issue with Mr. Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. He also faulted him for the war in Iraq and other issues. And while I was busying socializing, browsing for books and watching the pleasant flick, Just Like Heaven, a few bloggers weighed in on Mr. Clinton’s lack of class. They pointed out how his criticisms of his successor were at odds with his past statements, made both while he was in office and after he left. This blogger does a good job of fisking the former president’s interview with his one-time aide. (HT: Polipundit’s Lorie Byrd.)
Powerline claims we are entering “uncharted waters” for until now, “former Presidents of both parties have stayed out of politics and have avoided criticizing their successors.” Lorie Byrd has two posts on the topic (calling him a “No-Class Slime” and providing great links here). At National Review Online’s the Corner, K-Lo says Clinton’s working on the “MoveOn crowd for Hill.”
Up until this weekend, I had thought that, by and large, Clinton had showed more class as former president than he had as president. He had supported President Bush’s Iraq policy, had even defended him against criticsm for his handling of Katrina. He has become friendly with his successor and with his predecessor (his successor’s father).
And President Bush has extended to Clinton the respect one would expect a president of the United States to show a former chief executive. He offered gracious speeches when Clinton’s portrait was unveiled at the White House in June of 2004 and at the opening of the Clinton library last November.
It seems that, despite his past statements and some sensible domestic policies as president that Bill Clinton, just like his wife, is becoming just another Dean Democrat.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
In a long, but brilliant post on Clinton and his comments this weekend, the Anchoress observes:
What he does serve is his own towering ambition, and his other, sadly insatiable (and ultimately destructive) need – his need to be loved.
Just read the whole thing. It’s well worth your time.