Bill Clinton channels Nixon

Bill Clinton Takes on the Polarizing Issue -

Of the attacks on his wife, he added: “She can’t help the fact that they beat up on her for 15 years, and when they didn’t have me to kick around anymore, they turned all their fire on her.”

History lesson — Nixon after losing California governor’s race in 1962

PBS - The American Experience | Richard M. Nixon

In 1962, Nixon lost the California gubernatorial race to incumbent Pat Brown. He announced his retirement from politics — and vented his hostility toward the media. “For 16 years, ever since the Hiss case, you’ve had a lot of fun,” he said. “Just think how much you’re going to be missing. You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”

Uncanny. The whole tone of Bill Clinton over these past few weeks (”It’s all the media’s fault.”) parallels Nixon’s “angry, resentful” sentiments precisely. The psychoanalysis is way above my paygrade.

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Comments

  1. Pug wrote:

    Why don’t they have Bill to kick around anymore? He hasn’t gone anywhere.

    How can we miss him if he won’t go away?

    Posted 25 Jan 2008 at 5:15 pm

  2. Redhand wrote:

    The psychoanalysis is way above my paygrade.

    You don’t need to be a shrink to see that both Nixon and Bubba were/are narcissistic sociopaths.

    Posted 25 Jan 2008 at 8:46 pm

  3. Stephen wrote:

    Pug,

    “didn’t have me to kick around” — a pluperfect tense, which, strictly speaking, makes no statement about the present. :)

    Posted 25 Jan 2008 at 11:03 pm

  4. daveinboca wrote:

    This silly blog by Seelye ends thusly:

    He concluded, oddly, with an unfortunate reminder of some of the grimmer aspects of his tenure in the White House: “And she was exonerated of every single charge leveled against her in the eight years I was president,” he said.

    Hillary has had more crises than Nixon ever had and she has been EXONERATED? BJ’s used to lying his way through every single CRISIS that Clinton Inc runs into. And the NYT, so fast to editorialize on any Republican misstatement, lets this gigantic enormous lie simply end its story!

    She’s never been exonerated about the cattle futures windfalls, since there was never full disclosure.

    She’s never been exonerated about having her so-called health care task force operate in secret in direct violation of the laws. In fact, that was confirmed.

    She’s never been exonerated about any of the Castle Grande lies and overbillings - or how the missing Rose Law billing records just happened to show up near her office, conveniently, right after the statute of limitations expired.

    She’s never been exonerated for her role in the Whitewater development…but hey, that was only a simple resort scam designed to fleece seniors.

    She’s never been exonerated about her role in the disgraceful Travel Office scandal, where nonpartisan career government employees all lost their jobs to make room for her friends, nor for trying to cover it up with a fraudulent IRS audit and criminal charges against Billy Dale - charges which took a jury only minutes to laugh out of court.

    How about the FBI files on her political opponents, which were illegally obtained by her chosen aide, Craig Livingstone? How much of that information did she copy? How much does she still have and plan to use? Exonerated? I don’t think so.

    As I recall, one of the deputy independent counsels during Whitewater even prepared a draft indictment of her for perjury, which Janet Reno quashed. That’s not exoneration either. Not in this universe.

    And of course this morning’s Today Show lets the lying shrew-***** simply explain the Rezko picture as “one of thousands” that she doesn’t remember.

    Every day adds another insult to the intelligence by Clinton Inc to its adoring [or fearful?] fans.

    Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 3:07 am

  5. rafael wrote:

    the ‘they’ in the sentence was a reference to the right wing not the media. this post is just absurd. do either of the clinton’s govern anything like nixon? or for that matter bush? not at all. both have been extremely centrist in pretty much every aspect of their governing. that’s actually why i prefer edwards or obama although after reading posts on sullivan’s page of huff post u would think that the clinton’s ruled with an iron fist. the clinton bashing is out of control in our party and so disheartening. i support obama over hrc but if she’s the nominee i’ll do everything i can to help her. i can’t count how many posts i’ve read promising to vote for mccain or not at all if she beats obama. how she’s the best bet for bush to continue his legacy. what a joke! gore got the same treatment from liberals in 2000 but now he’s treated as our savior. what changed? nothing. he made a movie. if anyone had bothered to put down one of maureen dowd’s columns about gore’s sighing(forget about bush’s lying! gore sighed!) and did a bit of research they would have found out that gore was always a comited green and a pretty liberal guy. but he was stiff and square and really wanted to be president so lots of people said he’s not that different from bush. tell that to the 100,000 dead iraqi’s and 3,000 us troops.

    Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 4:51 am

  6. Redhand wrote:

    @ Daveinboca: nice summary. HRC is as toxic as her husband, and if this pair gets in the WH we’ll have eight more years of corruption similar to the current regime, but with a Democratic tilt.

    @ Rafael. “i can’t count how many posts i’ve read promising to vote for mccain or not at all if she beats obama. how she’s the best bet for bush to continue his legacy.” Count me amont the Obama voters switching to McCain if this hideous shrew gets the nod. The fact that I’m not alone should tell you something.

    Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 8:28 am

  7. Grim wrote:

    “The psychoanalysis is way above my paygrade.”

    I think there’s some ethical rule about psychoanalyzing candidates you haven’t actually examined anyway — the Goldwater rule, if memory serves? So even those who manage to be in the right paygrade probably shouldn’t do it. :)

    “a pluperfect tense, which, strictly speaking, makes no statement about the present.”

    Hooah!, as the Army says. :)

    Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 8:51 am

  8. a former european wrote:

    I agree with Stephen. In the 60s, when Bill & Hill were hipster protestors, Nixon was the Great Satan to that crowd. I find it beautiful karma that their acts and style of governance now mirrors Tricky Dick perfectly.

    Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 3:27 pm

  9. daveincali wrote:

    Good summary, daveinboca…and here’s one that the **** hasn’t yet hit the proverbial fan. A lot to read here, but you can bet it will if she’s nominated:

    Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 5:01 pm

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