RUSH: Here’s a story from a couple of days ago, New York Times, ?Clinton Gives War Critics New Answer on ?02 Vote.? I talked about this in the first hour. ?One of the most important decisions that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made about her bid for the presidency came late last year when she ended a debate in her camp over whether she should repudiate her 2002 vote authorizing military action in Iraq. Several advisers, friends and donors said in interviews that they had urged her to call her vote a mistake in order to appease antiwar Democrats, who play a critical role in the nominating process. Yet Mrs. Clinton herself, backed by another faction, never wanted to apologize — even if she viewed the war as a mistake — arguing that an apology would be a gimmick. In the end, she settled on language that was similar to Senator John Kerry?s when he was the Democratic nominee in 2004: that if she had known in 2002 what she knows now about Iraqi weaponry, she would never have voted for the Senate resolution authorizing force.?
That of course led to the “Bush tricked me” scenario, which they had to get rid of real fast because if Bush can trick her, that means her husband has tricked her, Bush has tricked her, her brothers have tricked her, what the hell is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad going to do? This woman has made it plain that she is very easily tricked, even though that’s all BS because we have gone back and played for you and <a target=new href=”//home/daily/site_013007/content/then_and_now.member.html”>posted on the website</a> her actual statements on the floor of the Senate before the vote in which she was talking to the Code Pink babes, she said, (paraphrasing) ?This research is mine,? she told them they were wrong. All of this is nothing but political posturing. We still do not have the real Hillary Clinton. The real Hillary Clinton would be someone who says, ?I voted for that war because I believed it was necessary,? but she didn’t have the guts to be who she is because of the anti-war crowd in the Democratic Party. That’s why I’m convinced they are in charge of Democrat Party foreign policy rather than the candidates themselves.
Well, despite saying that she was tricked, that if she had known in 2002 what she knows today, she would have never voted for it, the anti-war anger has festered. And so on February 17th, ?Mrs. Clinton rolled out a new response to those demanding contrition: She said she was willing to lose support from voters rather than make an apology she did not believe in. ?If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from,?? meaning Obama and the Breck Girl, John Edwards. ?Her decision not to apologize is regarded so seriously within her campaign that some advisers believe it will be remembered as a turning point in the race: either ultimately galvanizing voters against her (if she loses the nomination), or highlighting her resolve and her willingness to buck Democratic conventional wisdom (if she wins).?
So there are three positions that she’s taken on this vote in 2002, and the latest one is, ?If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from.? She’s not going to apologize. I guess she’s going to hang with the notion she got tricked. She?s gonna hang with the notion that had she known then what she knows now? I’m telling you, in a world where people have not made up their minds and judging things, she’d be gone. She would have been gone so long ago. There’s nothing that recommends this woman to be president of the United States, nothing whatsoever, no more than Minnie Mouse. As far as I know, Mickey was never even disloyal to Minnie, was he?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
All right, we have a series of Hillary Clinton sound bites. We have her saying what I just quoted her as saying on Saturday in Dover, New Hampshire. At any rate, let’s go back to last Wednesday, Hillary saying the president was acting under the cover of darkness.
HILLARY: This president was allowed for too long to commit blunder after blunder under cover of darkness provided by an allied Republican Congress.
RUSH: What the hell is she talking about? He invaded Iraq in the sunshine with your blessing! It was all done during the daytime. Might have been some nighttime votes, but the cameras were — what is this under cover of darkness business? Once again she was tricked. All that needs to happen for Hillary Clinton to miss something is for the sun to go down. You know, if she is elected president, it will be nighttime at times. Here she is on Saturday at this town hall. Unidentified reporter said, ?I remain troubled, though, about your position on Iraq and your unwillingness to apologize to the American people for your vote to authorize the war.? That just can’t be a reporter. This has to be some derelict member of the audience. Unidentified reporter would say this? Anyway, here’s her answer.
HILLARY: If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or who has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from. But to me, the most important thing now is trying to end this war. If the president won’t end this war before he leaves office, then I will, and I have a very good idea about how that can and should be done.
RUSH: Yeah, and I bet it’s smarter and clearer, and then on her website she says the redeployment would start in 90 days.
HILLARY: Now it’s time to say the redeployment should start in 90 days or the Congress will revoke authorization for this war.
RUSH: Let’s go back. We quoted this, October 10th, 2002. This is Mrs. Clinton. She’s not going to apologize, Bush tricked her, if she’d have known then what she knows how, she wouldn’t have voted for it. Let’s listen to her on the Senate floor, October 10th, 2002.
HILLARY: Today, Mr. President, we are asked whether to give the president of the United States authority to use force in Iraq should diplomatic efforts fail to dismantle Saddam Hussein?s chemical and biological weapons and his nuclear program. In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stocks, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al-Qaeda members. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. So it is with conviction that I support this resolution as being in the best interests of our nation. It is a vote that says clearly to Saddam Hussein, ?This is your last chance. Disarm or be disarmed.? This is a very difficult vote. This is probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make.
RUSH: Why?
HILLARY: Any vote that might lead to war should be hard.
RUSH: Yes.
HILLARY: But I cast it with conviction.
RUSH: Now, she knows that the Drive-Bys are not going to go back and revive that. She knows that nowhere on CNN will that ever be played. She knows that nowhere on PMSNBC will that ever be played. She knows that nowhere on ABC, CBS, NBC, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times will that ever be reprinted. Only we here in the new media have the courage to go back and put her in juxtaposition today and yesterday, then and now, as she attempts to say Bush tricked her. I didn’t hear anything in that statement about “the president says” and “the president’s intelligence agencies” are telling us. She made it sound like she had researched it, and that it was a vote of conviction. The woman is a fraud, and the Democrats are allowing the kook fringe of their base to determine the foreign policy of this country, at least as they articulate it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said yesterday that South Carolina should remove the Confederate flag from its statehouse grounds in part because the nation should unite under one banner while at war. Do you understand how genuinely intellectually vacant that statement is? That Democrats are all about unity in this struggle? Yeah, we saw that in spades over the weekend, didn’t we, with all these resolutions. The only difficulty is that they have a problem, and it’s not with the Confederate flag, it’s with any banner that would stand for victory. But I can’t believe she would open herself up. Unite under one banner while at war, while her party and herself are invested in our defeat in this war? It’s amazing!