Bart Does The Clinton Shuffle

House socialist Bartholomew Sullivan write this story, on the front page of the Commercial Appeal, on former President Clinton's speech last night in West Memphis. It's as expected--breathless and uncritical.

Former president Bill Clinton returned to his
roots to reminisce and joke with friends in
an energetic Arkansas Democratic Party
unity rally in West Memphis Monday
evening.

Characteristically more than 90 minutes
late, Clinton whipped up the partisan crowd
with the message that Democrats have to
keep a "check" on Republicans in power in
Washington and Little Rock.

Newschannel 3, WREC, had a reporter there and his story had a lot of footage of the event. "Whipped up" would not be the description I'd give to the people shown. Bart then mentions that 400 people were there (although Channel 3 reported more like 250), but you have to read down even further to learn that the auditorium was two-thirds empty! Even on home turf, after being gone a while, right next door to Memphis and he can't even fill a rinky dink auditorium?

At another point, he told a story about a man who sold raffle tickets for
a dead mule, making more than $800. The punch line: "That guy
became an accountant for Enron and a fund-raiser for the Republican
Party."

Bart, you'll notice, lets this straight line pass. Clinton's '96 re-election campaign was the most money-drenched and -corrupted in modern history. The litany of campaign, legal and ethical violations is too much to list here.

As he sat on the stage listening to candidates' campaign bromides, he
often stared into space with a far-away look. But when a speaker
reminded him of some incident from his own past, he punched the air
with his fist and shouted "all right."

That first part, about staring into space, in a Republican would no doubt have been labelled something else. Maybe "seemed uninterested?"

"Whatever they can do to advance the interests they represent, they will
do," Clinton warned. "There were a lot of days I woke up in the Oval
Office and there were things I could have done with the power of my
office that I did not do because it wasn't the right thing to do."

"Woke up in the Oval Office?" He was sleeping there? And then there's the many things he did do in the Oval Office that he shouldn't have--like blowjobs, pardons-for-cash, not capturing Osama Bin Laden, etc.

Clinton said that under the current administration, since Sept. 11, the
poor and middle class have been asked to make sacrifices, but people
such as him get tax breaks.

"I'm making a lot of money now. You know what my sacrifice is? They
want me to expend the energy necessary to open the envelope
containing my tax cut. They want to give me a tax break cut with your
Social Security money and your Medicare money - and it's wrong. It's
not right."

Hey, Bill! If the money is so terrible, why not send some of it in to the government? They'll know what to do, right? If you don't need it send it "back" to the government why don't you? And you can take a pass on having the government spend its money to reimburse you on the legal costs of investigating you during Whitewater.

Bill also says, and Bart lets pass, that Social Security and Medicare money come from the same tax pool as the money used in the tax refund. Wrong! SS money is a completely separate account. What's going on, why we have deficits again, is a Congress (both Republicans and Democrats are doing this, too) that has allowed pork spending to get completely out of hand again, and a President who allows it so he can get his War on Terrorism funding.

Of course, conspicuously missing from this account is any mention of Senatorial candidate Mark Pryor, who wasn't there. Once again, he's avoided being seen with the disgraced former President.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has a story on this as well, which is slightly less flattering and also has a long section interviewing Pryor's opponent, Bill Robinson. I can't get a link to the D-G (browser compatibility problems), but you can read it on FreeRepublic, here.

Both articles repeat the same Clinton joke, which bears repeating here. Even after all this time, he still doesn't get it.

"[The Republicans] spent $70 million of your tax money to prove I was a sinner," Clinton said. "You could have told them that for
free."

Yeah, because Arkansans knew all about you before you inflicted yourself on the rest of us. Or Bill, you could have just 'fessed up like you should have and saved us all the trouble of having you found guilty, impeached and disbarred.

Until next time,
Your Working Boy