Clinton got along with GOP in Senate

[joshcryer]

Originally titled: "Clinton built unexpected GOP alliances in Senate" but the AP changed the heading.

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in the Senate before she had even surrendered the title of first lady. An anything-but-typical freshman, she surprised skeptics with how well she fit in to a chamber where reputations are usually built over decades. She didn't big-foot colleagues. A junior senator in the minority party, she put her head down and went to work.

She sought out the longest-serving senator in history, West Virginia's Robert Byrd, to receive a tutorial on the art of legislating, even though he had been an outspoken critic of her husband during the impeachment debate. She waited her turn to speak, and when she did talk, it was clear she had done her homework. By most accounts she was seen as a serious legislator who tended to her state's interests. She was re-elected in 2006 in a cakewalk.

But there is no blockbuster legislation with her name on it. No soaring oratory still rings in the ears. Some campaign promises went unfulfilled, notably her promise to create 200,000 jobs in upstate New York. Her vote to authorize the Iraq war and other moves toward the center caused liberals to grouse that she had betrayed her roots. And the skills that make for a successful junior senator are not necessarily those that shout presidential leadership.

<...>

Yet when the deal was in danger of falling apart, Clinton stepped aside during final negotiations and waited outside the office of then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., for fear her presence would inflame the opposition.

edit: link, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/clinton_senate

---

Class act.

I wish people would understand that whatever it comes to when Hillary loses (as it's more likely she'll lose than win) she will step down gracefully and back Obama 100%, people here don't understand that and they create this delusional evil hateful bitch woman out of thin air to support their convoluted personal feelings. It's a shame really.

[leftofcool]

1. Yes a shame indeed!

And Obama will need every Hillary supporter he can muster to win the GE.

[joshcryer]

3. I'll support Obama, I'm not going to let delusional Obama supporters screw me and my future over.

And I will camapign with John Edwards and Hillary Clinton to get their Universial Health care plan inacted.

[rodeodance]

17. The health plan is very important.

[BearSquirrel2]

22. Is that like the universal employment bill ...

Hey why not mandate everyone get jobs and call it a universal employment program.

[joshcryer]

30. Please stop commenting in my thread.

I don't find your comments a useful contribution.

[BearSquirrel2]

46. Please stop posting on DU ...

I don't find your threads to be a useful contribution.

[joshcryer]

54. You are hardly anyone worth caring about.

I've been here long before people of your ilk existed.

[BearSquirrel2]

56. You're not even worth thinking about ...

I've been here even longer.

Did ya catch on to how this works yet? I can take your childish little arguments and turn them right around.

[niceypoo]

37. Which makes you wonder why his supporters do everything in their power...

...to drive Hillary supporters away from Obama...

[joshcryer]

38. Obama is like a Mac, very loud and virulent supporters. The internet is 'anonymous,' and...

...that brings out the worst in people.

What remains to be seen is if when she steps down the supporters continue to rail against her, going so far as even rejecting her from Obama's campaign completely.

[anonymous171]

2. I thought she was a fighter who ate repugs for breakfast?

[jlake]

4. She is. That doesn't mean she is an evil, vicious bitch as so many like to believe.

[joshcryer]

6. Exactly. But if you came to DU or Kos you wouldn't have that impression.

You'd think she was satan incarnate.

[rodeodance]

18. It is incomprehensible to me.

[Hutzpa]

7. If she wasn't

then she should have run her campaign like she cared for the party by not
endorsing our opponent.

Her and Obama could have been a dream ticket, but obviously she killed it
because of greed and also of this feeling of her being 'Heir Apparent'

Its not going to happen now, she needs to just go away where people can
forget about her.

[joshcryer]

8. Please don't spread lies and misinformation, she did not endorse McCain.

[Hutzpa]

16. Saying her and Senator

McCain have the vast amount of experience over Obama is in a way indirect
endorsement, its a signal to the undecided.

That IMHO was a dumb move, she not only say it once but multiple times and
listen to Bill two days ago saying almost the same thing.

Hillary and McCain are more patriotic than Obama, how can we have her on
the ticket if she sees her opponent as worthier than her rival, these are
all signs of her being untrust worthy. I believe she is capable of sabotaging
the whole party.

We do not need another Caville moment

Not this time, makes no sense....

:think:

[rodeodance]

26. Your LIE is gettting old and boring.

Saying her and Senator

McCain have the vast amount of experience over Obama is in a way indirect
endorsement, its a signal to the undecided.

[BearSquirrel2]

23. Yes she did ...

She says that experience is more important than judgment and that her and John McCain have more experience. She merely cited Obama's experience as a "speech he gave in 2002". She neglected to point out that John McCain has 4x the experience that she does. She endorsed her own desired opponent. The Republicans will play that over and over again in commercials. That's why she can't be on the ticket. She played to McCain's strengths.

In a Rovian bid of desperation the Clinton camp is now attacking Obamas strength. They attack his judgment under the misguided assumption that they attended every sermon the man gave for 20 years. How many hours of tape did they come up with to find those few nuggets? Only one was actually remotely offensive, ... "God Damn America". And then we see Hillary was in a bible club with fundamentalist wives.

If the Wright speech is all Hillary will come up with, she's screwed. All her Rose law firm crap would be enough to bury her if Obama would consent to use it. He won't though. Obama isn't about tearing down. Ultimately, I think people sense this and that is why he will be the nominee.

[joshcryer]

29. That does not constitute an endorsement.

Sorry. :hi:

[BearSquirrel2]

50. My fellow Americans ...

My fellow Americans, experience is more important!
* My GOP opponent has 4x the legislative experience than myself.
* My GOP opponent has infinitely more legislative experience.
* My GOP opponent has sacrificed so much for this country.
* My GOP opponent knows far more foreign leaders.

My Democratic opponent has slightly less them me. Vote more me in the primary. Then reverse all my argument and vote for me in the general election.

Sure Mrs. "Run for the Cars in Bosnia" Clinton. We'll do that.

[rodeodance]

27. Many have reading comprehension problems

[jlake]

9. I'll pray for you. Your sense of truth is obviously gone.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

24. As you are gone too... R. I. P. jlake --- and hurry back!

[rodeodance]

11. your post is very bitter. I feel for you.

[joshcryer]

5. The original AP headline is much better, but they changed it.

The real point of this article is that she does work to get things done, whatever it takes, and that she'll even relegate herself to the "woman outside the room" to get negotions to work when she knows she's reviled by the other side.

[Radical Activist]

14. Funny that people accuse Obama of planning to compromise with Republicans

too much to get things done. Hillary is the one with a record of doing that. She hasn't done it as much as her husband but she hasn't had the opportunity yet either.

[ellacott]

19. That is very ironic

Obama has been slammed repeatedly for this and Hillary does the same thing. Some pundits have said she should have highlighted this more but they thought she was trying to appeal to the core Democrats.

[joshcryer]

31. Nah, it's more that his policies are too compromising.

You look at their Health Care Plans and it's obvious that Obama is basing his around appeasing the Republicans, while Hillary would use other methods to make the compromise.

Like standing outside of the door and letting others make the case and hoping her people pull it off.

[BearSquirrel2]

47. And Democrats for lunch ...

That's the problem.

[rodeodance]

10. it is a shame indeed

[rodeodance]

12. REC

[rodeodance]

13. Thanks for the OP. So good to see a good post about Hillary

[Radical Activist]

15. The time for stepping down gracefully has come and gone.

It was obvious she was going to lose after the Feb. 12 primaries. There's nothing cooperative or graceful about staying in the race to trash the nominee and hurt the party's chances in November.

[msongs]

20. che would have her executed. whatta man nt

[rodeodance]

25. Your mourning period has been so long.... And all for naught.

[joshcryer]

32. You're delusional. The party isn't that weak.

And the race isn't over until the convention.

[rodeodance]

49. They believe most of the media tells .

[BearSquirrel2]

21. Did her homework????

NIE!!! Did she do her homework on the Iraq War Resolution?

[joshcryer]

34. Yes, and as she said in her historical IWR speech, Bush was going anyway.

He was claiming right of force on previous UN resolutions. And he was right since no peace accord was signed. We we still at war.

[BearSquirrel2]

44. If he had the right to use force already ...

So your point is that Bush was going to break the law, so Hillary might as well have made it legal. If Bush had the right to use force already, why did Congress need to vote on it?

The point is that she was told by Bob Graham and other Senators to go read the National Intelligence Estimate and she didn't. She did NOT do her homework on a monumental bill and we ended up invading the wrong country.

[joshcryer]

55. No, she did it to change the dynamic from "go to war" to "inspect the country."

*Many* people here are *completely oblivious* to the rhetoric back in those days.

[xultar]

28. Doesn't Obama want to work with them as President? I don't get why it is o.k.

for OBama to do it but not anyone else...
Reid
Pelosi?

splain.

[joshcryer]

33. It's not OK to have whole programs that cater to them.

Such as Obama's Health Care Plan.

[bhikkhu]

35. I hope so. I have heard little but praise of her as a senator

I recall wishing she would not run, knowing the national negatives she would have to overcome, and the slim likelihood of that happening with the MSM and talk radio arrayed against her. I have lost a lot of respect for her in this campaign...she has acted in many ways as her critics predicted she would act. But nothing is written in stone, and NY may have a fine senator back, and the narrative of the campaign is not yet written, lacking an ending to put the beginning and middle in perspective.

[joshcryer]

36. She'd be fine if Obama didn't run. Which is why she was angry with him when he did.

She was running before he declared. She was quite upset with him when he ran because she knew it'd be a race about "which minority is better, the women or the black man," and essentially an American Idol-esque type thing.

I promise you that she will not compromise the election, she will do everything she can when she steps down. It won't be a disgruntled run into the closet type thing like so many people here wish. They wish she'd just drop out of politics completely and "disappear." She's not going to do that.

She'll back Obama 100%, and hopefully the Hillary supporters who recieved so much hatred here and elsewhere on the internet won't hold it against the supporters.

[TwilightGardener]

39. How do you know she was angry? Did you read that somewhere?

[ruggerson]

40. There's a story somewhere

that after Obama made it clear he was going to run, he approached her in the Senate and said "hi" and she was cold to him. He got upset about it and called a friend and said, "you're never going to believe what just happened with Hillary." She had apparently been very gracious to him when he arrived in the Senate, had helped show him the ropes and taken him under her wing, so he was shocked that she was upset.

I have no clue where I read this and it's all from memory, but I'm aging rapidly and can't give you a link because I wouldn't know where to start looking. But I know I read it somewhere. :)

[TwilightGardener]

41. OK, thanks--I remember hearing about that now.

[joshcryer]

43. Yeah, and of course people use something like that to say how evil she is.

She was trying her damndest to get the Presidency. She fought hard for it. Little did she know that the country wasn't ready for a woman yet. Kinda suprising, too, given how she had to leave the room and let the "big boys" talk just so vets could get their health insurance.

I don't blame her for being upset.

[joshcryer]

42. There's a story and even video of her and Obama on the Senate floor.

She was visibly upset.

[bridgit]

45. BFD!! BO supported Cheney's energy bill shit open your eyes!!

I'm going to rec this, #5, and put in on the front page so everyone outside can see how vacuous DU BO supporters really are, good job :thumbsup:

[rodeodance]

48. Hillary has always worked well with groups.

[bvar22]

51. Hillary sought out Byrd for a "tutorial"?

Too bad Hillary didn't seek out Byrd for advice on how to vote on the "Authorization to Use Military Force in Iraq".

If she had, she would stand a chance of being president in 2009.

[BearSquirrel2]

52. To bad Clinton ...

To bad Clinton didn't talk to Byrd before NAFTA went through. I remember what he said on the floor about NAFTA undermining our national sovereignty.

[woolldog]

53. Nah

"people here don't understand that and they create this delusional evil hateful bitch woman out of thin air to support their convoluted personal feelings. It's a shame really."

Nah I went from liking her to despising her, and it was based on nothing but her actions and the way she's conducted herself over the past year. Didn't create anything out of thin air.