Hillary Clinton, you are NO Jeannette Rankin

hfojvt

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Sun Apr-06-08 06:19 PM
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Hillary Clinton, you are NO Jeannette Rankin

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_jeannette_rankin.htm

Jeannette Rankin said: "You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."

Hillary Clinton said: "I was one who supported giving President Bush the authority, if necessary, to use force against Saddam Hussein. I believe that that was the right vote."

Yet she compares herself to Rankin

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2GmYQUOXiqnLy9xLzDglAsYHtiQD8VSIRO80

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton laid claim Sunday to Montana's famed female trailblazer — Jeannette Rankin, who in 1916 became the first woman ever elected to Congress.

"Remember, Jeannette Rankin was elected before women could vote. So who says men don't vote for a woman?" Clinton told an audience crowded into an airport hangar here.

A Republican and lifelong pacifist, Rankin lost her House seat after just one term in part because she voted against authorizing U.S. entry into World War I. She was elected again in 1940 and became the only member of Congress to oppose entry in World War II.

For her part, Clinton reaffirmed her vote to authorize the U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying she believed at the time it was a vote to send in weapons inspectors rather than to launch immediate military action.

"I'm more than willing to be held accountable for it, because that's the way it is life. You are judged on your actions," she said.

You are willing to be held accountable because in your view you did nothing wrong, and because you expect the consequences of being held accountable to be nothing more than a speech.

Even going beyond the vote is the way you promoted Bush's talking points. Here's the transcript from CNN's "Inside Politics" on 27 Feb 2003

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0302/27/ip.00.ht...

"Our conversation on that subject is coming up just a little later this hour. First, though, their thoughts on a potential war with Iraq. I started by asking Senator Clinton if she agrees with President Bush that Iraq has been given every chance to disarm, and that we're just weeks away from war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLINTON: Well, I think that's the unfortunate conclusion that one has to draw from any objective reading of the evidence, not just in the last months, but going back more than a dozen years now. So I think that the president's made the right decision to go back to the United Nations. I always believe if you can have a larger group of people behind you, not only for the military action, where we don't really need their help, but for what comes after, that's preferable.

But I also believe that at some point, this has been in Saddam Hussein's hands from the very beginning. He signed agreements that he has failed to keep, and even now has refused to cooperate with the inspectors. "

So you, Hillary, were supporting Bush when we were weeks away from his authorization of an invasion. People like me, and people like Obama were doing what we could to convince Bush to stop, but you were giving him a pass - laying all the responsibility on Saddam. Instead of standing up to Bush and the war-mongers, you were standing up to Code Pink and NOW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZcY6TGfAxE

Instead of taking responsibility for your record, Hillary, you are running away from it:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/?id=110009637

and trying to cover yourself with Kerry and others who also voted for the war authorization, and trying to pretend that other people's opposition to the war is just a "fairy tale".

At some point, Hillary, you will have to admit that a majority of Democratic primary voters and activists HAVE held you accountable, just like they held Lieberman accountable. Instead you act like Donald Rumsfeld. Donald Rumsfeld took accountability for Abu Ghraib, but the only thing that meant to him was to come before Congress and say "I accept full responsibility". In the same way you stand before voters and say "I am more than willing to be held accountable" while you fight like Rocky, against those of us who are trying to make your accountability be more than just an insincere speech of faux contrition. Just like we fought against the war, we are fighting, once again with you on the other side, against your nomination.