Sunday, November 04, 2007
Question Time For Bill
Okay, so Bill says that Russert's questioning about the archived White House communications between himself and Hillary! are "breathtakingly misleading." As usual, Bill is lying. Via The Corner:
Being able to go after both Clintons will make a much stronger case against another Clinton presidency than if Hillary campaigned on her own. For just as she can't enter a ring full of men and then cry "piling on", she can't send Bill out to fend for her and then distance herself from his record, on which it is now once again open season.
Typical full-on Clinton bullshit. If this is going to be the norm heading into the general election, I can only say that I welcome Bill's presence in the campaign and wish him luck in his new position batting cleanup for Hillary.RUSSERT: Senator Clinton, I’d like to follow up, because in terms of your experience as first lady, in order to give the American people an opportunity to make a judgment about your experience, would you allow the National Archives to release the documents about your communications with the president, the advice you gave? Because, as you well know, President Clinton has asked the National Archives not to do anything until 2012.And the follow-up:RUSSERT: But there was a letter written by President Clinton specifically asking that any communication between you and the president not be made available to the public until 2012. Would you lift that ban?[The entire exchange is here.]Clinton says the question was misleading because, "She was incidental to the letter, it was done five years ago, it was a letter to speed up presidential releases, not to slow them down."
True, the letter (which you can read here) did urge the National Archives to speed up the release of some records from the Clinton administration, with several key exemptions that Clinton listed in the letter. Among them:... communications directly between the President and the First Lady, and their families, unless routine in nature... (Emphasis mine)That's exactly the passage Russert asked about, almost word for word. How is that misleading?
Being able to go after both Clintons will make a much stronger case against another Clinton presidency than if Hillary campaigned on her own. For just as she can't enter a ring full of men and then cry "piling on", she can't send Bill out to fend for her and then distance herself from his record, on which it is now once again open season.