For Their Sake and Ours

I'm not gloating. I think this assassination flap is genuinely sad. Hillary Clinton was a terrific First Lady - compassionate, engaged, strong, smart, and articulate. She's been a fine senator on domestic policy, although a weak one on foreign affairs (the result, I suspect, of a cynical Presidential strategy; without it I think she'd become a great Senator there, too). By all rights, she should become a major figure in American politics. Instead, both she and Bill keep tearing down their legacy in front of the entire world.

For their sake, and for the party's, make it stop. If you care about the Clintons - and many people do - make it stop. If you want to end the war in Iraq and restore our civil liberties, make it stop.

I don't know if this latest gaffe will end her candidacy, and I'm not sure it will cause any of her liberal Democratic supporters to waver in their support for her. That's sad, too. Too many progressives have failed their cause when it comes to ending this destructive rampage, which ceased being a viable campaign weeks ago. I'm not going to name them, because I like and respect them, but think about it:

Two Air America radio hosts pushed for Hillary to be named VP after the 'white Americans' remark. With courtesy and love, I have to ask: How can they think a candidate deserves to sit at the top of a "progressive" Democratic ticket after a statement like that?

Prominent liberal reporters insisted indignantly that the Clintons would never - never - use racially coded language, despite all the mounting evidence to the contrary. (One of them was finally forced to acknowledge that Hillary sounded like "George Wallace" with that "white" comment, but most of them remain Clinton defenders.) Respectfully, I have to ask: Did proximity to that famed Clinton charisma make it more difficult for them to see what had become increasingly obvious to the rest of us?

And now Hillary supporters now insist they'd rather see McCain as President than Obama, just because Obama had the temerity to win the Democratic nomination. I feel for their sense of disappointment, but can they really live with themselves if they do that?

The Clintons are people of enormous personal charm. They've no doubt used it to influence these radio personalities and liberal journalists. It's the same thing the Bushes did with the rest of the mainstream press. But I know them, these liberals will say.  They would never do that. And I understand the yearning to see Sen. Clinton as an inspirational figure, too. But these influence leaders, and these Clinton supporters, have refused to waver even as the deeds and remarks pile up:

* The war vote.
* The refusal to apologize for the war vote.
* The pro-torture comments.
* The Jesse Jackson remarks.
* The "we'll stay in Iraq when I'm President to hunt Al Qaeda" remark.
* The vote for Lieberman's amendment.
* The MLK vs. LBJ gaffe.
*  Geraldine Ferraro and her "lucky black man" comments.
*  Obliterate Iran.
*  Those hardworking Americans ... white Americans.

And now, "April flowers bring May showers. June brings assassination." And that's only a partial list.  Frankly, some of these other incidents bother me much more than the assassination remark does (although her refusal to apologize to the Obama family, especially those little girls, is churlish.)

But the main point is this:  If you can call yourself "progressive" and keep defending this behavior, we have different meanings of the word. But I don't think we do. So, for the Clintons' sake, and for everybody else's:

Make it stop.