Not two hours after the lights went out in the Northeast last Thursday, Sen. Hillary Clinton
was in front of the microphones doing what she does best: carping, criticizing, dividing. Her
first thoughts in a time of crisis were not about how she might help her constituents in their
time of need, but about how she might exploit the situation for selfish political gain.
While other, far more responsible, elected officials were offering consolation and advice to a concerned citizenry, Hillary was in full campaign mode. While those affected by the power
outage were worried about relatives, friends and fellow citizens trapped in high-rise elevators
or sweltering subway cars, Hillary had more important matters on her mind.
“I don’t think,” she told reporters, “the federal administration under this president is really focused on making sure we don’t have these problems in the future.”
New York Republican Congressman Peter King, a pragmatic sort whom even Hillary would
never link to the vast right-wing conspiracy roaming the attic of her overactive imagination,
described the comments as “absolutely disgraceful,” not least because of their incendiary
potential.
“There could have been some incident last night,” King told radio host Sean Hannity during
an interview on Friday, “and then you attach that to what she’s saying and you get out of
control and, before you know it, you have cops fighting for their lives in this city.”
Hillary delivered herself of her shrill commentary just as the darkness of night was enveloping a city that found itself with neither lights nor – on an oppressively hot August evening – air conditioning.
“We didn’t know what was going to happen,” King told Hannity. “And all you need is
someone who’s supposedly a national leader, trying to sow the seeds of division – and you have the police out there trying to keep order in the streets – and you have an elected official
basically trying to divide the country, I mean, it’s irresponsible to do that.”
NewsMax.com’s Carl Limbacher, author of the new book Hillary’s Scheme which argues
that Sen. Clinton is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, writes that “Given
her outraged tones,” most Americans “would never know that she’s been a leader in opposing energy independence for New York State, preferring instead to champion environmental cause celebs like fighting acid rain and closing the Indian Point nuclear plant.”
Limbacher notes that a year ago, “Clinton slammed a Bush administration proposal to
allow utilities to upgrade their plants by relaxing a few of the more punishing environmental
regulations. She warned of “dirtier air and rising temperatures” that would expose citizens “to
increased childhood asthma rates, higher sea levels and more acid rain and mercury-tainted
fish.””
Limbacher contrasts Clinton’s position to that of former New York City Mayor Rudy
Giuliani, “who was making the case that New York needed more power plants as far back as
1999. “If we don’t increase significantly the amount of power in the city of New York, we will
have happen to us what happened in California,” Giuliani said after a blackout in upper
Manhattan.”
Hillary’s behavior brings to mind her performance on the floor of the Senate in May 2002.
A New York Post story on U.S. intelligence pre-9/11 carried the terribly misleading headline
“Bush Knew.” As the story itself made clear, Bush in fact did not know that massive terrorist
attacks against the U.S. were planned for Sept. 11, 2001, but Hillary saw her opportunity:
“I am simply here today, on the floor of this hallowed chamber, to seek answers to questions,” she intoned. “Questions raised by our newspapers in New York, such as the one with the headline “Bush Knew.” The president knew what? My constituents would like to know the answers to those questions….”
Hillary was well aware that the newspaper account to which she referred did not at all
justify her innuendo, but she was determined to squeeze the non-story for every last drop of
political juice.
Note To Readers: Radio talker Michael Savage, whose program was terminated by WABC, has been hired by WOR (710 AM) to host a show weeknights from 8 to 10p.m.
Jason Maoz can be reached at [email protected]
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