Bill's Wagging His Finger Again

"Stop pickin' on my wife, Fousesquawk!"

In the wake of Hillary Clinton's disastrous performance in the last Democratic debate, her "gallant" husband, Bill, has joined in the ludicrous attempt at spin to limit the damage to Hillary's credibility. In spite of the campaign's insistence that Hillary is not playing the female victim of the "Boys' Club" of presidential contenders, we still see the anger at Tim Russert for having the temerity to ask a pointed question with a pointed follow-up. Believe it or not, the Clinton camp thinks that Hillary has been victimized by the news media in their questioning. (Mainstream News Media no less). For once, someone had the courage to ask her a hard question and insist on an answer. Now, Bill has jumped into the fray.

This time, Bill has once again wagged that famous finger of his at the press and warned them not to "Swift-Boat" his wife. I have a couple of thoughts about Mr Clinton's words. First of all, the last time we saw Clinton wag his finger, I believe he was telling the press and America that "he did not have sexual relations with that woman" (Ms Lewinsky). That, it turned out, was one of the greatest and most convincing lies a president ever told the American people. Most of us have thus concluded that whenever Mr Clinton wags his finger (or bites his lower lip), falsehoods are on the way.

In addition, Clinton's protests belie the claim that Hillary is strong enough to run on her own, independent of Bill. The truth is that she has ridden his coattails ever since he entered public life. Does anyone really believe that Hillary would be a presidential candidate or even a US Senator had she not been married to Bill? Of course, we are expected to believe that her experience as First Lady "uniquely qualifies" her to be President. If you look at the records of her Democratic opponents, most have more credentials than Clinton. Dodd and Biden have spent decades in Congress. Richardson has been a governor, Ambassador to the UN and a cabinet member. Even the hapless Dennis Kucinich has more political experience than Mrs Clinton. If she has more experience than those other candidates, I have more homers than Barry Bonds. Yet, Hillary continues to claim that her experience as Bill's wife "uniquely qualifies" her to be president, even while the Clintons have succeeded in keeping any and all documents from the Clinton Administration that pertain to Hillary from public view.

But I degress. As for his reference to "Swiftboating", Mr Clinton was referring to the campaign by Viet Nam Swiftboat veterans in the 2004 election that questioned John Kerry's Viet Nam War experience. Now, I have written before, and will repeat that I, as a Viet Nam Era veteran who served in Germany, would never criticize or question Kerry's military credentials. As for the Swiftboat veterans, in my view, they did have the standing and the right to speak out. That leads me to my point: How dare Bill Clinton make any negative references to those Swiftboat veterans-people who served in Viet Nam while Clinton was hiding from the draft through trickery, lies and deceit? Bill Clinton is a bonafide, certified draft dodger, and anything relating to Viet Nam is an area he would be best advised to stay away from.

But with his cojones, you can bet Bill will keep digging himself deeper. The question is whether the Mainstream News Media will follow Russert's lead and keep asking Hillary the questions they should have been asking for years, which they must know she cannot handle well. I have a few suggestions.

One- Mrs Clinton, do you and/or your husband have any overseas bank accounts in, say, Switzerland for example-or any other country?

Two- In the light of the release of Kathleen Willey's book, do you believe that charges made by her, Paula Jones, Juanita Broaderick and Jennifer Flowers were false?

Three- Could you please tell us what, if any actions, you took to have those women investigated and discredited.

Now, I have no idea how Mrs Clinton would answer those questions- whether she would lie, deny, spin or what. But wouldn't it be worthwhile to get her on record in a public forum?

It must have been a great shock to the Clinton camp when Russert asked her about illegal licenses for illegal aliens. Now I can understand why the Democrats refused to debate in front of Fox News. We should watch Hillary closely in her answers, and we should watch the Mainstream News Media closely in their questions.