BROADSIDES

September 26, 2006

The Crybaby-In-Chief
It was deja vu. Watching an angry, red-faced Bill Clinton wagging his finger as he whined denials to less-than-pleasant facts about his conduct as president. And as was the case in the infamous Lewinsky press conference, Classless Clinton was -- GASP! -- lying to Chris Wallace during the Fox News Sunday interview.

What is it with Clinton and his index finger? When caught in his own web of lies, he shakes The Finger at people in a shame-on-you manner. He also uses The Finger to poke people; these pokes come in two varieties: the Monica Poke and, as we saw on national television last Sunday, the Chris Wallace Poke.

When Clinton repeatedly poked Wallace's knee to angrily emphasize a point, I was hoping Wallace would respond in one of the following two ways:

1) "Mr. President, I know you're used to touching people below the waist but, unlike you, I'm a happily married man. So hands-off, hillbilly."

2) "BAD TOUCH!! BAD TOUCH!!"

Alas, Wallace held his tongue.

Of all the bullshit Clinton piled during that interview, the most outrageous lies concern Osama bin Laden. Clinton whined, "I worked hard to try to kill him." Later, after making the ludicrous claim that no president came as close to killing bin Laden as he did, the perennial adolescent pouted, "But at least I tried. That's the difference in me and some ..." (And here I always thought you'd had to be at least 35-years-old to be president, and yet, America apparently elected a child.)

It's interesting that Bill repeats claims that he tried to "kill" bin Laden after the terrorist received refuge from the Taliban and elements in Pakistan. However, he conveniently fails to mention (and this is key) that bin Laden was based in The Sudan before moving to Afghanistan, and that the Sudanese government repeatedly offered to turn the terrorist bigwig over to the United States. Stunningly, Clinton refused the Sudanese offers.

The answer as to why Clinton declined to take custody of one of the world's most dangerous terrorists can be found in a mindblogging Clinton quote that I wrote about four years ago. The quotation is from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam's book, War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals. Halberstam writes about a meeting in Washington in late 1992 between President-elect Clinton and the Democratic committee chairman from the House of Representatives. When he met Lee Hamilton, the-then chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Hamilton advised Clinton, "Well, Mr. President, we have China. Whatever you do on China, you're only going to please half the people. Then, there's Saddam Hussein --" Clinton interrupts Hamilton and says, "Lee, I've been traveling around our country for a year and no one cares about foreign policy other than about six journalists." Astonished, Hamilton replied, "That may be true but the last presidents have been defined by foreign affairs."

There you have it: Bill Clinton just didn't really care about bin Laden or any other foreign policy matter.

As I wrote in September of 2002, this stunning conversation illustrates the Clinton approach to politics: "Since opinion polls didn't reflect a substantial concern about foreign affairs, President Bill Clinton had no intention of exhibiting leadership on any foreign policy issue. And the enemies of the United States made the most of it."

And thousands of Americans were murdered.

So when Bill Clinton concluded in 1992 that he and most others didn't "care" about foreign policy and governed accordingly, he unwittingly imposed a death sentence on thousands of his fellow citizens.

Clinton's overly defensive behavior on Fox News Sunday suggests that, deep down, he knows the truth and is tortured by it. And justly so.

B. Sides @ 8:07 AM