There is nothing so cringe-worthy as Hillary Clinton’s spinners trying to justify her contempt for the American people’s intelligence and her insistence that she is the victim, not the perpetrator of double standards.
That NBC would have such a character on in the guise of some sincere commentator and that Chuck Todd would take her seriously tells you all you need to know about the unholy alliance between the mainstream media and the Clinton flacks. (And parroting the nonsense that the left has been reciting for years she blandly proclaimed: “Those 47 senators essentially bolstered the extremists, bolstered the military position, right? So that actually undermines the person in Iran who may be trying to move in a more moderate direction. That doesn’t help us either and our concerns about what’s going on in Iraq and the region, nor does it help us with our negotiating position.” No, dear, there are no moderates of note; they were knocked off when President Obama and Clinton gave the stiff arm to the Green Revolution.)
Finney is not the worst of the lot, however. James Carville on ABC’s “This Week” offered that Clinton was justified in evading the State Department rules and setting up an entirely private e-mail system in order to evade congressional oversight. (“I suspect she didn’t want Louie Gohmert rifling through her emails.”) However, to ABC’s credit, Greta Van Susteren was there to tell Carville to his face that he had “just stepped in it.” And host George Stephanopoulos spoke for many of us when he deemed it “dispiriting” that the Clinton e-mail debacle was still ongoing. At least with Carville the understanding is that he is the official Clinton poodle and can be dismissed out of hand.
Carville long ago accepted the role of court jester in the Clinton entourage. But how exactly do the Clintons persuade a Karen Finney or an elected member of the House and Senate to debase themselves by carrying their spin?
Maureen Dowd reminds us how noxious and omnipresent are the Clinton’s flacks: “It’s all so drearily familiar that I know we’re only moments away from James Carville writing a column in David Brock’s Media Matters, headlined, ‘In Private, Hillary’s Really a Hoot.’ . . . When the Rogue State of Bill began demonizing Monica Lewinsky as a troubled stalker, [Hillary] knew [she] could count on the complicity of feminists and Democratic women in Congress. Bill’s female cabinet members and feminist supporters had no choice but to accept the unappetizing quid pro quo: The Clintons would give women progressive public policies as long as the women didn’t assail Bill for his regressive private behavior with women.”
You would think by now self-respecting public servants and even campaign advisers would run for cover when the Clinton damage control siren call goes off. But they don’t. Let’s keep in mind that if not for a Carville, a Lanny Davis, a David Brock and a Karen Finney, Bill and Hillary Clinton would have to do all their dirty work themselves. And if the flacks in turn knew they’d be ridiculed by the press instead of being taken seriously (or semi-seriously in the case of Carville and Brock), the voters might think better of the media. But let’s get real. Hillary is too old to change now, the flacks sold their credibility to the highest bidder decades ago, and an outfit like NBC, well before Brian Williams decided fiction was his strong suit, stopped being a critical, independent news outfit. The voters, however, can decide not to put up with any of it. They can tune out, turn the channel and, most important, turn the page on the Clinton circus.