March 25, 2008
Hillary Clinton Invents Combat Experience (Brent Budowsky)
Having achieved peace in Northern Ireland and single-handedly passed the children's healthcare bill, it wasn't surprising to hear Hillary Clinton's long tall tale about her dodging sniper fire in Bosnia, in a combat experience that never happened.
I have been waiting for Bill Clinton to emerge with a speech about "the two candidates who have seen military combat, John McCain and Hillary Clinton."
Next thing, Hillary will claim she lifted the flag at Iwo Jima before she helped Eisenhower end the Korean War and walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong.
What is amazing about this tall tale was the detailed story she told: how she charged into the scene with head low under enemy fire, at a moment too dangerous for even Bill Clinton to risk.
Equally amazing were the number of witnesses and the fact that her heroic charge into bullets, or lack thereof, was filmed by CBS.
Al Gore never actually said he invented the Internet, while Hillary did indeed invent a tall tale full of rich detail, told with ruffles and flourishes, a story of heroism under fire, not a detail of which was true.
Who knows what will be next? Word on the street is, the flight suit used by George Bush on the aircraft carrier might be available for rental. Perhaps she can don the flight suit and regale us with stories about how she flew with Doolittle's Raiders when they bombed Tokyo after Pearl Harbor.
Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This 22 Comments
»
The Hill welcomes comment from anyone and will almost always post it whether it is favorable or critical, as long as it is substantive and advances debate.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
If only the valiant Hillary had been there instead of Monica.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — March 25, 2008 @ 11:45 am
"Billy Flynn" would be proud.
Comment by Lyn — March 25, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
Well said.
Comment by Jennifer — March 25, 2008 @ 12:31 pm
Perhaps Mr. Sestak's career accomplishments in the USN were bloated too, as he unseated Rep. Weldon. Coming too close for comfort for the Clintionistas, Mr. Weldon was Shanghaied, or more accurately torpedoed to oblivion. Sestak would naturally minimize the obvious embellishment. Greasing the grease-gun?
Comment by Tony — March 25, 2008 @ 12:33 pm
If you screw up and say the wrong word, it's mispeaking, The wicked witch of New York just flat lied. You can spin anyway you want she got caught padding her resume.
A realist in Oz
Comment by Gary Newcome — March 25, 2008 @ 12:39 pm
Even if we were to be generous with Senator Clinton's questionable memory (who doesn't remember where they were when they were shot at?) we have to wonder why neither Bill nor Chelsea refreshed her memory. Chelsea, especially, who hasn't the travel experience of her parents certainly must recall if she ever had to run for her life and where she was at the time. Sounds like a family disease.
Comment by Linda — March 25, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
Yes, you're right to laugh at her lies. When I used to call her a two-faced liar months ago I was accused of "hating women". Now it's OK for CBS to expose Hillary, yet what this episode really exposes is the veil of the mainstream media bias that has lifted because of their preference for Obama. The MSM sat on the story for months, even though many of them traveled with Hillary. They needed to strike now at their former darling and they did. That's how honest reporting works these days.
Comment by Igor R. — March 25, 2008 @ 1:35 pm
She didn't make a "misstatement", she flat out lied about nearly every single detail of the trip.
Comment by Jeff Wartman — March 25, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
It just gors to show you the VAPID morals of the Democrats as a whole… All of them acuse Conservatives of lying, while they spew "documented lies" that the Main Stream Liberal Media chose to ignore for the most part. The only reason this is getting any traction is because Barack the chosen one is in trouble. They needed somrthing to wipe his mess off the front page…
Comment by Dusty Roop-Texas — March 25, 2008 @ 2:01 pm
Perhaps Hillary can become the Chairperson for the Dumbya Bush library. Brent, Hillary would look good in that 'Mission Accomplished' flight suit. Hillary and Dumbya, two peas in a pod.
Comment by Lester — March 25, 2008 @ 2:13 pm
RE: Bosnia Trip 1996- What you say should match what the Videotape record of the event shows… Her handlers tried to spin the story and say the “Sniper Fire” was in the hills around the airfield. (Strike 1) They ran for the Cars with their heads down (Strike 2) There was no greeting party when they landed (Swing and a miss, Strike 3, She’s Out!) Let’s go to the Videotape.
Comment by Scott — March 25, 2008 @ 2:14 pm
I am beginning to wonder if Hillary needs psychiatric help. Her incessant lies may be a sign of something hiding -like the desire to rule the world. This is not the first lie and sure won't be the last. In fact she lied on top of lie when she said she was mispeaking. I hear she told this same story four times starting the end of 2007. She's quite the phoney !!
Comment by Jen — March 25, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
Errol Kennedy
Defending Hillary Clinton Bosnia Visit
The current group of political candidates is arguably one of the very best ever assembled, on the Republican side Senator McCain is indeed a true war hero, the Democratic Party has two historic candidates in Senators Hillary Clinton-First Lady current New York Senator and Armed Services Committee member and Barak Obama-Illinois State Community organizer and yes an African American, although we are not supposed to mention that. What boggles my mind is the desire by some to reduce the level of discourse to its lowest denominator by resorting to name calling and the distortion of the candidate’s record. And to what end? Take the recent Washington Post article titled Sinbad Unloads on “Hillary Clinton” by Mary Ann Akers (March 11, 2008) and the many others written and aired since that time regarding the First Lady’s visit to Bosnia. Her campaign have since stated that she may have misspoken on some of the details of that trip, specifically as it relates to the threat of snipers so many years ago. I have even seen accounts by many of my colleagues minimizing the risk in the theatre at that time, talk about a lapse in memory? The hounds are certainly circling the wagon- but let’s not be mistaken; not only did Senator Clinton visit Bosnia she also travelled to the more dangerous outpost like Camp Alicia, “the Dawg Pound” and Camp Bedrock. Not so for others in this campaign.
Camp Alicia was a sprawling mix of wooden tent like structures, located on the DMZ separating the warring factions-Bosnian Governments forces and Bosnian Serbs. This was home to the famous 1St Squadron 4TH United States “Quarter Horse” Regiment from Schweinfurt Germany and the 19th Engineer Unit among others; an elite group of professionals the Quarter Horse Regiment did much in those early days to provide stability and security at great risks, to the country as part of a multi-national task force structure Operation Joint Endeavour. Let’s not be fooled, this was largely a devastated, war ravaged, mine infested volatile region where sniper activities and even attacks on the base was a real and ongoing concern. Force Protection was priority number one, security measures were constantly being upgraded and the Americans were dubbed “ninja turtles” because they were always fully dressed in combat gear including flak vests despite the 100 plus degrees summer heat that preceded one of the worst winters in the region. A simple trip anywhere in the theatre had to be well planned and coordinated with the various fire bases providing interlocking protection and each convoy consisted of at least four vehicles. Senator Clinton was accompanied by Chelsea Clinton and Secretary of the Army Togo West as she visited the troops (Mike O’Conner, Response by G.I.’s Mixed, New York Times, March 26, 1996) I don’t recall Sinbad making it out to that base, or any of the other Senators currently running for office for that matter, that being said however these visits and the many others, including the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, served largely to uplift the morale of the troops, reinforced the view to our fighting men and women that our nation appreciated our service, and allow our civilian leaders a look at life on the ground for our fighting men and women. A much exercised imagination may even concede that visiting American Troops in harm’s way such as she did in Bosnia, Iraq and other areas of the world, along with the interaction with leaders in those countries could and should indeed bolster her “Commander -in -Chief creds.”
Soon after First Lady Hillary Clinton’s visit, there was another memorable visitor to Camp Alicia, the late Ron Brown, United States Secretary of Commerce. Secretary Brown and his entourage consisting of, a high level trade mission, was the first to bring “Burger King” to our outpost, sadly he lost his life that dark and cloudy afternoon (3 April 1996) when his plane crashed in Croatia shortly after he left Bosnia. In a private conversation with the Secretary just moments before he left on what turned out to be his last flight, he made glowing reference to the fact that the First Lady had taken the time to vist the“Dawg Pound”. I still recall how he threw his right fist in the air, and remarked with his usual easy smile and fierce conviction that the “democratic party need more soul! (A reference to my question as to the state of the Democratic Party back home). He was right then and his words may even be more prophetic today. Some members of the party and supporters may lost their collective soul and it may yet prove to be a rather difficult proposition to engage supporters of Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton in the unlikely event she does not gain the nomination to vote for Barak Obama. This would undoubtedly provide a clear glide path for the Republicans victory in November. Barak Obama cannot be President of the United States with a Party divided, one that is in cahoots with the National media to distort both Senator Clinton and President Clinton’s records and in particular her years of hard work for middle class and poor Americans, women and children.
There was also the time when our convoy came in contact with a group, so called “The Women of Srebrenica” a group fighting to get information as to the whereabouts or bodies of their husbands and sons abducted and killed during the fighting, we were forced to spend the night in our vehicles, far away from the base Camp as the protesters blocked our movement. So let’s not belittle the visit, many others stayed home back in the good ole U.S.A. and exercised their rights to criticize the decision to send troops into Bosnia in the first place, a decision that history has proven to have been a brilliant display of military strategy and geol political cooperation compared to the current war in Iraq. Oh did I mention the hundreds of bodies buried in mass graves all over the country, this was clearly not Disneyland.
As we move forward in this campaign season where sensitivities have been elevated and there is an atmosphere of increased urgency to elevate one candidate over another, let us agree to disagree with our candidates, but never be disrespectful in the event they achieve their goal at high office and return the favor to the American people. Because it is only when we are divided that we fail. The stakes are too high this time. Fortunately regardless of who gets elected, there will be little chance of our country going the way of Bosnia or of Iraq for that matter, which is a testament to our political leaders whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents. For this we must be proud and if they do not live up to our expectations four years is a very short time to once again exercise our right to terminate their occupation of the White House.
Sinbad is a very funny guy and we were happy for his visit to Bosnia, because he too could have stayed home and criticize but he showed leadership in visiting the troops in danger much the same way as he now ardently supports his candidate. I’d like to think this was just an attempt to inject some much needed humor in the campaign and to revitalize his career but others may have a much more sinister motive. In an election cycle were there are charges and countercharges one thing is certain, Senator Hillary Clinton is one smart, dedicated and patriotic and vetted leader with a record of proven accomplishments, from First Lady, Senator of the Great State of New York and member of the Armed Services Committee, she has earned a record of unparallel success garnering huge bipartisan support in getting things done for America. There is little wonder that Senator Obama agrees with her on all the issues even on health care, her signature issue and an area in which she took tremendous negative scrutiny as First Lady, Mr. Obama now agrees with a whopping 95 percent of her plan. Senator Clinton inspired me to be willing to spend an additional year in Bosnia in 1996 and still continues to do so today.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE3D61139F935A15750C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
Comment by Errol Kennedy — March 25, 2008 @ 3:14 pm
Okay -NO FOREIGN POLICY-NO DOMESTIC POLICY, Supported NAFTA, did not help in Ireland, voted for the Iraq war–next thing we know SHE will Be claiming lack of rest made her misspeak.
When will they just go home.
Comment by Docb — March 25, 2008 @ 3:14 pm
anyone notice a pattern here?
Comment by james d granata — March 25, 2008 @ 6:06 pm
Her husband at least is a skilled liar. He never would have said what Hillary did. She is either a poor liar, or she is delusional. Take your pick.
Then all the snipers who looked through their rifle scopes at her, said "ow! that hurt" and they ran away!
Comment by Matt51 — March 25, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
Not Ready to Make Nice
SC frequently reports that Hillary Clinton's campaign is dirty, and Obama's is some saintly integrity-filled religious experience above the fray of vulgar politics. HuffPo does the same. And you, Brent are one of the more aggressively abusive Hillary-haters. Please allow me to remove your naiveté, and give you some facts that SC readers deserves to actually get instead of this Hillary bashfest SC has become.
Here are some precious beloved Barack vile dirty politics never reported — a timeline of a few of Obama's morally superior negative campaign tactics: (I found the info on Tennessee Guerilla Women Blog: http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/)
http://www.attacktimeline.com/
What do you have to say about all of that stuff, huh, Brent?
(Tennessee Guerilla Women blog says after supplyiing that attack time line link:
"Oh, and didn't Obama's campaign co-chair just accuse Bill Clinton of McCarthyism? Talk about nasty and melodramatic campaigning! Oh, and didn't Obama's campaign manager just launch a personal attack against Hillary's honesty and integrity?
Not the kind of politics Obama is about? Is Mr. Morally Superior even on the same planet as the rest of us lowly reality-bound earthlings?
Philadelphia Inquirer:
Obama said that Clinton "has the right to continue to compete," but he agrees with Richardson that the campaign has turned negative - and he blames Clinton.
"She's just trying to tear me down, and that's not the kind of politics we've been about," Obama said in the interview.")
Come ON,Brent!!! Are you doofuses going to hand the presidency to the fascists AGAIN!!! Hillary can beat McCain, Reverend Wright's parishoner can't. Try a little disclosure of your guy’s very dirty laundry before continuing anymore with the tiresome and incorrect Hillary Hatefest crap that does not serve our best good.
BTW, here's a rock video to listen to from Dixie Chicks, while you read the meaningful list of Barack very dirty lying jabs (see attack timeline) against Hillary (which the sexist boysclub keep batting around on MSM and the blogosphere) at
NOT READY TO MAKE NICE by DIXIECHICKS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adzkyretz6k
P.S. Your sexism is showing. Yep. Transparent to those of us who see through what men say about women, particularly when they are a Presidential candidate. You guys can't just brush it off, like you think you have done by simply ignoring the fact. We women in this country have been deeply riled and disgusted by the stench of it. Dear GAIA, we've had enough!!! Grow the hell up and realize its safe and good to embrace and respect capable, intelligent women with leadership talents. At least give Hillary Clinton a fair shake instead of a blugeoning shakedown every damn time you open your mouth and post. It's leaden, man. It reeks. It's not even about actual facts, like the crap Obama says about her.
What I'd like to see is for you men to get inspired with some admiration for the fact that the character traits of being a fiesty fighter who sticks with it to the end, is EXACTLY what we need right now. (Instead, she's condemned as a party spoiler because she has stick-to-it-iveness). We needed it on 04 but had a wimp that bailed on us. I was a Deaniac. I still play that clip of his great yell, which was the battle cry to unite us to fight the frauds. Hillary has been fighting them for 16 years. Newt. Remember what that slime bucket did to the Clinton Administration? Rush. Remember what that pusbag has done and continues to do to Hillary? Every wonder even for a second why? She must be a huge threat to the Republican neocon agenda for such unrelenting and ferocious slanderfests pummeled at her. Unfortunately, even intelligent Democrats get suckered into the 100M propaganda and hatefest campaigns, instead of clearly seeing that we're under seige by some bad players, and Clinton is standing there fighting her guts out to work for this country's people.
(watch the Dixie Chicks video)
But Democrats for the most part are I guess wimpy. They like the wimpier guy who can say lofty things that cozy into their wishful thinking. The fiesty fighters like Hillary Clinton terrify the crap out of you sideline boo and hiss squad that are weakening those of our party who are actually fiercely powerful and effectual and need all of us to back, especially when the hugely presidential, feisty fighter we've got is a WOMAN this time.
_______
Lené Wangmo
cross posted at SC
Comment by Lene Wangmo — March 25, 2008 @ 11:04 pm
I am not sure - someone get Wolfson on the phone - but I think Sinbad may have passed the Clinton-campaign-commander-in-chief test (the "CCCCT").
Clinton/Sinbad '08 - the "new dream ticket!!"
Comment by warren — March 26, 2008 @ 2:25 am
I agree that she lied and did not make a mistake. It would have been great if she would have said the "I made a mistake" when she voted to give Bush authority to go into Iraq.
Comment by radpaddi — March 26, 2008 @ 7:31 am
Hillary is disintegrating for everyone to see, like Brittany Spears. She is no longer fully in touch with reality because she can't deal with her dream of the Presidency slipping away for her. So many hopeful moments are only followed by disappointments, it's hard to deal with that when your whole life you lived for this one goal.
Comment by Igor R. — March 26, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
Igor, don't count Hillary out just yet. She could run in 2016 after Obama has term limited out.
Comment by Lester — March 26, 2008 @ 5:35 pm
Lester, the country isn't so far to the left as to elect two Marxists for three consecuitive terms. McCain is left-of-center anyway. Given how Hillary and Obama are destroying each other why are you so sure that Obama can make it to the White House?
Comment by Igor R. — March 27, 2008 @ 1:53 pm