FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com
(DV) Frank: Bird Dogging Hillary Clinton


HOME 

SEARCH 

NEWS SERVICE 

LETTERS 

ABOUT DV CONTACT SUBMISSIONS

 

Bird Dogging Hillary Clinton: The Antiwar Movement Steps Up
by Joshua Frank
www.dissidentvoice.org
December 10, 2005

Send this page to a friend! (click here)

 

One has to be pleased that the antiwar movement is taking shape. Finally the target isn’t just George. W. Bush and gang. Last Monday night at a chic Manhattan fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, antiwar activists staked out the Senator and vowed to do so until she changes her position on the war.

Senator Clinton released a letter last week which clarified her (non)position on Iraq. She said she wouldn’t accept any timetable for withdrawal and won’t even embrace a "redeployment” of US troops along the lines suggested by Rep. John Murtha.

“I take responsibility for my vote, and I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the president and his administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war,” Clinton wrote in her lengthy letter that amounted to nothing short of denial for her own culpability in the mess.

Last Friday Sen. Clinton spoke at an event in Kentucky where she reiterated her position stating, “The time has come for the administration to stop serving up platitudes and present a plan for finishing this war with success and honor,” she said. “I reject a rigid timetable that the terrorists can exploit, and I reject an open timetable that has no ending attached to it.”

Translation: Sen. Clinton is all for an extended American stay in Iraq. She “takes responsibility” for her vote on the war, but won’t admit that it was wrong. And of course, Clinton is still for “winning” this war. Whatever that means.

Antiwar activists across the country have not been overly pleased with Sen. Clinton’s continued warmongering these past few weeks. Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, who supported John Kerry’s pro-war campaign last year, has changed her tune on the Democrats and says she will be hot on Clinton’s trail across the country. “We're calling it Bird-Dog Hillary,” Benjamin raves.

It’s about time.

Cindy Sheehan also said she’ll be tracking down Hillary, maintaining that her and other activists may even take Camp Casey to the streets of NYC. Activists here in New York assured me last month that they plan on organizing a lot of events and sit-ins in front of Clinton’s offices in the months ahead. I think this is proof the antiwar movement is finally getting somewhere.

Over on the other side of the country in San Francisco antiwar activists plan to hold a huge rally on December 20, where Clinton will be attending a bar association benefit with an interview session with Jane Pauley.

Focusing all of the antiwar movement’s energy on the Republicans is shortsighted, and perhaps worst of all, completely naive. The Democrats not only authorized this war, they still by and large defend the ongoing occupation.

Taking on the leaders of both parties is paramount if we are ever to end this bloody conflict.

How nice it would have been for the antiwar movement had they held Kerry’s feet to fire during last year’s presidential election. But one has to be glad that prominent leaders like Medea Benjamin and publications like The Nation, which is also stating that they won’t be supporting any pro-war candidate in the future -- are finally coming around. The liberal myopia that infected so many may at last be wearing off.

Lesser-evil politics often gets in the way of successful social movements; so let’s hope anti-warriors keep up their pressure on the Hillary Clinton. It can only lead to good things.

Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, just published by Common Courage Press. You can order a copy at a discounted through Josh’s blog at: www.brickburner.org. He can be reached at: brickburner@gmail.com.

Other Recent Articles by Josh Frank

* Changing Courses? John Murtha is No Knight in Shining Armor
* Democrats Forget Palestine, Again and Again...
* The Tempest Cometh: Jack Abramoff’s Bipartisan Sleaze
* Democratic Hawks: The Avian Flu of the Antiwar Movement
* Hillary Clinton’s Big Jaunt to Israel
* The Liberals’ Ridiculous Defense of President Bill Clinton
* The Merger of Senator Max Baucus and Leo Giacometto
* The Senate’s Closed Session: Nothing But a Democratic Sham
* Don’t Divert: Keep Opposing the Iraq War
* Invading Iran: Who Is to Stop Them?
* Kevin Zeese’s Antiwar Campaign for the US Senate
* The Miers Nomination: Washington Politics at its Finest
* An Interview With Ward Churchill (Part 3)
* Cronyism and Capitulation: The Scoop on Harriet Miers
* Accusations and Smear: Interview with Ward Churchill (Part 2)
* NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan, But Not the Antiwar Movement
* Accusations and Smear: Interview with Ward Churchill (Part I)
* Winning the West: Progressives “Stand Up”
* Bunny and the War Profiteers
* Drop Kicking Juan Cole and Marc Cooper: Will the Real Leaders Stand Up?
* The Democrats and Cindy Sheehan
* Don’t Believe the Hype: Howard Dean and the PDA
* Color Coded Justice: John Roberts' Racial Hang-up
* Blame the Democrats: Passing CAFTA
* The Mrs. Thatcher of the Democrats, Hillary Clinton: Outflanking Bush from the Right
* Framing Abortion: Gonadal Politics and the Democrats
* The Plame Blame Game
* Muting the Muslims
* Commending Karl Rove

HOME