Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups





















« Iran To Drop the Oil Bomb? | Main | Police Raid Home To Capture Most-Wanted Hamster »
March 07, 2005

Partly Defending Clinton For His Pro-Iran Remarks

Last week I noticed that Little Green Footballs had a report about Clinton apologizing to Iran's mullahs at Davos for American sins, as well as making this startling statement:

Iran today is, in a sense, the only country where progressive ideas enjoy a vast constituency. It is there that the ideas that I subscribe to are defended by a majority.”

I didn't blog it, because LGF himself seemed incredulous that Clinton would say such things, and the sourcing wasn't rock-solid-- it came, it seems, from an Arab newspaper, and I suspected his comments had been maybe taken out of context or "sweetened" for the home audience.

But now there's audio.* And he said pretty much what he was reported to have said:

And I apologized when President Khatami was elected, I publicly acknowledged that the United States had actively overthrown Mossadegh and I apologized for it. And I hope that we could have some rapprochement with Iran.

And:

“Iran is the only country in the world that has now had six elections since the first election of President Khatami (in 1997). (It is) the only one with elections, including the United States, including Israel, including you name it, where the liberals, or the progressives, have won two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote in six elections: Two for president; two for the Parliament, the Majlis; two for the mayoralties. In every single election, the guys I identify with got two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote. There is no other country in the world I can say that about, certainly not my own.”

So: Clinton thinks the Iranian populace is more "progressive" than the population that elected him President twice.

But here is the partial defense of Clinton's remarks: He isn't speaking about the regime being progressive; he is speaking about how the actual populace votes. Their voting preferences are of course frustrated by the regime's wholesale disqualification of reformist candidates, and the Iranian constitution gives an outsized amount of power to the mullahs, no matter what the voting might say.

And part of Clinton's point seems to be what we all realize (including President Bush, of course): That taking action against the regime controlling Iran could result in alienating the citizens of Iran, who are, by and large, in favor of reform and in favor of rapprochement with America.

Still: What's this business of apologizing to maniacs and giving their insane hatred of the United States legitimacy-- legitimacy straight from the mouth of an ex-President?

As Geraghty says:

Clinton’s earlier remarks also sound suspiciously like blaming U.S. foreign policy for the Iranian revolution (guess our embassy employees had it coming, huh, Mr. President?) and for Saddam’s crimes of the 1980s. Obviously, that played well with the Davos elites. But one wonders if President Clinton would make the same remarks if he were, say, on the campaign trail with Senator Clinton in 2006?

One wonders if Senator Clinton agrees with the former president’s foreign policy analysis, and huzzahs for the Iran elections process

One begins to wonder if there's not something to Dick Morris' pet theory that Bill Clinton's ego will simply never allow his wife to become President. Whether he winds up suggesting that "maybe Osama bin Ladin is just misunderstood" or boinks a sixteen-year-old waitress at Hooters, he's going to tank Hillary, perhaps entirely subconsciously.

And for that, I thank Bill Clinton. This is the part of his "legacy" I applaud.

* Confused By the Sourcing: TKS implies this tape is from Davos (hes'a actually unclear about it); LGF says it's from a "recent interview with Charlie Rose." It's definitely an interview with Charlie Rose; did this interview occur at Davos? I honestly don't know.

But whether or not he said these things at Davos or elsewhere, he did say them.


digg this
posted by Ace at 02:51 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Emmie: "Not sure what to think about California school foo ..."

naturalfake: "I ate...well...essentially horse sashimi in Japan. ..."

MkY: "Rescuing failed dishes would make a great food thr ..."

Joe Kidd: "Wife just found a recipe for pineapple casserole. ..."

Splunge: "Rescuing failed dishes would make a great food thr ..."

RedMindBlueState[/i][/b][/s][/u]: "[i]I also like Siracha. And Sabal Olek. Posted by ..."

CharlieBrown'sDildo: "Are you getting enough horse in your diet? That co ..."

Nova Local: "305 Wife just found a recipe for pineapple cassero ..."

Splunge: "[i]277 I just looked up the Whole30 Diet. It s ..."

Beartooth : "Wife just found a recipe for pineapple casserole. ..."

bradc: "To my southern friends who say, "there is an argum ..."

Joe Kidd: "I also like Siracha. And Sabal Olek. Posted by: n ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64