Hillary Clinton is a mensch.

[BurtWorm]

I have it on the word of a co-worker who votes independently and who recently did some work with Hillary on a veterans' issue. Why she voted for IWR, I don't know, but she is "genuine," according to this person, "she rocks," and "she gives a rat's ass." (This person is a native of Queens. That's a compliment.) It's tempting to think Hillary has to be the cold-blooded witch the right makes her out to be, but apparently she's not. Just wanted to pass that along, for what it's worth.

[juajen]

1. Yeah, I think a lot of people on this forum thinks she "rocks"

Wonder what her future holds?

[BurtWorm]

3. She's my senator, and I'm still pissed about her votes on IWR

and the Patriot Act. But I'm totally convinced she's got good heart.

[dreissig]

4. That's Still a Mystery

Hillary's IWR vote is still a mystery. She never explained why she did that. And she hasn't apologized, either. That fact weighs heavily against her.

[BurtWorm]

5. I believe she felt vulnerable as a junior "carpetbagger" and Clinton.

She may have thought it was dangerous to vote against war powers considering the Upstate voters she courted so assiduously in 2000. I wouldn't be surprised if her staff kept a tally, broken down by county, of support for or opposition to IWR. She probably figured she could count on NYC no matter what. This is probably how she does all her calculations this term.

[glarius]

2. Whenever I've seen her on Letterman she comes across as a very warm

person with a great sense of humour!

[BurtWorm]

9. According to Michael Tomasky in Hillary's Turn, she does a great Curley.

Woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo! Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

[JackSwift]

6. Her constituency is New York

and they want no possibility of letting anyone who may have had anything to do with the attacks getting away. She can't vote no if a BFEE says they have secret information showing guilt. As Senator from New York, she must vote to avenge those deaths or be out of a job.

[BurtWorm]

8. That's a bit of an overstatement.

NYC is fairly left wing, and extremely Democratic. NYC is where the attacks happened. Many of the victims lived outside the city, even outside the state. So there are a lot of conflicted feelings about the meaning of 9-11 here. In the days after the attacks, posters went up all over the city, but especially downtown: Our Grief Is Not a Call for War. At the same time, of course, flags went up everywhere, and "patriotic" signs reminiscent of disasters in other parts of the country: These Colors Don't Run, and all that crap.

But my feeling is that it's the Upstaters she was most concerned about, and who she remains most concerned about. If not for their support for her in 2000, she wouldn't be a Senator. She wants to hold on to them in 2006.

[sleipnir]

10. Upstate hates her

I just spent the summer upstate (western) Ny, and most hate her out there. NYC (where I'm currently at, seems to appreciate her votes).

IMO, it's damn time NYC broke of from NY state. It's kinda like an abusive relationship, neither likes each other and no one gets anything much out of the deal. Upstate gets cash and NYC gets a nice place to visit or retire to. I'd love to see NYC go City-State!!! Back to the Greeks, I say!!!

[BurtWorm]

12. You're right about NYC getting drained of cash.

NYC schoolkids, especially, get the short end of the stick.

[JackSwift]

7. She is not yet an old politician

and she will pay back her enemies by passing her whole agenda. You watch her over the next 20 years.

[JI7]

11. almost everyone who met her says the same

how warm she is. and the ones who put out the "cold-blooded witch" (what's wrong with witches anyways ?)description of her have almost never met her and are right wing assholes.

[Aristus]

13. Probably the sexiest First Lady ever, as well.

Jackie was beautiful, but not in the least sexy, in my opinion. Sen. Clinton has got it going on!

[Ellen Forradalom]

14. Isn't that a hit song?

"Chelsea's mom has got it going on
She's all I want and I've waited so long
Chelsea's mom has got it going on
I know it might be wrong
But I'm in love with Chelsea's mom"

[Character Assassin]

25. Thus proving that one man's ceiling is another man's floor.

Or, in this case, one man's extraordinarily unsexy first lady.

[ArkDem]

15. It's hard to forget that she was on Wal Mart's board

for six years, though.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0021/harkavy.php

[BurtWorm]

20. This isn't about how correct her politics are.

It's about how real she is as a person. I have problems with some of her political decisions, as I mentioned above. But her persoanlity, which many right-wingers describe as grating, cruel, vicious, blood-thirsty, imperious...all of that is wrong. She's apparently much warmer and good-humored in person.

[ArkDem]

22. I have met her many times (pre-1992)

the Clinton's and I were members of the Little Rock Downtown YMCA. Everyone knew them LR is a small place.

[BurtWorm]

26. My brother and sister-in-law were involved with grassroots Democratic

Party politics in Arkansas in the 1980s. They worked on the Jesse Jackson campaign. My sister-in-law is from Little Rock, and she met the Clintons several times as well. Their feelings for the Clintons are ambivalent, but they never get hateful. It's sort of a mixture of pride that they're bringing positive publicity to Arkansas and horror that they're bringing negative publicity to Arkansas. ;)

[ArkDem]

27. You got that right

.

[sujan]

34. agreed

but why did she have to vote for IWR?

[soleft]

16. In a death match I say she kicks Susan Surandon's butt

Clinton has a ton of charisma. It says a lot about her ability to play well with others that she's buds with Baily Hutchinson. I thinks he has a lot of guts - my only concern is that she suffers from Boomerism - a kind of narscism where she believes the world needs to be saved, and she's the one who has to do it. Disimilar to Bush in that it's not God telling her to do it, it's her own demons.

[BurtWorm]

21. What about Susan Sarandon? Is she threatening to run as a Green

against Hillary?

[soleft]

23. No she just hates Hillary

Says she had a chance to do great stuff and instead all she'll be remembered for his standing by her man.

[BurtWorm]

24. Hillary and Bill disappoint, no question. But--maybe its the memory

of the impeachment farce still fresh in me--I can't hate them. I still cut them an enormous amount of slack. And Bill still has a lot of fight in him, and Hillary, as I say, is a mensch, when all is said and done.

[bif]

17. Shouldn't it be "menschette"?

My wife's right-wing fundie cousin lives in New York state and it drives her nuts that Hillary is her senator. I absolutely love it!

[Kellanved]

29. no

:hi: - "Mensch" is fine

I still somewhat disturbed by her comments during her European book-tour.

[BurtWorm]

30. What did she say?

Something about Iraq?

[Kellanved]

31. Yes

And the German conservatives (said she'd prefer a conservative chancellor :puke:)

[BurtWorm]

32. She said WHAT?!?

:wtf:

I thought Bill and Schroeder were on the same page? I guess Bill and Hillary are not. (Unless this is another instance of her pandering to Upstaters.)

[Kellanved]

33. they are

Schröder is a self-styled Clinton (not only, but it's a part of his policy). Kohl was far easier to handle - one might say that Kohl was an useful (probably corrupt- no prosecutor wants to tackle it) idiot.




(Merkel: conservative Chairwoman; Christiansen : show host; Clinton).

[tom_paine]

18. One figure that if the Party-Loyal RightSub-Media says it

the opposite must be true.

Just like their spirtual antecedents in the Nazi German and Soviet Russian Party-Loyal Sub-Medias...

[kyrasdad]

19. Folks around here are coming around...

At first no one liked her, but she is really proving herself to alot of New Yorkers, especially here in the Upstate areas. I have always loved her since her "standing by her man" speech...

And Susan Sarandon aside... I'd like to see a match with her and Liddy Dole... Hillary would kick ass...

[THUNDER HANDS]

28. I voted for her, I'll vote for her again, but.....

I ain't too thrilled with her overall. She is sooooo priming herself for a presidential run it's not even funny.