The Curious Myth of Hillary Clinton's Senate Effectiveness

[tabasco]

There is not one single example of any legislation with her name appended to it. In fact, the page devoted to her Senate biography is a mush-mash, a laundry list of good intentions. When she talks about "sponsoring" and "introducing" and "fighting for" legislation that obviously hasn't passed, that's a smokescreen for failure. By introducing all that legislation that never makes it out of committee, she's guilty of what she accuses Senator Obama of: confusing "hoping" with doing.

Consider these examples:

• "...{she} worked with her colleagues to secure the funds New York needed to recover and rebuild."

• "...she fought to provide compensation to the families of the victims."

• "She is an original sponsor of legislation that expanded health benefit to members of the National Guard and Reserves."

• "Some of Hillary' proudest achievements have been her work to ensure the safety of prescription drugs for children, with legislation now included in the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act." (What in God's name does that mumbo-jumbo mean?)

Yes, it's true that for many years, she was in the minority. But if she is the effective legislator she claims to be, she'd be able find co-sponsors across the aisle who share her commitment to specific issues, in the same way that John McCain found his doppelganger, Russ Feingold.

But an inability to get legislation passed is just the beginning of Senator Clinton's shallow record. For many of the bills she introduced, she couldn't even get a cosponsor in her own party!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hanft/the-curious-myth-of-hilla_b_87613.html

[dailykoff]

1. Oops, you weren't suppposed to ask that question.

Don't ask about 911 either.

[JimGinPA]

2. K&R

[daa]

3. what is you point?

You can insert Obama OR McCain and have the same article.

I don't suppose you remember McCain. He is the opponent in November. He is asshole saying Baghdad is safer than US cities and yet he is still runnig around with a flak jackek holding fund raisers.

Sometimes I thing DUers like having a republican president, because there certainly isn't any chance of unity on here.

[cooolandrew]

5. His point is HRC is said to be for action, where Obama has had 2 bills passed in a tough congress.

[hfojvt]

10. so in the name of unity

even though Hillary is not the nominee and no longer has a very good chance of becoming the nominee (knock on wood) we need to pretend that Hillary is a fighting progressive which a truckload of accomplishments for us humble proles. And we also need to pretend that her Iraq War Vote wasn't really an Iraq war vote and her cheering for war wasn't really cheering for war. And that her continuing to campaign really isn't helping Republicans, no matter how many insults she hurls at Obama while praising McCain. She's our candidate and can do no wrong as she fights for all us working people and tries to strengthen the Democratic party.

SHE could create unity by graciously conceding, but nooooooo, she prefers to keep fighting as if it would be a disaster for our country if somebody else became President.

[daa]

12. No don't pretend at all

just keep pissing off the Hilary supporters and see if they show up in November. It will take far more than you Obama supporters to defeat McCain.

As far as conceding you must be nuts. 1600 to 1500 delegates is not 2000 where I went to school.

[hfojvt]

13. so Hillary supporters, much like their candidate

don't really care about progressive issues or about defeating Republicans. They will give up on both efforts if you "pi$$ them off" by trying to explain to them why their candidate is worse than all of the other candidates running for the nomination, except Gravel and the Republicans.

As far as being nuts. No a chess game is not lost just because one person is down by two bishops. Nor is a basketball game lost even though one team is down by 25 points with four minutes to play. And if the losing team keeps throwing elbows, tripping and trying to start bench clearing brawls, that is all for the good. It will help the winning team in the finals, just like it always does.

Then again, if she gave up her candidacy for the good of the party and the good of the country that would prove that she's a better person than I thought she was. Unfortunately, she's proving me right when I said her candidacy would hurt the party (and by extension the country and the world). Sometimes it sucks to be right.

[tabasco]

11. Hillary claims to have extensive experience getting things done.

Her record shows otherwise. He refusal to disclose her First Lady records indicates otherwise as well. We know she failed in her single most important effort, health care reform.

You condemn simple, measured scrutiny of Hillary's record in the middle of Hillary's filthy, rotten, "kitchen sink" smear campaign?

That's laughable. You appear to be one of the people Tom Tomorrow was skewering in this recent cartoon.

[cooolandrew]

4. Very true where Barack has had bills passed in a grid lock congress.

[TomClash]

6. My question to Hillary is:

What happened to the $10 billion NY was supposed to get after 9/11? Bush promised $20 billion and we only got about $10 billion. It's not like she did much to get us the remaining funds.

[tabasco]

14. I think that money went to Iraq.

Another one of Hill's "accomplishments."

Enabling the worst foreign policy / economic disaster in the Nation's history.

[housewolf]

7. K

[dailykoff]

8. One of the things I hope Obama

will have the courage to investigate once he's president is exactly where all "the funds New York needed to recover and rebuild" that Hillary "worked with her colleagues to secure" went.

Oddly enough, the post-911 commercial real estate boom in Manhattan has been in midtown -- where Time Warner, the NYT, Bloomberg, and Hearst have coincidentally built huge highrises -- not downtown, where the former World Trade Center remains a big hole.

Hmmm...

[hfojvt]

9. the link in the comments section is more informative

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633

Adam admits to being confused about "mumbo jumbo". He doesn't understand that Hillary helped to write part of the Best Pharamaceuticals for Children Act?

Is he saying that this legislation did not pass?

"...{she} worked with her colleagues to secure the funds New York needed to recover and rebuild."

• "...she fought to provide compensation to the families of the victims."

• "She is an original sponsor of legislation that expanded health benefit to members of the National Guard and Reserves."


I'd be surprised if they didn't pass, but all three of those examples sound a little bit like fighting for something which is almost guaranteed to pass. Not exactly hard work or politically risky.

That many of her bills do not have co-sponsors is not necessarily a mark against her. If they are good bills, then it is a mark against the rest of the Senate that they have no co-sponsors.

The cynic in me wonders though if those bills are advanced, not in the hope of actually passing them, but primarily so they will be there to pad a resume.

When I look at something concrete that I understand well, like the recent stimulus bill, her conduct is not encouraging. The stimulus bill sucked big-time. It was a major cave in to Bush and the Bush ideology of cutting taxes for the well-off to "solve" every problem. I personally called her office, Obama's office, Tim Johnson's office, and Russ Feingold's office as well as my local congresswoman to lobby against it. It did not provide assistance to people who need it in the form of assistance to states, funding for Liheap, food stamps, or unemployment extension. Instead of "fighting" for those items (like I asked her to) she gave several speeches in favor of the crappy bill, claiming it helped those who need it most. If a journalist did that, I'd think they were a paid Bush shill. Hillary doing it makes her look like another politician ignoring the needs of the needy and then lying about it.

[ksquire]

20. excellent post.

[jconner27]

15. For the huffy post

Obama's record is thinner than a hockey stick and they're talking about records Huffy post is full of shit.

[tabasco]

16. Well, I don't know how anyone can debate that cogent analysis.

Thank you for straightening it all out for us.

[FrenchieCat]

17. I'll show you his, if you will show me hers!

[Hutzpa]

18. Seven bills and none

got through, with all this experience could not even find a cosponsor for one of those
bills......thats pitiful.

What has she been doing in the Senate? I guess pacing the Senate floor with the big
surname in her back....Mrs Clinton....former First Lady....hahahahaha!!!!

[ksquire]

19. in fairness -- she's done a lot on children's legislation

and has brought home a lot for NY (if that's a good thing).

at the same time, Obama has actually passed much *more* legislation, as you note. For an excellent rundown, see:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633