Waaaagh!

Terrorist Powerball

Yesterday Robert Gates flew through confirmation hearings in the senate. I, for one, welcome our new ex-cia overlords... and hope he's not the same as the old boss... but we shall see. I'm glad the hearings were short - the grandstanding potential was so noxious that escaping after a mere 8 hours feels like we dodged a bullet. Once he came clean with the idea that yes, america is losing in Iraq (which is rather painful for some to hear, i know, but better that than W's continued bizarro world approach to the conflict) there was almost nothing of substance to the affair. Bird was an embarrassment with his 'say it for the record - Osama = bad' spew... Ben Nelson's 'weekly bounty increase' idea was worse... god help us if these are the ideas the dems bring to the table in a democratically controlled senate. But of them all, one series stood out. Hillary Clinton took the cake.

SEN. CLINTON: Based on your experience, which goes back quite a ways in this
town -- do you believe the president, the vice president, and the existing
secretary of Defense are intelligent men?
MR. GATES: Yes, ma’am.
SEN. CLINTON: Are they patriotic?
MR. GATES: Absolutely.
SEN. CLINTON: Do they care about our men and women in uniform?
MR. GATES: Absolutely.
SEN. CLINTON: Do they believe the decisions they have made for the last five
years have been in America’s best interests?
MR. GATES: I have not had that discussion with any of them, Senator.

That was the soundbite... which totally missed the POINT of her jab - which was the follow up:

SEN. CLINTON: So therefore, we have this conundrum. We have a president and a
vice president who will ultimately decide -- as the president is fond of saying
he is the decider -- about the direction to pursue going forward in Iraq, and it
is quite frustrating to many of us to see the mistakes that have been made, some
of which you have enumerated, and to wonder whether there is any change that
will be pursued by the president.

See... Clinton has to be smarter than this... she came off as a total bitch. All the clips showed her being a total prick to Gates... made her look nasty. She's demonstrating the reason Obama will look so good in about a year (and Edwards looked so good 3 years ago) - that the more you open your mouth as a Senator, the more crap gets shoveled into it. She's going to have too much baggage to win in the current political environment - even if it's because of media miscues.