Hooray for Hillary
It’s been a long time since I’ve written “hooray” and “Hillary” in such close proximity, but this piece of hers in The Huffington Post — about the Bush administration’s planned new “rules” that would block access to many common forms of contraception for the very women who need them the most — is terrific:
The Bush administration is up to its old tricks again, quietly putting ideology before science and women’s health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them “abortion.” These proposed regulations set to be released next week will allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it. We can’t let them get away with this underhanded move to undermine women’s health and that’s why I am sounding the alarm.
These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking care. They could prevent providers of federally-funded family planning services, like Medicaid and Title X, from guaranteeing their patients access to the full range of comprehensive family planning services. They’ll also build significant barriers to counseling, education, contraception and preventive health services for those who need it most: low-income and uninsured women and men.
The regulations could even invalidate state laws that currently ensure access to contraception for many Americans. In fact, they describe New York and California’s laws requiring prescription drug insurance plans to provide coverage for contraceptives as part of “the problem.” These rules would even interfere with New York State law that ensures survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.
We’ve seen this kind of ideologically driven move from the Bush administration before. Senator Patty Murray and I went toe to toe with the Bush administration to demand a decision on Plan B by the FDA. We won that fight and we need to win this one too.
Lawbreaking Is Now the Law
The Senate earlier this afternoon passed the so-called “compromise” FISA bill, 69-28. Obama voted yes; Hillary Clinton voted no. Obama and Clinton also voted yes and no, respectively, on the vote to invoke cloture (which ended debate on the legislation and allowed the Senate to vote on the bill itself). Three separate amendments concerning the telecom immunity provision failed. The first, and strongest, amendment, would have stripped immunity from the bill. The second one would have delayed immunity to allow the Supreme Court to determine whether the NSA spy program is constitutional. The third (and weakest) amendment called for the immunity provision to take effect only upon completion of an audit of the NSA program by the Inspector General.
Obama voted for all three amendments (as did Clinton), but Obama’s yes votes were merely for show. They became meaningless the moment he voted for cloture, and then joined Senate Republicans in approving the underlying legislation.
Glenn Greenwald has two massive posts on the shameful proceedings (the second is linked from the first). There really is no need to go elsewhere, because his pieces have all the details, all the authoritative commentary, and all the links to additional information that you might need.
It is minimally comforting to know that my senator, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, voted for all the amendments, and against the final bill. One source of anger and outrage that I am spared from having to feel.
I also want to say here that Glenn deserves all of our thanks and appreciation for his unending, consistent, and truly fierce efforts to keep this issue front and center, not to mention the work he has done to prevent this disastrous legislation from passing. He, and the folks at Firedoglake — in particular, Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith — have labored tirelessly to inform and advocate on FISA and warrantless surveillance. The fight to hold the betrayers of the Constitution accountable continues; for more on that, you can start here.
Patti Solis Doyle and the Elusive Unity Pony
The news hit today that former Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle will be joining the Obama campaign as the chief of staff for the eventual running mate. The truly hilarious thing about this is that not a single person seems to have a clue what the hell this means.
The Day Has Come
Hillary Clinton has ended her campaign and endorsed Barack Obama for president. Thank you, Sen. Clinton.
Is Party Unity a Pipe Dream?
I decided to watch Hillary’s speech this afternoon via her website’s live stream. Interestingly, the stream also came with a uStream chatbox where registered Clinton supporters could chat about the speech. From what I read there I realized that while it may not be a pipe dream, we have a tough row to hoe.
Below the fold is a snippit of the live chat that is still ongoing at HillaryClinton.com.
Clinton, Obama, and the Next Phase
The word now is that Clinton will concede on Friday Saturday — maybe. Now Hillary is going through this elaborate pretense that she “is open” to the vice-presidency if Obama thinks it will “help unify the party and help Democrats win the White House.” The truth is that she’s campaigning for the number two slot, and as this piece by Dan Balz reveals, she didn’t start yesterday:
A Time to Heal, A Time to Grieve
It’s weird. Where we are right now, it feels sometimes like when I was a little kid and I got this new toy, but the friends I would share such a toy with, those friends who would make the toy so much better just by virtue of enjoying it with me, they’re gone.
A Drag on the Ticket
The timing of this post, considering my main post of the morning is more olive branch than anything else, is probably terrible. Still, I don’t want people to take the opinions expressed below as an intentional dig on either Hillary Clinton, or her followers.
(speaking for me only *cough*)
“Hillary Clinton — Please Exit, With Dignity”
But of course she did not, and she will not, accept that excellent advice from Katrina vanden Heuvel. Hillary Clinton is, apparently, determined to transform herself from a woman widely respected for her political accomplishments, her intelligence, her commitment to public service, and simply for what she has been able to achieve as a woman in national politics, into a laughingstock. Hell, Clinton behaved with greater dignity when her philandering husband’s affair with Monica Lewinsky became national news than she has behaved in this election campaign.
How to handle Hillary’s supporters
Now that Obama has sealed the nomination, there’s the notion that dealing with Hillary’s supporters is his next big test. How will he appease Hillary and her people to bring the party together?
I’ve got a better question: Why does he have to? Why is it his responsibility?
This isn’t to say that we don’t need Hillary’s supporters in November — we certainly do. But when Hillary continues to egg them on by insisting that she’s still in the race even after definitively losing, what can Obama do? Hillary isn’t giving him any options.
Here’s my suggestion: place responsibility for this issue on Hillary’s shoulders. The only message that Obama’s camp sends to send to the Hillary campaign is simply this, “Do you want to be blamed for a McCain administration?”
It’s Hillary who has caused — and continues to cause — the divisions which could harm the party. She’s the one who allowed her supporters to protest the DNC meeting. She’s the one who continues to peddle the lie that she won the popular vote. She’s the one who said that McCain but not Obama was ready to be president. She’s the one who didn’t quit the campaign a month ago when it was really known that she could never overtake Obama’s delegate lead. She’s the problem. And it’s time she’s forced to choke down a little responsibility for her actions.
And so it must be for us.
As I’m sure my fellow writers can attest I have been, shall we say, “absent” for these last couple of weeks. In my defense this was only partially by choice. You see, I recently moved, then had few issues with work, and then realized I was, for lack of a better phrase, in a “fightin’ mood” (as my Grandfather is so apt to say).
Somewhere during the Democratic nomination process I stopped caring about party unity, civility, and respecting the opinions of others. For all of our sakes I thought it best to step back and let things ride out, let the process come to fruition.
Well, here we are. Whether Hillary Clinton accepts that the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination fight is over or not is irrelevant, it is. We have our nominee and I’m proud to say that the General Election couldn’t have started off with more of a sea-changing bang.
I managed to catch the last half of Obama’s speech online but it was enough to drive a crystal-clear point into my mind: this man will be our next president and it’s our duty as progressives to make damn sure that happens and not a McCain presidency.
Enough with the in-fighting, enough with the name-calling, this is game-time. Regardless of what you may feel about Obama he is the man standing between the Neoconservative/Religious Right and the Supreme Court. After tonight there’s little doubt in my mind that he has the conviction to nominate the right sort of Justices to ensure America remains a secular liberal republic for another generation.
Obama may be the right man for the job but, as he reminds us, it’s up to us to live up to America’s founding ideals. It’s up to us to see this through to the end.
I’ve included the full speech transcript after the fold but, if you have 22 minutes to spare, watch it instead. It’s a display of power, conviction, and impassioned progressivism you’ve likely not seen in years (if ever). It’s well worth your time.
Republicans Have Started Using Hillary Clinton’s McCain Endorsement Video Against Obama
And that’s one of the reasons I am not feeling as generous toward Hillary Clinton right now as Kyle is. Granted, I haven’t read or heard her speech, but I know she didn’t concede or acknowledge that Obama won fair and square because he understood what the American people wanted better than she did and because he ran a better campaign than she did. And right now, that’s the only thing that could induce me to say anything nice about her.
Quick Thoughts on Hillary Clinton’s Speech
In the immortal words of Arthur Dent, “Actually, I quite liked it.”
When Dreams Collide
I am in full agreement with Armando for once, and I mean that neither ironically nor sarcastically.
Holy Sweet Flippin’ [insert your deity of choice here], stop the parsing!
The AP reports that Obama already has enough delegates to clinch the nomination; and before voting ends tonight, CNN (currently) says that Obama has 2088 delegates and 30 more needed to clinch, and the Obama campaign itself (currently) says that it needs 29 more to clinch. But is that enough for reality-alluding Clintonistas like Talk Left’s Jeralyn Merritt? No! Of course not.
The End? Will Clinton Face the Music (or the Math)?
Yesterday Ben Smith covered reports that Clinton was flying home for the final voting day of the primary season. Further reports would show that Clinton was shedding her advance staff as well, and while this got some talking that maybe this was the signal to the end, I remained skeptical, as did my colleague, Kathy.
But a Tom Edsall piece at HuffPo which outlines that not only is Clinton calling for her donors and supporters to join her on election night in New York, but that her campaign is also undergoing other changes that indicate a possible end to her primary run, have really ramped up the idea that Clinton’s about to finally cede.
I still remain skeptical.
Will She Stay or Will She Go?
Hillary Clinton will be giving a big speech in New York City Tuesday night, and she’s asked her top donors and supporters to be there. The speculation is that she plans to…
…end her campaign, if you believe Thomas B. Edsall of The Huffington Post…
or…
…announce that she is staying in the campaign until the convention, if you believe Ben Smith at Politico.
I don’t even have to spend 10 seconds deciding which one I believe.