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On The Daily Show on Monday Aug 9, Bill Clinton criticized "the Republicans" by saying "They ran ads comparing Max Cleland to Saddam Hussein because he didn't vote for the Homeland Security Agency bill exactly as the President had drafted it. And they treated him like a traitor."
Clinton's claim is not supported by the facts. According to a July 3 2003 Washington Post article, the ad
opened with pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. "As America faces terrorists and extremist dictators," said a narrator, "Max Cleland runs television ads claiming he has the courage to lead. He says he supports President Bush at every opportunity, but that's not the truth. Since July, Max Cleland voted against President Bush's vital homeland security efforts 11 times!" [http://www.truthout.com/docs_03/printer_070403I.shtml]
While Cleland did support the dubious idea of a Homeland Security department, Cleland's votes to in effect unionize the security department's employees do indeed rebut any claim that Cleland supported Bush "at every opportunity".
The ad was run by Cleland's opponent Chambliss, and under pressure from other Republicans, Chambliss removed the pictures of Saddam and bin Laden from the ad.
According to an Oct 11 2002 AP story, the ad
doesn't directly compare Cleland and the rogue leaders but alleges the senator isn't telling the truth when he claims to support some of President Bush's efforts in the war against terrorism. [http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/4264879.htm]
Clinton was wrong to claim the ad treated Cleland "like a traitor" -- just as he was wrong to say it compared Cleland to Saddam, and wrong to say that it was run by "the Republicans" as opposed to a Republican.
Clinton also said of the 2000 Bush campaign: "They implied that [McCain] betrayed the country when he was a POW. And he made a huge mistake in not bashing them for that calling operation saying he'd adopted a black baby. It was blatantly racist."
Wrong again. Bush made no implication about McCain "betray[ing] the country". What happened was that, at a Bush campaign rally, McCain's record on veterans' issues was criticized by a veterans' activist, who said McCain "had the power to help the veterans" but instead he "came home [from Vietnam] and forgot us." When criticized over this, Bush declined to either endorse or repudiate the statements of the activist, who Bush said was "entitled to his opinion." In a debate a few days later with McCain, Bush denied that he endorsed those comments, telling McCain "you served your country admirably and strongly." For details, see
As for the anonymous racist smear campaign in South Carolina about McCain's adopted baby from Bangladesh, even McCain's campaign manager admits that "we never did find out who perpetrated these smears". http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/03/21/the_anatomy_of_a_smear_campaign/
It's at least possible that Bush or his campaign approved the smear efforts, just as it's possible that David Hale and Jim McDougal told the truth in claiming that the Clintons took part in the Whitewater crimes for which they were convicted.
But if Clinton's standard of proof is that a politician can be blamed for anything bad that happens around him and benefits him, then Clinton and his wife should have joined their Whitewater associates in serving jail time.
Brian Holtz
LP candidate for Congress, CA14 (Silicon Valley)
http://marketliberal.org
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