And of course his (well-deserved) conviction upon impeachment would have saved us from George Bush much more easily that the disappearance of Ralph Nader. --CGE
On Tue, 10 Aug 2004, Doug Henwood wrote:
> C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>
> >I'm a bit skeptical of this point. The "Wizard of 'Is'" was named
> >derisively, for his rather pathetic and transparent answers in the
> >Lewinsky matter. On election day 2000, in a spontaneous radio discussion
> >with Amy Goodman, Clinton was reduced to claiming that Goodman was being
> >"disrespectful"!
>
> Oh come on! Clinton said a lot more than that
> <http://www.alternet.org/story/10067>. The guy's a scumbag, but he
> knows a lot and is extremely articulate. And Goodman didn't know
> enough to challenge Clinton in this passage (in which the word
> "disrespectful" appears, but amidst a well-marshalled argument):
>
> >AMY GOODMAN: Many people say that Ralph Nader is at the high
> >percentage point he is in the polls because you have been
> >responsible for taking the Democratic party to the right. What do
> >you say to listeners who are listening around the area right now
> >(Overlap)
> >
> >PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, I'm glad you asked that.
> >
> >AMY GOODMAN: ... those concerns.
> >
> >PRESIDENT CLINTON: I'm glad you asked that, and that's the last
> >question I've got time for. I'll be happy to ... answer that. What
> >is the measure of taking the Democratic Party to the right? That we
> >cut the welfare rolls in half? That poverty is at a 20 year low?
> >That child poverty has been cut by a third in our administration?
> >That the incomes of average Americans have gone up 15 percent after
> >inflation? That poverty among seniors has gone below 10 percent for
> >the first time in American history? That we have the lowest African
> >American, the lowest Latino unemployment rate in the history of the
> >country? That we have a 500 percent increase in the number of
> >minority kids taking advanced placement tests?
> >
> >That the schools in this country, that the test scores among ...
> >since we have required all the schools to have basic standard test
> >scores, among African Americans and other minorities have gone up
> >steadily? Now what (Overlap)
> >
> >AMY GOODMAN: Can I say that some people ...
> >
> >PRESIDENT CLINTON: Now, let me just finish.
> >
> >AMY GOODMAN: Let me just say ...
> >
> >PRESIDENT CLINTON: Now let me ... now, wait a minute. You started
> >this and every question you've asked has been hostile and combative.
> >So you listen to my answer, will you do that?
> >
> >AMY GOODMAN: They've been (Overlap)
> >
> >PRESIDENT CLINTON: Now, you just listen to me. You ask the
> >questions, and I'm going to answer. You have asked questions in a
> >hostile, combative, and even disrespectful tone, but I ... and you
> >have never been able to combat the facts I have given you. Now, you
> >listen to this. The other thing Ralph Nader says is that, you know,
> >he's pure as Caesar's wife on the environment.
> >
> >Under this administration, 43 million more Americans are breathing
> >cleaner air. We have safer drinking water, safer food, cleaner
> >water. We have more land set aside than any administration in
> >history since Theodore Roosevelt. We have cleaned up three times as
> >many toxic waste sites as the previous administrations did in 12
> >years. And we passed a chemical right-to-know law that is a very
> >tough law. It's the best environmental record in history.
> >
> >Al Gore's opponent, and one of the two of them are going to be
> >President ... Al Gore's opponent has promised to weaken the clean
> >air standards, and repeal a lot of the land protections. Now, those
> >are the facts. People can say whatever they want to. Those are the
> >facts.
> ___________________________________