Bill Clinton to the Rescue

Bill Clinton to the Rescue
Like many other Americans, I watched the joyous homecoming of Laura Ling and Euna Lee and the discreet behavior of President Bill Clinton who finally got used wisely. Clinton stayed in the background and never uttered a public word at the scene at the Burbank airport. I choked up when little Hana, Lee’s four year old daughter, leaped into her mother’s arms and hung on her as if she intended to never let go again. It was a gotcha moment for me. A few tears dripped from my eyes.
Obviously, the only way to get those women back was with the appropriate bait, with Bill Clinton, who is widely admired throughout the world, including in Kim Jong-il’s court. Kim has coveted getting Bill Clinton to his country ever since he was president. There was good reason for a meeting to happen on both sides. But first many things, official matters, had to worked out; American officials had to get all their ducks in a row, a private plane had to be secured for the flight, and the deal had to be done before the plane took off. That took a while, probably a few weeks. A wealthy benefactor, Stephen Bing, a friend of Bill Clinton’s, offered his plane and even went so far as to pay the $200,000 it would take to go back and forth to Asia, and for incidentals, like the catering for the folks who went with Clinton, like John Podesta. Friends like that can grease just about any wheel.
The posed pictures of the two men look similar to Edger Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, but stiffer, with frozen non-smiles on their faces. Clinton looked like a healthy giant next to the frail-looking diminutive dictator, who supposedly has been in ill-health. But the informal shots of Kim were quite different; he appeared more animated and in one photograph his eyes were bright with admiration for the man sitting across the table from him. There was no doubt in his mind that he could deal with Bill Clinton where he could not with the Bush crowd. This president had been sensitive enough to send Kim a letter of condolence when his father died. Small things like that can add up to something later on. It added to the aura and appeal of the American statesman.
Afterwards I read the column of Mo Dowd in the TIMES. Her rendition of the freeing of the two journalists was annoying as hell, having little to do with them. She treated them as small fry. She brushed aside the human aspect of their story and focused on it as a contest between Bill and Hillary. It was a chance for Bill to outshine Hillary who had left the same day for a lousy ten day trip to Africa, nothing of any prestige. Score one for Billy Boy in his endless combat with his ambitious, competitive wife who boxes in the same ring. What kind of crap is that? Dowd also contended that the experience of Bill was part of a “revenge plot” by Kim. He was upset over Hillary’s comment about the North Koreans acting like “misbehaving children.” Dowd called it “giving the limelight to Daddy punishing Mommy.” Why should Hillary be put off by her husband doing a good thing on Humanitarian grounds? Why must motives always have to be sinister, half-unconscious subplots? This was a simple case of Bill Clinton being the right man for the job and he did it, with a minimum of egotism. End of story.
The tactic of mob disruption at Democratic town meetings on the Health Care Bill is not new; it goes back to that Shout-Down ordered by James Baker at the recount in Florida in 2000, which stopped a recount, which had time pressures, from proceeding with 10,000 votes. The other night on Rachel Maddow’s show she identified the nine members leading the charge that day, a so-called grass root uprising. Not quite. All nine were identified by name and all were political operatives, and she detailed who they worked for in the G.O.P. In addition, after Bush was declared the winner, all found lucrative positions in the Republican Administration for being good soldiers. Then as now, the Republicans would have us believe that these current ‘Mob Rules” events that are silencing debate and democracy are “just folks letting Obama know” his plan for “socialized medicine” is not going to pass muster. Of course the older “folks” don’t want Medicare touched. Once again it is political pros that are being paid by Health Industry corporations or the Republican Party to disrupt the proceedings. It is organized money doing dirty tricks. Rachel also describes several of the groups behind these disruptive tactics. They transport people to sites of meetings and hand out “talking points.” They manufacture protest, while insisting they aren’t that at all. I don’t think they will get away with this time. However, if it intensifies violence could break out.