NYT: Clinton Is an Unexpected Partner in the Hurricane Effort

[Brightmore]

Clinton Is an Unexpected Partner in the Hurricane Effort
New York Times
ADAM NAGOURNEY and JOHN M. BRODER
September 6, 2005

As President Bush and administration officials fanned out across the Gulf Coast in the White House's campaign to deal with criticism that they had failed in managing the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, there was one unexpected face in their crowd on Monday: former President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Clinton was at Reliant Center next to the Astrodome in Houston, where about 3,800 homeless New Orleans residents had decamped, standing next to former President George Bush as they announced the creation of the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help hurricane victims. After that, the two former presidents, along with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, toured the shelter, while President Bush visited storm-struck areas of Mississippi and Louisiana, providing a flow of television images suggesting a concerned White House on the march.

Mr. Clinton's visit to the Houston shelter on Monday is the latest time the former president has come to the current president's aid in his second term, from early in the year when Mr. Bush was criticized for his slow response to the tsunami, to initially defending the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina at the White House last week, to praising the credentials of Judge John G. Roberts Jr., Mr. Bush's choice for the Supreme Court. And it offered what many Democrats described as a vivid, if slightly disconcerting, insight into the complicated and increasingly transactional relationship between the Bush and Clinton families.

While officials in both parties said they had no doubt that both men were first and foremost intent on helping Americans, they also took note of the web of political benefits spun by this burgeoning alliance. It helps Mr. Bush during the roughest time of his presidency, Mr. Clinton as he tries to establish himself as a respected and admired former president and Mrs. Clinton as she potentially prepares to run for president in 2008.

Full story

[Catt03]

1. I don't know whether to be generous or outraged

My first thought and feeling was anger and feeling dismissed by Clinton who is playing the politics of the Bush's.

God...I am so confused......however, I will never vote for Hillary so I guess it doesn't matter.

[lakemonster11]

2. The NYT is getting snarky!

"...while President Bush visited storm-struck areas of Mississippi and Louisiana, providing a flow of television images suggesting a concerned White House on the march."

[Cha]

6. Powerful words!

"..providing a flow of television images suggesting a concerned White House on the march."


And the tv media accomodates them.

[bemildred]

3. Full out damage control mode now.

Do you need any more evidence that these people are
not REALLY political enemies? President Gore found it to
be possible to help out in NOLA without sucking up to
Bush. Big Dog goes for the political dog and pony show,
trying to rescue Bush's ass.

[rayofreason]

4. Here we go again

Remember that Clinton teamed up with Bush41 after the asian tsunami.

Bedfellows makes strange politics.

[IChing]

5. Just read this from the CBS LATE SHOW and tell me if the joke has changed

Former President Bill Clinton discussed his relationship with President Bush's father last night on CBS LATE SHOW.

Clinton: "I think we're good friends. I like him very much. I've always liked him. When he was vice president, I was still a governor. We worked together on a number of things. He hosted the governors, in 1983...at Kennebunkport."

When they made an announcement about raising funds for Tsunami relief in Houston former First Lady Barbara Bush "announced us. And she said she has started to call me son. I told the Republicans there, I said don't worry, every family has one, you know, the black sheep. I told them, this just shows you the lengths the Bushes would go to get another president in the family. I wish I could get them to adopt Hillary."

[doodadem]

7. Oh for godsakes!

"Mr. Clinton as he tries to establish himself as a respected and admired former president" Big Bill does not have to "establish" himself--he is a highly respected and beloved former president. Something Shrub will never be.

[howmad1]

8. So why is he getting in bed with the bush crime family?

A man is known by the company he keeps. He is very quickly losing the respect and love he used to enjoy. He has sold his soul to the devil.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Because it's wisest to keep one's friends close, and one's enemies

closer.

[IChing]

10. friend or enemy?

Clinton: "I think we're good friends. I like him very much. I've always liked him. When he was vice president, I was still a governor. We worked together on a number of things. He hosted the governors, in 1983...at Kennebunkport."

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. You can't stay very close to Dumbyass if you call him an enemy

He only surrounds himself with yes-men.

[Iowa]

12. I have lost all respect for Clinton...

Here we are, a country hanging on the edge of a cliff by our fingernails, with the Bush crime family stomping on our fingers - and we have Clinton contributing to the effort to prop these assholes up.

[KT2000]

13. No matter why Clinton

is mixed up with this gang - if they have any idea what it is - they will make sure it has been destroyed when they are through using him.
Clinton may have made the mistake of attributing human characteristics to the BFEE.

[Child_Of_Isis]

15. they will make sure it has been destroyed when they are through using him.

This is their game plan.

[belle]

14. One thing that makes me smile--some freepers' tiny minds must be

exploding. Satan Himself in league with their beloved Shrub! But...but...but...

All this says to me is that 1) Shrub is a spineless, shameless little gnome who's only too happy to run for protection to the guy his spin machine has been sliming for the last decade or so and 2) Clinton, the politician's politician, is only too happy to take advantage of it, because if there's one thing he likes and is good at, it's being liked. Even by people who hate him. This is how he won, twice. And how he's aiming to get his wife in the catbird seat.

In other words, nothing we didn't know.

I just think: whatever. I'd way rather have him as President than Shrub, obviously, as pissed off at him as I am for any number of good reasons. And I'll support Hillary if it comes down to it...but I don't like her, and will not be backing her for the nomination. Same as before all this.