What is up with Hillary's supposedly not having read stuff?

[No Elephants]

Supposedly, Hillary never read the cables from the ambassador or his staff in Libya begging for more security.

That sounded very familiar. I had a vague memory from the 2008 primaries of her not having read something. Then it came back to me.

Clinton strongly supported the 2001 U.S. military action in Afghanistan, saying it was a chance to combat terrorism while improving the lives of Afghan women who suffered under the Taliban government.<30> Clinton voted in favor of the October 2002 Iraq War Resolution, which authorized United States President George W. Bush to use military force against Iraq, should such action be required to enforce a United Nations Security Council Resolution after pursuing with diplomatic efforts. (However, Clinton voted against the Levin Amendment to the Resolution, which would have required the President to conduct vigorous diplomacy at the U.N., and would have also required a separate Congressional authorization to unilaterally invade Iraq.<2> She did vote for the Byrd Amendment to the Resolution, which would have limited the Congressional authorization to one year increments, but the only mechanism necessary for the President to renew his mandate without any Congressional oversight was to claim that the Iraq War was vital to national security each year the authorization required renewal.)<2> Clinton later said that she did not read the full classified National Intelligence Estimate that was delivered ten days before the vote to all members of Congress, and that gave a more subtle case for Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction than the Bush Administration's abridged summary, but that she was briefed on the report.<2><31>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_career_of_Hillary_Rodham_Clinton


I call big time bullshit on very important issues.

How in heaven's name do you vote on the Iraqi War and the War on Terror, plus various amendments from members of your own party, without having read the National Intelligence Estimate plus all supplements, or at least the summary that your staff prepared for you?

This is the same Hillary about whom everyone says she is extremely hard-working and always thoroughly prepared.

I think she thought that she would lose fewer Democratic primary votes by saying she had never read the stuff than she would by saying she had read it and voted the wrong way anyway because, so soon after 911, it would have been political suicide for a Presidential hopeful to vote against those resolutions. Especially if Bush's desire to invade Iraq somehow turned out to be correct.

Either way, she was going to have to own up to something not good, especially when Obama had been saying all along (from the safety of the Illinois Senate, which doesn't have to vote for or against wars) that Iraq was the wrong war.

If he turned out to be wrong, oh, well, no catastrophic consequences would result--and he could always point out that he did not get the same intel that the President and Congress got. If he turned out to be correct, well, big ups in the primary. And his stronger than Bush stance on Afghanistan would be a handy response if he were accused of being weak on "defense."

Do I also call bs on her not reading the cables? Maybe not. But, whether she technically held them in her hands and then read them herself or not I bet she knew about the requests from someone in State who did read the cables. The State Department would never ignore cables from any ambassador, let alone the ambassador from Libya at that time. And no one in state would simply keep to himself or herself repeated requests for more security.

What in heaven's name is wrong with the people who question Hillary that they don't ask if, whether she read it herself or not, she had an idea of what the Intelligence Report said? Whether she had read the cables or not, did she have an idea that the embassy was requesting more security?

Honestly, I don't want another slick, very technically honest President who is nonetheless deceptive. And I simply do not believe that Senator Clinton had no idea of the thrust of the Intelligence Report or of those cables.

Moreover, now that she has had the nerve to set these precedents, rather than defend her behavior on substance, I predict that we will hear more people in government claiming not to have read something.

By the way, fwiw, when I tried to check a source on the Intelligence estimate story, I got a "page no longer here" type message.

[Enthusiast]

1. Deception has become the coin of the realm.,,,nt

[No Elephants]

2. Well, the general public has sure earned that coin, haven't we?.

Are Democrats aghast at Hillary? Nope. They are only aghast (or amused--hard to tell what all the smug smirking means) that anyone has the nerve to try to pin her down as to why pleas from Americans for more security went unnanswered and whether the government lied to voters.

In the marketplace of ideas we no longer look for the truth, only for our favorite brand of pre-packaged deceptions.