It’s no coincidence, surely, that the book It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton has recently been reissued. The notoriety connected to her presidential candidacy guarantees further revenue from sale of the book, both for Ms. Clinton and the publisher. Its reissue should have republicans salivating, since the obvious inference to be drawn from the book is that the village (otherwise known as the state) should be primary in the rearing of children. This was the philosophy in the Soviet Union, as children were removed from their families and reared by the state. The result is obvious – a broken system populated and governed in large part by drunks.
Ms. Clinton revealed in Iowa over the weekend in the usual pandering by politicians to the population of that “caucus state” another attribute that will be interesting to watch. The commonly recognized term for this characteristic is “passing the buck.” This is in character for the writer of It Takes a Village, since it connotes the demand by the state of the parent – and surely any reasonable parent’s assent – to “pass the buck” with regard to child-raising…just let the state do that job.
In Davenport, Ms. Clinton had this to say: "This was his [Bush 43’s] decision to go to war with an ill-conceived plan and an incompetently executed strategy." She explained that he “took the authority that I and others gave him and he misused it, and I regret that deeply.” Hello!!! It may be that the lady was so intent on looking as masculine as possible in her pants-suit (was it yellow?) that she didn’t realize what she was saying, to wit, that she used the same information that the president had in casting her vote to give him the power to do anything he pleased.
So…it turns out that Ms. Clinton (the title Senator is not used since she will not be doing much senatoring in the near future as she concentrates on those inane town-meetings in Iowa and other places) in passing the buck to the president has actually passed it to herself, either never realizing that or figuring that Iowa’s “hawkeyes” would be too dumb to pick up on what she actually said…just like any hawk, recommending operating on instinct alone in destroying whatever it sees as necessary. It remains to be seen as to just who turns out to be dumb, the Iowans or the lady who bought New York fair and square and sight unseen, since she never had lived there.
It wasn’t reported that Ms. Clinton stamped her foot when she said this in the village of Davenport: "The president has said this is going to be left to his successor … I think it's the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it … and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office." SO THERE, George Bush…REALLY! Ms. Clinton bids fair to become the current version of Viet Jane Fonda, though she obviously lacks the “femme fatale” persona to grab the same amount of attention. On her recent foray into Iraq to assume the proper bona fides as a war-expert, Ms. Clinton perhaps should have gone to Shiite badman Moqtada al-Sadr and borrowed an armored camel for a ride through Baghdad. Egad!
Of course, Ms. Clinton does have a certain expertise in desert survival, gained in her 1999 trek through North Africa during which she camped out in the Moroccan desert with only her press corps, the porta-johns, a few hair-dressers, some portable showers, heavy-duty-tents/air-conditioners and the usual cadre of unhappy secret-service guys, most of them munching on dried dates while being spit-on by equally unhappy camels…all on the government dime as a parting shot at the White House. Did she actually make 75 or so foreign sashays during those eight years that hubby couldn’t catch bin Laden? Maybe she just can’t wait until Air Force One, complete with beauty salon, will be available again.
So…back to the village. One remembers the huge chart Senator Specter exhibited back about 1993 depicting the health-care plan wrought by Ms. Clinton and Ira Magaziner, with all those bureaucracies, agencies, institutions, forms, etc., taking the whole poster…with the patient in the bottom right-hand corner. THE VILLAGE! In his regular toe-to-toe with his detractors in Parliament the other day (one of the best shows on C-Span), Brit Prime Minister Blair answered a complaint that 15,000 people had been waiting six months or so for their surgeries (or whatever) by remarking that a few years ago the number was 300,000. This is the village in action.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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