Rudy! Rudy!
A New York state poll conducted by Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion found that Sen. Clinton could be facing a tough battle for re-election in 2006.
The poll found that former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani beats Hillary, 50% to 46% in a hypothetical Senate matchup. Meanwhile, Hillary could have another tough fight on her future, as the poll showed that she and Republican Gov. George Pataki were tied at 46% each in another hypothetical matchup. Both Pataki and Giuliani are considered potential challengers to Sen. Clinton in her expected bid for a second term in 2006.
Republicans have placed a high priority on beating Hillary for re-election, as it would most certainly derail a possible White House run by her in 2008. For his part, Giuliani has said that he hasn't ruled out challenging Sen. Clinton in 2006, but won't make a final decision till after this year's presidential election. The popular former Mayor told radio show host Sean Hannity that "I haven't made any decision at all about 2005, much less 2006," and he's "not going to think about it until after the presidential elections. Do I want to run again, what do I want to run for? Senator, governor - who knows?"
Several Giuliani friends tell HUMAN EVENTS that they think the former major will definitely enter the '06 Senate race.
There She Goes Again.
Hillary's most infamous moment as First Lady may have been when she attempted to overhaul our nation's health care system a decade ago. Her plan to nationalize one-seventh of the economy failed miserably, but she recently presented a new, albeit more modest plan to reform our health care system. She revealed her plan at Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, saying it would improve our "fragmented, redundant, inefficient, bureaucratic" health care network.
Under her plan, hospitals would adopt a government-imposed, standardized language regarding patients' medical histories and research advances. Said Hill: "Americans need a new, modern, 21st Century version of health-care delivery based on the premise of information in the hands of the right people at the right time, which drives not only quality, but also value in our health-care dollar." This new way of medical communication and information sharing would, according to Hillary, help doctors improve research and boost the effectiveness of treatments as well as streamline communication and widen patient access to health records. "What our medical system requires of providers is a little bit like asking pilots to routinely land planes without any information from the control tower," Sen. Clinton said. "They are denied critical information, and then asked to make life-and-death decisions."
She claims that her plan will give doctors more time to spend with their patients, and that replacing paper records with electronic data storage would cut costs of litigation and administrative tasks. Hillary also argued that her plan would ensure that medical records remain private. "We must ensure the privacy of these systems, or else they will undermine the trust they are trying to create," she told her audience, made up heavily of health care professionals, including many doctors.
The dean of the Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Antonio Gotto, thought Hillary's plan was a step in the right direction, but that rising medical malpractice costs will soon overrun ay savings made by her plan of cutting down on administrative waste and updating medical technology. However, Hillary voted against medical malpractice reform last year, so her new plan may end up accomplishing nothing.
Dollar Hill.
Hillary is planning to provide the keynote speech at the Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Broward County, Fla., where the 2000 elections reached a climactic end. Broward County Democrats apparently need to "pump up their finances in preparation for the presidential election," so where else would they turn but to the biggest rainmaker in the Democratic Party today?
Her appearance at the February 21 dinner is expected not only to provide some much needed money in this key election year, but to also generate some excitement about an event that has been lagging in recent years. For the occasion, Broward Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar has raised the ticket price from $100 to $125.
Grammy Schammy.
If Milli Vanilli's 1990 Grammy wasn't enough to prove that the music award program is a farce, then here's some more evidence. Both Bill and Hillary have been nominated for Grammys this year, Bill for "Best Spoken Word Album for Children," for his reading of "Peter and the Wolf," and Hillary for "Best Spoken Word Album" category for her latest book, Living History.
Of course, Hillary won her first Grammy in 1994 for her spoken rendition of her earlier book It Takes a Village. For this year, though, she has some serious competition, as she is facing off against two other obnoxious liberals, Al Franken for Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and Bill Maher for When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden. What, no nomination for either one of Michael Moore's books?
