Presidential Rumors.
The talk about Hillary's running for President in 2008 continues. Sen. Ted Kennedy said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that although Sen. Clinton may be the frontrunner for the nomination at this point, he is still supporting his Massachusetts colleague, Sen. John Kerry. "Oh yes," Kennedy replied when asked if he is sticking with the 2004 failed candidate despite Hillary's popularity. "And I have enormous respect for Sen. Clinton. I admire and respect her. She's qualified for the job, but my man is John Kerry." Meanwhile, former President George H.W. Bush is betting that Hillary will enter the race. "My expectation is that Mrs. Clinton will run," he told Newsweek recently. In addition, U.S. News & World Report's "Washington Whispers" claims that that friends of former President Clinton would like him to stop bragging about his wife's chances in 2008. They say the former President's cheering is "counterproductive" and is "distracting attention from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's effort to show that she isn't just an old Clinton-style liberal." And finally, ultraliberal columnist Paul Krugman said on "Meet the Press" that "I dread the prospect of a Clinton run just because I think that would be an attempt to recreate the politics of the '90s when you had Bill Clinton, who was a President who managed to sort of triangulate. And I think we ought to have an election that's really about what kind of country we're going to be and we won't have that if it's Hillary Clinton running." Bush Kills Women.
Hillary recently spoke at New York University to observe the 10th anniversary of the United Nations' fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, where she appeared as First Lady. She also took the occasion to shed a nominally pro-life disguise to bash the Bush Administration's policy on prohibiting U.S. funds from being used to pay for abortions in foreign countries. Hillary cried that the "policy of withholding aid from overseas groups that perform abortions is hurting women and forcing clinics to close." Hillary's husband, it will be remembered, overturned the Reagan era's "Mexico City policy"-which prevented taxpayer dollars from paying for abortions around the world-on Jan. 25, 1993, which, by the way, was the 20th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Sen. Clinton implicitly blamed President Bush and the millions of Americans who don't think their money should pay for abortion around the globe for putting "20 million women worldwide" at "risk" for "unsafe abortions every year," of which "68,000 die and many more are injured." Said Hill: "Many of these deaths and these injuries can be prevented by providing women with the information and means to choose the size and spacing of their own families, and yet I regret that the government of my own country is making it more difficult for women in these situations to receive safe medical care. It is unfair for governments and people in developed countries who have access to the full range of reproductive and family health services to deny those to women in other countries around the world." Going to See Great Leader?
The Korea Times recently reported that Hillary will be visiting North Korea later this year. The leader of South Korea's opposition party, Chairman Han Hwa-kap, said he planned to meet with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill to discuss the issue. However, both Hillary and the U.S. Embassy denied that such plans had been made. A spokesman for Sen. Clinton told United Press International that the "Korea Times story, at least as it pertains to Sen. Clinton, is wholly inaccurate-no such trip has been discussed or planned." The U.S. Embassy similarly dismissed these reports, saying that "the U.S. Embassy in Seoul is not involved in the planning of any such trip." However, Chairman Han also told local media that Hillary wished to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to personally to discuss the ongoing nuclear standoff. More Surgery Needed.
Former President Bill Clinton went back under the knife last week for an elective procedure to remove scar tissue and fluid from his chest that had caused the lower lobe of his left lung to collapse. Clinton, 58, underwent heart bypass surgery in September. Doctors at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital said the new condition was a rare complication from the bypass operation. Hillary was with her husband last Thursday for the operation. "We're very confident about the outcome," she said.
