There he was, Bill Clinton -- the man for all seasons --
johnny-on-the-spot ready to seize any political advantage he could
wangle in exploiting the emotional reaction of a nation to the massacre
at Columbine High School in Colorado.
This guy makes me sick.
He told the people of Littleton that a federal "crisis response team
is ready now to travel to Colorado, and I strongly believe that we
should do whatever we can to get enough counselors to the families and
the children as quickly as possible."
The date of this tragedy made me wonder where such a "crisis response
team" was for an even bigger, federally sponsored slaughter a few years
earlier at Waco, Texas.
Would somebody please tell this guy that the federal government, with
all of its money, doesn't have the answers to everybody's problems?
Washington cannot raise the dead, though it's pretty good at planting
them. It cannot solace the mourning. It cannot cure the sick. Though
many of Clinton's constituents think of government as God, it is not.
But the "crisis response team" wasn't even the most amazing part of
Clinton's contribution to the day of tragedy.
"We do know that we must do more to reach out to our children and
teach them to express their anger and to resolve their conflicts with
words, not weapons," he said. I mean it. He actually said that. Even as
he was ordering more bombs dropped on Serbia -- a nation with which most
Americans have no beef. He said this even as his generals were planning
an invasion of Kosovo.
Once again, it's Bill "do what I say, not what I do" Clinton. He's
got the best of intentions. But he's a lousy role model. Had the teen
terrorists of Littleton followed his example of diplomacy, what would
they have done differently? Use bigger bombs? Apache helicopters? Cruise
missiles?
Clinton has resorted to armed force more often than all of his
predecessors from Truman to Bush combined. He has bombed four separate
nations in the last seven months. And he's going to lecture others about
diplomacy? He might as well attempt teaching abstinence.
Worse yet, a new CIA report confirms, while he's bombing nations
deemed helpless to fight back against the world's last remaining
superpower, he's doing his level best to ensure America doesn't remain
one for long. Yes, indeed, by hook or by crook, Clinton's friends in
China have received all the help they need to perfect their most deadly
long-range weapons against us. Go figure. Maybe Clinton is relying on
the Tiananmen tyrants to use words to express their anger, not weapons.
Not likely.
But Clinton's long streak of luck may finally be running out. The
latest polls show his approval ratings slipping. They show his heir
apparent running neck-and-neck with the long-shot presidential aspirant
Bill Bradley and well behind Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
A new report also shows the U.S. deficit rising. Oooops! Wars will do
that -- especially when the so-called "budget surplus" was phony all
along. Now it's Social Security money Clinton is raiding to pay for his
bombs and bullets in Serbia.
No, I don't think Clinton's lip-biting and jaw-clenching act over the
Columbine High School shooting played all that well. The walls are
closing in on Mr. Clinton. Even a tragedy of this magnitude doesn't help
him to look presidential. In fact, it made him look exactly like what
the late Sen. Paul Tsongas called him back in 1992 -- "the Pander Bear."
Got a need? Washington can fill it. The check's in the mail. Need
counselors? We'll send them right over. Crisis response team? We've got
one for every crisis. Need a baby-sitter? The federal government can
help.
What would our Founding Fathers, who risked their lives, their
fortunes and their sacred honor in a valiant fight for freedom,
individual rights and independence, think of such a man presiding over
their national legacy?
What's most disgusting about Clinton's latest spectacle is how
disrespectful and exploitative it is of the dead -- not just those
killed in Littleton, but those being butchered, maimed and slaughtered
with U.S. taxpayer-supported planes and missiles in the Balkans.
If this guy really comes to your rescue, Colorado, watch out!