RW Neocon columnist admits: GOP is dying to run against Hillary [View All]

From the LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/la-oe-goldberg23oct23,0,5528341.column?coll=la-util-opinion-sunday

Jonah Goldberg

Candidate Hillary: the GOP's dream

A campaign against Sen. Clinton may give Republicans the best shot at running as the party of change.

October 23, 2007

The most interesting thing to come out of the umpteenth Republican debate Sunday is confirmation that the GOP is dying to run against Hillary Clinton. Like Don Rickles flaying a heckler, each candidate whacked at Clinton as if she were a pants-suited piñata. When they were done with their one-liners, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee deadpanned: "Look, I like to be funny. There's nothing funny about Hillary Clinton being president."

No, but there's something deeply advantageous about having her as an opponent. So far, the commentary about the Republican offensive against Hillary has focused mostly on how it reflects poorly on the GOP (those Clinton-hating wing nuts are at it again!). What's not been fully grasped is how Hillary gives the GOP its best chance at being the party of change.

...

In the general election, audiences will remember Whitewater, travelgate, illegal fundraising, bimbo eruptions and impeachment. If they don't, you can be sure Republicans will remind them. Fair or not, the Republicans' intense dislike of Hillary will underscore the idea that a vote for her is a vote for more of the same rancor.

Hence the irony of the Clinton candidacy. Liberal activists keep saying that they want a candidate who is pure, who speaks from the heart and refuses to "triangulate" on core principles the way Bill Clinton did. But Hillary Clinton is Clintonian in more than just name. On national security in particular, she has been alternating between reflexive anti-Bushism to bouts of outright hawkishness on Iran. Desperate to win, Democrats have been willing to overlook that -- so far. But such shifting costs her credibility and passion.

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So there you have it. They are practically giving away their playbook. They know they can't win on the issues in the general election, so it's going to be a nasty, personality driven campaign designed to dredge up all the fake scandals that led to "Clinton fatigue," despite all the peace and prosperity of that administration. They are going to make the campaign so nasty that most independents and non-political types will simply turn off to the election -- this analysis, by the way, coming from a sleeze who actually played a major role in creating the Lewinsky scandal. And since Hillary will be busy triangulating, refusing to take bold policy stances -- for single payer health care, or against the war, or for an end to our fossil fuel addiction -- for fear of alienating one business interest or another, she will play right into their hands, because she will be running mostly on the her identity, the very quality that the Republicans plan to spend all their time trashing.

If Hillary gets the nomination, get ready for the vast right wing redux of Whitewater, missing billing paper, bimbo eruptions, missing "W" keys, travelgate, etc., etc., not, as Goldberg says, because the electorate will "remember" them, but because the right wing spin machine will shove it down our throats and the complaint, lazy, brain dead mainstream media will play along for laughs. All that quality time that Hillary has spent with Fox owner Rupert Murdoch will be revealed to have been to sucker the Democrats into the trap.

Look at their debates. Read what their ideologues are writing. They're already telling you what they're going to do.