US Senate Avoids "Nuclear Option"

[Mutaman]

I agree, there hasn't been a left wing in this country since Tailgunner Joe McCarthy scared them all off. And of course Hillary Clinton is as much in the center as they come. However I disagree about her accomplishments. She's my senator and I'm satisfied with the job she has done. She ran a terrific hardworking campaign to get elected, and she has been a hard worker as a senator since then. Surprisingly, she's stayed out of the local limelight and out of political disputes, and has used her willingness to compromise and hard work to get things done. While most people feel that Chuck Schumer is all show and little substance, the feeling about Hillary is just the opposite. At this point, you will find few New Yorker's, liberal or conservative, who will criticise the job she has done and what she has delivered to both the state and the city. Her support for the Iraq fiasco sucks, but I'm willing to forgive that in light of my satisfaction for the job shes been doing as senator.

[M2]

I agree, there hasn't been a left wing in this country since Tailgunner Joe McCarthy scared them all off. And of course Hillary Clinton is as much in the center as they come. However I disagree about her accomplishments. She's my senator and I'm satisfied with the job she has done. She ran a terrific hardworking campaign to get elected, and she has been a hard worker as a senator since then. Surprisingly, she's stayed out of the local limelight and out of political disputes, and has used her willingness to compromise and hard work to get things done. While most people feel that Chuck Schumer is all show and little substance, the feeling about Hillary is just the opposite. At this point, you will find few New Yorker's, liberal or conservative, who will criticise the job she has done and what she has delivered to both the state and the city. Her support for the Iraq fiasco sucks, but I'm willing to forgive that in light of my satisfaction for the job shes been doing as senator.

What he she done? Seriously, name one thing.

[pedro]

There is no way on earth that Hillary will ever be the democratic candidate for president. At least not for 15 years. I'm a fan, in general, but there I don't think she's anyone I'd want to place as a frontrunner next time around. I want to win, and as it stands right now, anyone who already has 40% of the voting populace violently against them, is not a candidate in my mind.

[RedsBaron]

RB, as a leftist I consider Hillary Clinton to be a centrist, more of a do-nothing politician than a centrist, but still a centrist when she actually does something.

M2, I referred to the American political center in calling Hillary Clinton left of center. She certainly may be a centrist coming from your perspective on the left, just as George W. Bush undoubtedly seems to be much more conservative to you than he does to me, given my generally rightward bias, but based upon where this country currently sits politically, she's on the left wing-----not the left fringe, not a radical, but on the left. Rasmussen has been polling Americans on where they perceive Mrs. Clinton to be politically, and the last time I checked Rasmussen's polling numbers, about 50% of those responding called her a liberal, although her numbers have somewhat moved to the center in recent months.
I think Mrs. Clinton has generally played a smart game as Senator. She hasn't always sought the limelight and she has sought to moderate her image.
Should she be nominated in 2008, Republicans will of course attempt (more accurately renew prior attempts) to define her as a far left liberal, and she certainly may lose, but I sure would not be confident in betting against her. The country may no longer be divided 50-50 politically, at least based on the 2004 elections, but a 51-49 division is still awfully close.
I also believe it could be an interesting dynamic in how voters respond to the first woman nominated for president. Of course some men (and women) may vote against a candidate solely because of her gender (and never admit to pollsters the reason they are doing so), but I expect a good number of swing voters who might otherwise vote Republican could vote for Mrs. Clinton because of her gender. I still remember my first semester at Duke in the fall of 1976. I talked to a number of native North Carolinians who were absolutely bursting with pride because a southerner had finally been elected President and southern pride kept Gerald Ford from carrying many southern states against Jimmy Carter.

[registerthis]

There is no way on earth that Hillary will ever be the democratic candidate for president. At least not for 15 years. I'm a fan, in general, but there I don't think she's anyone I'd want to place as a frontrunner next time around. I want to win, and as it stands right now, anyone who already has 40% of the voting populace violently against them, is not a candidate in my mind.

Yes, but you can't ignore the 40% of the voting populace who would be solidly behind her. I think Hillary hasa good chance--better than most, perhaps--of getting the Dem nomination in '08.

[M2]

RB, I'm making the case against that kind of relativism. If Hillary Clinton's left, then for all intensive purposes, there is no left. We're a one-armed country with a right hand punching at the left ribs.

[WVRed]

IMO, all this does is delay the inevitable. The Supreme Court justice battle will be where everything is on the line.

The filibuster is still intact, but the only thing I saw accomplished was McCain giving the finger to the Republican Party(as Glenn Beck so eloquently put it).

[Mutaman]

What he she done? Seriously, name one thing.

I don't want to have to be a Hillary apologist and I don't want to see her run for president. But she's accomplished a lot as a New York senator. First, she got elected which is rare for a democrat these days. (And don't think for one minute Rudy dropped out of the race due to his prostate problem).

Hillary is the first New York senator to serve on the Armed Services Committee, and has voted for every defense appropriation since arriving in the Senate in 2001, backing new Bush weapons systems and focusing her critique of Bush's Iraq tactics on an inadequate deployment of troops. All of her liberal agenda has taken a back seat to guarding against the next 9/11 attack in NYC. She has successfully secured two large federal grants to clean up the toxic waste left by 9/11 in lower Manhattan and has obtained post 9/11 asbestos cleanup there. She has received an "A" rating on the websight of the 9/11 families and has secured $16 mill in federal funds to study post (9/11 problems in New York. She has fought dilligently to prevent post 9/11 pork programs from diverting funds away from NYC to other states where there is no threat. Even the NY Post has agreed that Hillary has done a hell of a job securing homeland and reconstruction aid for New York City.

[Rojo]

I'm a lefty, all my friends are lefty, I work for a lefty organization, live in, arguably, the most lefty city in the nation so I feel well qualified in saying that Hillary doesn't represent "the left".

Hillary is a straw (wo)man of talk radio. Seriously, they're the only ones talking about her.

Barbara Boxer and Russ Feingold are the only Senators within whiffing distance of true progressivism.

[bomarl1969]

I respect John Kerry for doing service in Vietnam and coming back to try and make this country a better place(even though I may disagree with his views). I cant say the same for someone who comes back and does not even cast a vote for change.

I can assure you that my father-in-law and John Kerry are nothing alike. First of all, my father-in-law was actually in the He was involved in some of the heaviest fighting during the war. He won numerous medals (deservingly), and didn't protest the war like that commie Kerry did. Sure he doesn't vote, but never once has he protested the war like the hypocrit Kerry.

[registerthis]

I can assure you that my father-in-law and John Kerry are nothing alike. First of all, my father-in-law was actually in the war. He was involved in some of the heaviest fighting during the war. He won numerous medals (deservingly), and didn't protest the war like that commie Kerry did. Sure he doesn't vote, but never once has he protested the war like the hypocrit Kerry.

So protesting an unjust, imperialistic war makes you a communist?

Count me down as a communist, then.

The only thing hypocritical about Kerry was that he seemingly backed down from his anti-war stance during the campaign. I admire him greatly for having the courage to stand up and protest a war he found to be unjust--there's nothing hypocritical about standing up for your principles.

[zombie-a-go-go]

That's some vitriol you got going there, bomarl.

And I know it's only a euphemism, but don't curse on this board, even if you mask it.

[bomarl1969]

So protesting an unjust, imperialistic war makes you a communist?

Most definitely. If there is one thing I can't stand it is seeing these aging liberial hippie ******s supporting our troops after 9/11 and they were the very ones that spit at and called our boys babykillers in the 1960s. You don't protest a war that your fellow countrymen are fighting and dying in. Besides, most of the men in Vietnam were told they were fighting for their country, but they were really righting for their lives. And hearing about hippies protesting our boys while dodging the draft, putting headbands on, doing drugs, spitting and cursing our own troops sickens me.

[bomarl1969]

That's some vitriol you got going there, bomarl.

And I know it's only a euphemism, but don't curse on this board, even if you mask it.

WHAT? WHAT? Your telling me not to mask cursing? Have you read the South Park thread or the 5 most offensive song threads!?

[zombie-a-go-go]

WHAT? WHAT? Your telling me not to mask cursing?

A review of my previous post in this thread reveals that yes, I am telling you not to curse, even when masking it.

Rules. They're all that keeps our society from being destroyed by the babykilling liberal headband-wearing drug addicts.