Don’t let the title make you do anything hasty. I’m more on your side about Mrs. Clinton than you might think. Nothing against the lady; just going to use a bit of historical context to share an idea.
OK. We good, now? Great. So, here’s the context. During World War II, when the war in the Pacific was raging, the Japanese military started to worry that they may lose the islands they held and maybe even the war. So they put their best minds to the task of developing and deploying what they felt was a devastating psychological weapon. One that was so formidable that American troops would quake in their boots; would be so devastated that they couldn’t fight any more.
The weapon? Japanese troops would yell (or write) “Babe Ruth Go To Hell” at the Americans.
History shows it wasn’t effective.
Now back to Mrs. Clinton. Even before she became First Lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton has been the target of Republicans fishing for any political scandal that they could use to their own advantage. The failed Arkansas business adventure that became known as Whitewater was kept alive for years, from the time she was First Lady of Arkansas into her terms as First Lady of the United States. No wrongdoing of any kind was ever proved.
And now, the attacks have something to do with Mrs. Clinton’s email handling. And, OH! Expect the zombie lie known as Benghazi to stagger through the halls of Congress somewhere between now and the next election cycle.
And lest we forget: Travelgate (interesting, how Republicans hang the suffix “gate” on other parties’ scandals seemingly oblivious to the irony; it was Watergate, remember, that caught Richard Nixon breaking the law).
Then there was the Clinton Christmas Card List (caps for emphasis, and a slight bit of derision), where Congress spent ten days (on our time) trying to make it appear that the Clintons had “stolen” government property to get the names on the list. And of course no evidence was ever produced that there was wrongdoing of any kind.
And lest we forget: Travelgate (interesting, how Republicans hang the suffix “gate” on other parties’ scandals seemingly oblivious to the irony; it was Watergate, remember, that caught Richard Nixon breaking the law).
And now, the attacks have something to do with Mrs. Clinton’s email handling. And, OH! Expect the zombie lie known as Benghazi to stagger through the halls of Congress somewhere between now and the next election cycle.
And to her credit, through all these years of insinuation and insult, Mrs. Clinton has responded with grace and intelligence; and maybe a little weary “here we go again” attitude.
So, really, the latest Hillary faux scandal shares some DNA with the above-noted Japanese ultimate psychological warfare campaign. Ludicrous in retrospect, totally ineffective, and probably an inadvertent morale booster to the supposed target.
So, maybe it’s fair to tweak the words in the title a bit to say, “Give ‘em Hell, Hillary!”
(John MacMurray is a retired La Habra teacher and former Democratic candidate for State Assembly. He blogs at LAProgressive.com where this column was first posted. A must visit. LA’s most important Progressive voice. He is an occasional contributor to CityWatch.)
-cw
