Hillary’s Quote of the Day (Updated x3)
[Guest post by DRJ]
This didn’t happen today but I had problems posting last night and it’s too good to pass up.
A Congolese student asked Hillary Clinton a question about the President’s position on a Chinese trade deal with the Republic of Congo. The student says the question was asking about President Obama’s position but the translator asked Hillary what Bill thought. This was Hillary’s testy response:
“You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?” Clinton replied, clearly irked by the thought of being her husband Bill’s spokeswoman. “My husband is not secretary of state, I am,” she replied. “If you want my opinion I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be channeling my husband.”
Channeling Eleanor Roosevelt is one thing but never Bill.
UPDATE 1: Ann Althouse has video of Clinton as well as video from the Today Show where Meredith Viera and Andrea Mitchell speculate about Hillary’s excuses.
UPDATE 2: Jules Crittenden reviews more Hillary excuses and humorously points out the pros and cons of her approach to statesmanship:
“Humiliating earnest foreign college kids in that context is laudable for its honesty, and more pols should do it.
I dunno about you, but I can’t wait for some Russian or Iranian plant to start really goading her with something other than some obscure World Bank thing no one ever heard of.”
UPDATE 3: The State Department struggles to explain Hillary’s outburst.
– DRJ
Were I a reporter, Allah forbid, I would ask Hillary what Bill’s opinion was every time I was in the room with her. Is this the great foreign policy, kinder gentler diplomacy that the Dems have been yammering about? And she was speaking to a college student, no less.
Comment by JD — 8/11/2009 @ 11:12 am
No, she’s not channeling her husband. She’s channeling her Inner Bitch. And doing a good job of it too, I might add.
Comment by Mike Myers — 8/11/2009 @ 11:35 am
I read those excuses. A college student’s question!
Remember Condoleezza Rice? How would Hillary have reacted to bloody hands thrust in her face?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00648/news-graphics-2007-_648952a.jpg
Comment by jim2 — 8/11/2009 @ 11:39 am
[...] Join what I am sure will be a lively discussion over at Patterico’s. [...]
Pingback by Gazzer’s Gabfest » Remember, this is our top diplomat at work… — 8/11/2009 @ 12:03 pm
Hillary apparently doesn’t have the heart and soul of a diplomat. It’s all about her ego. Which is amusing, since she was nothing but a hustling lawyer in Arkansas before her much more intelligent and competent husband became the president.
This woman has ‘gravitas’? And if a woman makes it on her own, has a normal family, maybe even ran a business, they will call her a dumb hillbilly.
Comment by Juan — 8/11/2009 @ 12:10 pm
Honestly, i don’t think I could fault Hillary for her response.
Comment by G — 8/11/2009 @ 12:12 pm
It takes a village to berate a student.
Comment by Ray — 8/11/2009 @ 12:15 pm
Hmmm, someone sounds insecure. Now who was it that negotiated the prisoner release from North Korea?
Comment by Ray — 8/11/2009 @ 12:17 pm
What a miserable person. She’s bereft of any decency.
Comment by Comrade Terry — 8/11/2009 @ 12:30 pm
This woman has ‘gravitas’? And if a woman makes it on her own, has a normal family, maybe even ran a business, they will call her a dumb hillbilly.
Let’s be fair to Hillary: She’s not a hillbilly.
Comment by Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. — 8/11/2009 @ 12:30 pm
Great answer Hillary!
Comment by M — 8/11/2009 @ 12:32 pm
M, this actually could have been a great answer. Hillary was extremely rude to a student in a foreign land… and made our nation look awful and petty when her job is to do the opposite.
All she had to do was explain that she doesn’t speak for her husband, and she is the SecState, and do so in a way that is warm and magnanimous. Instead, pugnacious bitch hillary comes out. The Hillary we all know has always been there, always been lurking beneath the facade of ‘Pearls or Diamonds… I chose both!’ and ’sniffle sniffle, it’s so HARD sometimes to be break the glass ceiling… oh I promised I wouldn’t cry’.
The problem with Hillary is that she’s just not the right person to show America what women can accomplish. Hell, Nancy Pelosi is better than Hillary. Sarah Palin is too. Hillary knows she will be a footnote in history.
Comment by Juan — 8/11/2009 @ 12:57 pm
What is with the Guantanomo Orange pantsuits she has been wearing lately?
Comment by mykef2 — 8/11/2009 @ 12:58 pm
Hillary Clinton has mouth of a street person and the thighs of a hippo.
Could someone remind me again of her lifes accomplishments.
Comment by gus — 8/11/2009 @ 1:18 pm
gus, she made 100,000 percent profit in a year off some Arkansas real estate deal. That’s pretty awesome.
Comment by Juan — 8/11/2009 @ 1:22 pm
No, that was cattle futures she made money on. She lost money on the Arkansas real estate.
And, because no one else has said it: The country’s in the best of hands …
Comment by JayC — 8/11/2009 @ 1:48 pm
yeah yeah yeah, that was it.
I honestly didn’t care enough to get the details right on my stupid joke. I happily stand corrected.
Hillary has been a great lawyer in her time. A great congressional staffer. She was part of the Watergate response on the hill. She could have been a lot more than she turned out to be, and I think that’s what keeps her up at night.
she was smart enough to go Sarah Palin’s route… run for office on her own steam and accomplishments, instead of as the former first lady. Because she didn’t have the backbone to try this, she’ll always be known as the wife of Bill Clinton.
Comment by Juan — 8/11/2009 @ 1:59 pm
She came across as petty, small, and cruel.
She very easily could have asked the translator to restate the question with an “I’m sorry, why would you want to know my husband’s thoughts?” or some such. Instead, as has been pointed out, she let her Inner Bitch fly.
And this woman could have been President!
Comment by AD - RtR/OS! — 8/11/2009 @ 2:46 pm
And here I was hoping that she was our POTUS right now, because who do you really want in that office when there’s the 3:00 AM phone call in the middle of the night? Calm, cool and collected – nothing ruffles the Hildebeast.
And that jet lag excuse is a complete pile of horse manure. I used to travel all the time, and if I ever used that lame -o I’d have been laughed out of my job ASAP.
Comment by Dmac — 8/11/2009 @ 2:46 pm
Hillary can’t fool Americans into thinking she’s a nice person. Obama can. hell, even the right generally thinks he’s just a foolish naive simpleton, rather than the Chicago thug he really is.
Obama tapped Hillary for Secstate because anyone in that position loses their political credibility.
Even Colin Powell. Hillary might be able to get back in the Senate, but not prez.
Comment by Juan — 8/11/2009 @ 2:50 pm
For what it’s worth, Drudge has an odd juxtaposition of two headlines.
(At 3:15PM PDT, right column)
SNAP: THIS CLINTON IS SECRETARY OF STATE…
{break line}
Bill Clinton Celebrates His 63rd in Vegas…
(break line}
‘Progress’ in herpes treatment…
Saw that and wondered just how puckish the gnomes at Drudge just are.
RC Pete
Comment by Red County Pete — 8/11/2009 @ 3:19 pm
Er, make that “Saw that and wondered just how puckish the gnomes at Drudge are.”
Red (typos ‘r’ us) County Pete
Comment by Red County Pete — 8/11/2009 @ 3:21 pm
Red, I actually almost posted that exact same thing in this thread! How odd!
Drudge absolutely did that on purpose. He does it all the time. You should always read his page hunting for hidden humor, because there’s almost always at least one or two examples.
Thank God, because his site is otherwise pretty boring in construction. I sure wish Drudge would incorporate blogs better into his page. I found Instapundit via Andrew Sullivan’s link on drudge, many moons ago. I think Drudge would do well to have some kind of rapidly updating list of good blog posts.
Comment by Juan — 8/11/2009 @ 3:22 pm
“Hillary has been a great lawyer in her time.”
Juan – Examples please. Her supervisor in the Watergate hearings said she deliberately fudged the evidence and rules in order to nail Nixon.
Comment by daleyrocks — 8/11/2009 @ 3:53 pm
daleyrocks, you don’t understand. She was a great (as in successful) lawyer merely because she was working for the Judiciary committee at that time. Of course her work was dumb… she’s an alinksi follower because her ideas are stupid and she has to cheat.
but I’m sure I could come up with some examples if I dug into it. Hillary Rodham was an extremely well regarded attorney. In that business, your reputation can be very important, and her peers consistently rated her well. She was in the Top 100 influential lawyers list 2 or 3 times before I had heard of her husband, for example (perhaps that’s a good example?).
If you want an example, give me some idea what constitutes an example.
Comment by Juan — 8/11/2009 @ 3:58 pm
“Hillary can’t fool Americans into thinking she’s a nice person.”
Juan – She did instruct Eric Holder to get pardons for those FALN terrorists so she could get the Puerto Rican vote in N.Y. in 2000 even though they did not ask for or want pardons and the Justice Department advised against it.
Comment by daleyrocks — 8/11/2009 @ 4:03 pm
I’ve updated the post with more Hillary excuses from Jules Crittenden.
Comment by DRJ — 8/11/2009 @ 4:14 pm
I don’t know why I’d defend hillary when the real evidence says daley is right and Hillary’s just a lucky politician. When it came to pardons, she’s basically just a criminal.
i guess we have that to look forward to again.
Comment by Juan — 8/11/2009 @ 4:24 pm
“She was in the Top 100 influential lawyers list 2 or 3 times before I had heard of her husband, for example (perhaps that’s a good example?).”
Juan – I don’t know when you first heard of Bill, but this sounds like complete bullshit. They were married in 1975. She joined the Rose Law firm in 1977 and became the first woman partner in 1979, the year she also became First Lady of Arkansas. Those Top 100 Lawyer Awards date from 1988 and 1991, when Bill was already known on the national stage.
Comment by daleyrocks — 8/11/2009 @ 4:37 pm
It’s a revealing look at the competitiveness of Hillary with Bill. And she shouldn’t have indulged her insecurity like she did. So defensive and petty, when it instead could have been a great PR-image builder moment wherein she chuckled, and gently reminded, “Mr. Clinton was the president, I am the Secretary of State!”
Of course, as we can see in the video, she was not having the best hair day, so perhaps that added to her bitchiness…
Comment by Dana — 8/11/2009 @ 5:27 pm
I though her answer was fine, given the question as she understood it. What was more the takeaway is how she seemed so settled in to a tough broad persona. She could’ve been wearing a wifebeater and drinking a PBR for all her grace.
Comment by happyfeet — 8/11/2009 @ 6:02 pm
She came across as petty, small, and cruel.
She very easily could have asked the translator to restate the question with an “I’m sorry, why would you want to know my husband’s thoughts?” or some such. Instead, as has been pointed out, she let her Inner Bitch fly.
And this woman could have been President!
Comment by AD – RtR/OS! — 8/11/2009 @ 2:46 pm
Well said. Secure people do not act like this. For example, we saw Condoleezza Rice many times smile graciously while diplomatically eviscerating a(nother) tough cookie across the table.
Clinton had the right to feel upset; she didn’t have the right to let it (and her obvious boredom, BTW) show like a spoiled teenager. Not while representing us she didn’t.
Comment by no one you know — 8/11/2009 @ 6:12 pm
It wasn’t so much the answer itself, but rather the obvious anger behind it. Apparently Bill (in any form) continues to be a hot button issue for her.
Comment by Dana — 8/11/2009 @ 6:12 pm
It wasn’t so much the answer itself, but rather the obvious anger behind it. Apparently Bill (in any form) continues to be a hot button issue for her.
Comment by Dana — 8/11/2009 @ 6:12 pm
And now everyone knows exactly how much it bothers her. (Sometimes I wonder if that actually pleases her narcissist of a husband.) Nice going, Madam Secretary!
Comment by no one you know — 8/11/2009 @ 6:17 pm
NOYK, I don’t think Bill really cares too much what Hillary thinks… He’s here, she’s there in the Congo, and, what happens in Vegas….
Comment by Dana — 8/11/2009 @ 6:24 pm
Once again the entire nation is forced to be a part of the Clinton’s disfunctional marriage.
Comment by SPQR — 8/11/2009 @ 6:27 pm
Ha ha, hardy har har. (in the voice of Foghorn Leghorn) I say! I say there Boy! What you don’t seem to be APPPreciating is that I Repreeeesent the UUUUnited States of Ammericca. Why you should be thrilled, THRILLED I say, that someone as Important as me is even talking to your Foooreign self! Now speak up, I said SPEAK UP Boy! And have the decency to speak in EnnngggLish when ya doin! Harrrumph!
Comment by Californio — 8/11/2009 @ 10:33 pm
Gee, my reaction this morning when I checked out the AP headline stories online was
“Gee, that Hillary story sure has legs. Either that, or somebody in the White House is pulling some strings with the friendly media to make her look bad. Hmmmm. Could it be that The Won felt upstaged by Bill Clinton last week?”
Comment by MrJimm — 8/12/2009 @ 8:07 am