Monday, December 18, 2006

Hillary's walk back

This wasn't a surprise. Hillary, as the story admits, has long been an "artful dodger" about her Iraq war vote. But the word play here has to be seen to be believed. Speaking for Ms. Rodham, her press secretary Philippe Reines:
"As she has long and often said, Senator Clinton believes that if we knew then what we know now, Congress never would have been asked to give the President authority to use force against Iraq, and if the President still asked Congress despite a lack of evidence, the Congress would not have agreed," said Reines.
It's hard to imagine anyone short of a died-in-the-wool Democrat buying into such a revisionist piece of nonsensical puffery. Using the phrase "lack of evidence" was key, since it can work in a variety of ways, ie, was there a lack of evidence in 2002, or would the Congress today vote on war with the lack of evidence we've now found by going to war already? Only in Washington do people speak in such ways and expect to get away with it.

Speaking of that, the real entertainment will come from seeing whether anyone in the media other than Stephen Colbert or Fox News will have the cajones to seriously challenge this walkback for what it really is.

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