Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Bird-Dogging Hillary

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Bird-Dogging Hillary

    http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2778 /

    In These Times, September 2006
    Bird-Dogging Hillary Clinton

    By Nancy Kricorian


    In November 2005 Hillary Rodham Clinton sent out a fundraising letter
    to her constituents. `Part of my job is being a good listener,' she
    wrote, going on to describe all the good listening she does as the
    junior senator from New York. She concluded, `Now I'd like to listen
    to you.'

    In the envelope with the letter was a three-page, 18-question `2005
    Critical National Issues Survey' addressing a range of topics from jobs
    to homeland security to separation of church and state. Not one
    question in the survey mentioned the war in Iraq - an omission that came
    as no surprise to those of us at the New York chapter of CODEPINK Women
    for Peace.

    At the time Hillary prepared her `questionnaire,' close to 2,300 U.S.
    troops and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians had died, and polls showed
    that most Americans were worried about the war and its ill effects,
    including rising prices at the gas pump. But somehow, Hillary and her
    handlers thought that ignoring the war was the strategically smart
    thing to do. And they were right.

    It turns out that Hillary has done a tremendous job - of getting New York
    Democrats to assume that because right-wing Republicans hate her she
    must oppose the war. Most New York Democratic voters also don't realize
    that she co-sponsored an amendment to ban flag-burning, is against
    marriage equality for gays and lesbians, supports the death penalty,
    votes consistently for Star Wars appropriations and has served on the
    board of Wal-Mart for six years. Yet, she is consistently touted as the
    `liberal Democrat from New York.'

    But it is her position - or, rather, her exquisitely-phrased,
    calculatedly imprecise non-position - on the Iraq War, accompanied by her
    consistent voting record in support of the Bush administration on Iraq,
    that had our local CODEPINK chapter trying for weeks before she sent
    out her `I'm a listener' mailer, to meet with Hillary or someone on her
    New York City staff.

    When the topic turns to Iraq, Hillary repeats the same garbled message
    in various locutions: We shouldn't stay, but we shouldn't not stay;
    while before we go we should get a job done, we shouldn't be doing the
    job we're doing. If you parse her carefully worded speeches and
    statements, the only significant differences between Hillary and Bush
    are that she thinks we need more troops on the ground in Iraq so the
    war can be better prosecuted - and that she is furiously trying to hide
    that position from her constituency.

    No invitation to talk from Hillary's office was forthcoming. So
    CODEPINK NYC pulled together a coalition of local peace groups and
    launched a weekly vigil outside Hillary's office on Third Avenue at
    49th Street. We bought enormous rubber ears from a theatrical supply
    company and made signs that said, `Hillary you're not listening, bring
    the troops home now.' We passed out information about her positions,
    and we launched the Web site http://www.listenhillary.org.

    Standing on the sidewalk, in the dead of winter, it was remarkable how
    many passersby would stop and talk, amazed to learn how close her
    position on the war was to Bush's.

    Soon after we launched the weekly vigil we got a call from Hillary's
    office to set up an appointment. Four of us met with Hillary's New York
    City `Director of Governmental Affairs,' a fresh-faced and genial young
    woman who honestly appeared to know less about Hillary's voting record
    or statements on the war than the crowds on the sidewalk. She
    patronizingly told us that she would pass along our concerns to the
    senator.

    After this fruitless meeting, we coordinated with peace groups around
    the state and CODEPINK chapters around the country, organizing a
    statewide and national campaign called `Bird-dog Hillary.'

    Wherever Hillary was appearing we were there with our signs and
    handouts, dressed in pink with big rubber ears. Women also got inside
    and raised their voices, raining down flyers from balconies, and
    generally making a notable, if momentary, ruckus. The results
    everywhere were similar: a genuine sense of amazed - and
    dismayed - recognition that Hillary's views on Iraq are out of synch not
    only with those of many Democrats but of the vast majority of
    Americans, regardless of party affiliation.

    CODEPINK has now become an almost integral part of the Hillary road
    show. The only major fundraiser we were unable to crash was the one for
    Hillary held in July by Rupert Murdoch, the location of which was a
    more tightly-held secret than the location of Dick Cheney's bunker. The
    rituals of the campaign trail and the fundraising gauntlet have given
    us a funny intimacy with her team.

    In late May we were outside a fundraiser for Senator Robert Byrd in a
    private apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at which Hillary
    was a `special guest.' As the elderly Senator Byrd entered, one of us
    asked, `Senator Byrd, can you tell Hillary to stop supporting the war?'

    Senator Byrd paused and answered, `Ladies, I don't tell her to do
    anything.'

    A few minutes later Senator Clinton drove up in her shiny black SUV
    accompanied by her Secret Service detail. As she walked past us, one of
    us asked, `Senator Clinton, when are you going to help end this war?'

    Hillary's answer: `We're working on it.'

    After she entered the building one of her secret service guys, whom
    some of us by this point knew by name, winked and asked, `Will we be
    seeing you later?'

    He was referring to the West Village fundraiser for Ohio gubernatorial
    candidate Ted Strickland that Hillary was co-hosting. A few minutes
    later we were on the subway heading downtown.

    In June we bought tickets to a Women for Hillary fundraising luncheon
    at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Eva-Lee, Missy and I went
    into the ballroom where 1,000 enthusiastic and decorous attendees were
    taking seats at their tables. I spotted a mother from my kid's school
    and a business acquaintance of my husband's who had told me point blank
    that she despised Hillary. What were they doing here? Placing their
    bets on the Democrats' leading horse.

    Staging a protest at a Hillary event is a delightfully surreal
    experience. We were assigned to Table 121, way in the back (we paid
    $125 apiece for our tickets; the tickets up front went for $1,000) but
    very close to the bank of press cameras. We nervously ate our cold
    salmon and chatted with other women at our table.

    We were in Hillaryland: we watched a slickly produced Hillary film in
    which she single-handedly revived New York State's economy, palled
    around with firefighters and cured two children of cancer. A lot of
    eyes got misty, both on screen and in the audience.

    Then she made a grand entrance down a side stairway, greeted with a
    standing ovation. She read through a very, very long list of
    politicians' wives and other supporters. And when she said `support'
    for the 100th time, Missy stood up and shouted, `What about supporting
    our troops by bringing them home?' This was our cue.

    Eva-Lee and I removed the sweaters covering our pink T-shirts, on which
    we had written pro-troop messages with black fabric markers (mine said
    `2,475 U.S. military deaths: How many more?') Then we unfurled our pink
    satin TROOPS HOME NOW banners. As we started chanting `troops home
    now,' the cameras strayed from Hillary and toward us.

    The Hillary campaign employees, secret service guys and hotel security
    who came to escort us out were resolutely polite, by now familiar with
    the recurrent and inevitable drill. One young campaign worker said, `If
    you'll be quiet, you can stay.' I answered loudly, `Troops out now' and
    off we went. Missy ran forward, handing out photos of her nephew who
    had been killed in Iraq.

    The bulk of the e-mail we get congratulates us on our work, but some
    complains about the `Bird-dog Hillary' campaign. One woman reminded us
    that Hillary was a feminist who wore sandals in college and suggested
    that as women and feminists we should be supporting her. Another New
    Yorker asked why we weren't targeting our senior senator, Chuck
    Schumer, who isn't much better than Hillary on the war. That one had
    an easy answer: Chuck Schumer is neither running for re-election nor
    positioning himself for a presidential run.

    CODEPINK will continue to push the war issue to center stage, as others
    are doing in Connecticut, fueling Ned Lamont's successful challenge to
    Senator Joe Lieberman. When he was stumping for Lieberman in July,
    President Bill Clinton referred to the war as `the pink elephant in the
    room.' Well, the pink elephant has raised its head, as has CODEPINK.

    Nancy Kricorian, whose most recent novel is Dreams of Bread and Fire,
    is the coordinator of CODEPINK NYC.
Working...
X