In a speech today, Hillary Clinton talked about divisions in the Democratic Party about what to do about Iraq. She made the case that these divisions are actually a
good thing, because the alternative is the Republican model, lockstep obedience to the administration.
In fact, she described the Republicans as the three monkeys who hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil about the Bush adminstration.
The speech was reported in
The Swamp, the Chicago Tribune's political blog. Some excerpts:
"Although unity is important, it is not the most important value," Clinton said today. "I think it is a tribute to the Democratic Party at this point in time that we are honestly and openly struggling with a lot of the difficult issues facing the country."
"The other party has made a decision to blindly follow the president, to ask no questions to raise no concerns," Clinton said. "When people say the Democrats seem not to have a unified position, I can very straight-forwardly say, 'I'm proud of the debate that we're having.' We are trying to fill our responsibilities in contrast to our friends on the other side who have abdicated theirs."
While I disagree with Senator Clinton on her stance about Iraq, I think that she's exactly correct about the value of debate. This is a debate that the country needs to have. Right now, we have George Bush shouting "stay the course", and the Republicans obediently parroting "stay the course". That's not a policy, that's a mantra.
After her prepared speech, Sen. Clinton spoke with some reporters:
Do Democrats come out of the debate more divided or more united than when they went in about Iraq?
"I think we come out more united. That's what I tried to say in the beginning. We're not blindly united like the other side is. They are like the three monkeys - hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil."
"They're not going to say anything negative about the president, the vice president, the secretary of defense or anybody else. I think that's irresponsible. It's negligent. It certainly wouldn't be the Republican attitude if there were a Democratic president in office.
"I went back and read some of what they said about Bosnia and Kosovo. It was much harsher than anything any Democrat has said. So the Democrats come out of this, I think, with a unified message that we want success in Iraq, we want the Iraqi people to have the stability and security and peace that they have voted for.
Another analogy that she could have used is that GOP lawmakers are a bunch of lemmings, blindly following BushCo off the cliff.
-dms