The American Spectator

Buy the Book

Just Being Herself

By Steven M. Warshawsky on 4.11.06 @ 12:06AM

I've Always Been a Yankees Fan: Hillary Clinton In Her Own Words,
by Thomas D. Kuiper
(World Ahead, 166 pages, $12.95)

"We are at a stage in history in which remolding society is one of the great challenges facing all of us in the West." These chilling words were spoken by Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 1993 commencement address at the University of Texas, shortly after she and Bill were elected "co-presidents" in 1992. This is one of hundreds of Hillaryisms compiled by first-time author Thomas D. Kuiper in his indispensable new book, I've Always Been A Yankees Fan: Hillary Clinton In Her Own Words.

Dick Morris, who wrote the foreword to I've Always Been A Yankee Fan, praised Mr. Kuiper's "wonderful little book" for "mak[ing] sure that Hillary's quotes and lies are not forgotten but come back to haunt her" when she inevitably runs for president in 2008. I could not agree more. Mr. Kuiper's book reminds us of the terrible reality behind Hillary's recent facade of "moderate" "bipartisan" leadership.

To begin with, as the above quote (p. 119) demonstrates, in her heart-of-hearts Hillary is a power-hungry utopian socialist who believes that political elites (i.e., she) should decide how the rest of us live. Consider these statements:

- "The only way to make a difference is to acquire power" (p. 68). Hillary to a friend before starting law school.

- "We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society" (p. 121). Hillary as first lady.

- "We just can't trust the American people to make those types of choices.... Government has to make those choices for people" (p. 20). Hillary to Rep. Dennis Hastert in 1993 discussing her health care plan.

- "I am a fan of the social policies that you find in Europe" (p. 76). Hillary in 1996.

- "I think it does take a village to raise a child" (p. 76). Hillary on C-SPAN in 2005.

Although Hillary rarely expresses her political views in starkly socialist terms these days, her more traditional-sounding trope, "it takes a village to raise a child," reflects the same totalitarian impulse to replace individuals and families with the state. Philosophers and politicians as disparate as Plato and Mao have known for centuries that the nuclear family represents the single greatest obstacle to their dreams of radically re-designing human society.

Hillary understands this too. And like all such "reformers," she won't let ordinary people, living their ordinary lives, get in the way of her "burning desire to do what I can, a desire to make the world around me... better for everybody" (p. 84). We can be sure that under a Hillary presidency, individual freedom and opportunity will take a back seat to more government agencies, bureaucracies, and regulations supposedly intended to make our lives "better," but in fact only making them worse -- and raising our taxes to boot!

Mr. Kuiper's book also reveals the unprincipled opportunist who hides behind legal circumlocutions and other evasions whenever it suits her needs. Consider these gems:

Hillary, in her "autobiography" Living History, describing her work during law school at a well-known communist law firm, where she actually assisted with defending Black Panther cases: "I spent most of my time working for [an attorney] researching, writing legal motions and briefs for a child custody case" (p. 139).

Hillary denying that she received special treatment in her cattle futures trade that netted her $100,000 from a $1,000 investment. Interestingly, she did not report these gains, which she earned in 1980, until they were discovered by the press in 1994: "There's no evidence of that" (p. 35).

Hillary in a 1996 statement admitting that, contrary to her original denials, she indeed shredded documents relating to the Whitewater investigation: "It appears I cooperated with this effort -- to dispose of such files" (p. 33).

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Trade, Health Care, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Business, Law, Military