Liberal Street Fighter details how Hillary Clinton has sold women out to Emperor Dobson and his minions on Plan B, an emergency contraceptive safer than asprin. He gives a blow-by-blow account on how she cut a deal with the Republicans to release her hold on the nomination of Lester Crawford in exchange for his decision to make a decision about Plan B by September 1st.
However, after she released her hold and Crawford was confirmed, Crawford broke the deal and delayed his decision for a public comment period, so that Emperor Dobson and his allies can rant, rave, and froth at the mouth over how icky and dirty S-E-X is.
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The Men of God at the FDA
One of the men who serves on the FDA’s advisory board is Dr. David Hager, a mysogynist who opposes birth control, abortion, and believes women should pray to God to cure PMS. Furthermore, he once anally raped his wife as she was having an epileptic seizure.
The fact that a mysogynist like Hager serves on the board of the FDA and that few (edited from none; thanks to Paul Rosenberg) in the Democratic Party congress or house besides Henry Waxman have uttered a word of outrage is amazing. If we as a party cannot express our collective outrage when someone like this gets appointed, no wonder Frank Rich thinks we’re irrelevant as a party.
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Crawford breaks a promise
Up for nomination as FDA commissioner and egged on (I suggest) by Hager, Lester Crawford dragged his feet on a promise to issue a ruling on Plan B. Their “concern,” made up, of course, was that Plan B was not appropriate for girls under 17 because they couldn’t understand the directions. Hillary placed a hold on his nomination.
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Hillary caves in
Crawford cut a deal with Clinton that if she released her hold on his nomination, he would issue a ruling by September 1st. But once she released her hold, and Crawford was confirmed, Crawford broke his promise again. He delayed his ruling indefinitely to solicit comments from the public. This is a ploy to get Emperor Dobson and company frothing at the mouth and give himself cover to deny the use of Plan B without a prescription.
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Conclusion: Hillary’s poor judgement
Hillary should have known the first time that Crawford was not a truthful person and that she couldn’t trust anything he said. But she failed to recognize that and got burned.
Back in my response to Tom Kertes, I mentioned that Hillary did not have good judgement skills. If this were a single instance of poor judgement, I would overlook it. But, as I wrote in my previous diary, this is hardly the only instance of Hillary making bad decisions.
Being able to govern involves evaluating people and judging whether they are truthful or not. Hillary failed to make an obvious judgement that Lester Crawford was a known liar who would say anything to get confirmed and then do whatever he wanted to.
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The tunnel vision of the netroots and what we can do
To be fair to Hillary, after I have slammed her all this time, she did vote against Crawford. Russ Feingold, for one of the few times in his career, cast a vote I don’t agree with and voted to confirm him. Only 13 Democrats voted against him.
While I agree with Liberal Street Fighter’s criticisms of Hillary in regards to her poor judgement, I think there is a larger issue here than just Hillary.
Here at Kos and elsewhere, we have a major weakness — we have tunnel vision. We focus singlemindedly on one topic for a long period of time, while other topics go by the wayside. Right now, for instance, is a perfect example — 6 of the recommended diaries at Kos are about the hurricane. A week or two ago, there were 4-6 recommended diaries at a time about Cindy Sheehan. At the start of June, it was all about pie.
The Crawford nomination is a classic example of how the GOP can sneak issues through while our eyes are on Cindy, or Gonzales, or the pie wars, or whatever the fad of the day is. The reason so many people are ranting and raving about how the Democrats are only focused on one issue and appeasing the right on the rest is because we engage in tunnel vision here as well.
Right now, we are in opposition, and our job is to oppose every step of the way. That means that every time a Republican opens their mouth in front of the camera, we should have our keyboard drawn and ready to respond. I would like to see people read the Senate website every day to see what new bills hit the floor and what our senators are saying. And I would like to see more diaries about what the Sunday morning shows are saying and fire back hard when necessary.
If you play chess, if you use tunnel vision and block out one half of the board, a “hidden piece” on the other half can come out of nowhere and capture your queen. The Crawford nomination and subsequent betrayal is not just a matter of Hillary selling us out; it is a matter of us not paying attention. We must get our eyes back on the ball.
