Obama, Clinton Exaggerate Senate Records
El_Kabong
Posts: 4,141
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-senators0324.artmar24,0,5423733.story
Obama, Clinton Exaggerate Senate Records
Even Supporters Admit They Didn't Do It All
By SHAILAGH MURRAY And JONATHAN WEISMAN | Washington Post
March 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - — After weeks of arduous negotiations, on April 6, 2006, a bipartisan group of senators burst out of the "President's Room," just off the Senate chamber, with a deal on new immigration policy.
As the half-dozen senators — including John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. — headed to announce their plan, they met Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who made a request common when Capitol Hill news conferences are in the offing: "Hey, guys, can I come along?"
And when Obama went before the microphones, he was generous with his list of senators to congratulate — a list that included himself.
"I want to cite Lindsey Graham, Sam Brownback, Mel Martinez, Ken Salazar, myself, Dick Durbin, Joe Lieberman ... who've actually had to wake up early to try to hammer this stuff out," he said.
To Senate staff members, who had been arriving for 7 a.m. negotiating sessions for weeks, it was a galling moment. Those morning sessions had attracted just three to four senators a side, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., recalled, each deeply involved in the issue. Obama was not one of them. But in a presidential contest involving three sitting senators, embellishment of legislative records may be an inevitability, Specter said with a shrug.
What senators have as they make their presidential runs is the mark they leave on the nation's laws — and in Obama's brief three-year tenure, as well as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's seven-year hitch, those marks are far from indelible.
"It's not an unusual matter for senators to take a little extra credit," Specter said.
Both Obama and Clinton have tried to make the most of it, and Clinton has attempted to bolster her Senate resume with her less-than-transparent track record as first lady. The release Wednesday of more than 11,000 pages of documents from Clinton's years in the White House sent reporters and political opponents scrambling for evidence that might contradict her lofty assessment of her performance in those years.
The Obama campaign pounced on the documents, using them to argue that the senator from New York had understated her role in securing the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement and overstated her roles in foreign policy decisions and passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act early in her husband's administration.
With colleagues in Congress quick to claim credit where it is due, word moves quickly when undue credit is claimed.
"If it happens once or twice, you let it go," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., an Obama supporter. "If it becomes the mantra, then you go, 'Wait a minute.'"
Immigration is a case in point for Obama, but not the only one. In 2007, after the first comprehensive immigration bill had died, the senators were back at it, and again, Obama was notably absent, staffers and senators said. Just last week, as the financial markets were roiling in the wake of the Bear Stearns collapse, Obama made another claim that was greeted with disbelief in some corners of Capitol Hill. On March 13, Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, unveiled legislative proposals to allow the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee new loans from banks willing to help homeowners in or approaching foreclosure.
Yet Obama last Monday appeared to seek top billing on Dodd's proposal.
"We should pass the legislation I put forward with my colleague Chris Dodd," Obama said.
Dodd did say that Obama supported the bill, as does Clinton. But he could not offer pride of authorship to the candidate he wants to see in the White House next year.
Clinton also has her share of colleagues only too willing to scrutinize her claims. Her campaign website describes Clinton's "successful effort to create" the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program during her husband's tenure in the White House, and she has placed herself in the middle of major international events, including the Northern Ireland peace process and the Balkan conflict.
But prominent Democratic senators, Irish historians and even Sinbad the comedian, who accompanied Clinton to Kosovo, are challenging some of her assertions.
During months of SCHIP negotiations in 1997, her name rarely surfaced in news accounts. Clinton never testified before Congress or held a news conference on the bill. When Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the lead GOP negotiator of the children's health bill, heard reports that Clinton was depicting herself as SCHIP's main advocate, "I had to blink a few times," he said.
Some Clinton insiders also are uncomfortable with some of her assertions. "I don't really like the way she talks about her role in SCHIP," conceded one former Clinton administration official, who supports the first lady's candidacy, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to express his views candidly. "She doesn't say it right. What she should say is 'I was the driving force in the administration.' That's pretty big, and it's all true."
Obama, Clinton Exaggerate Senate Records
Even Supporters Admit They Didn't Do It All
By SHAILAGH MURRAY And JONATHAN WEISMAN | Washington Post
March 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - — After weeks of arduous negotiations, on April 6, 2006, a bipartisan group of senators burst out of the "President's Room," just off the Senate chamber, with a deal on new immigration policy.
As the half-dozen senators — including John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. — headed to announce their plan, they met Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who made a request common when Capitol Hill news conferences are in the offing: "Hey, guys, can I come along?"
And when Obama went before the microphones, he was generous with his list of senators to congratulate — a list that included himself.
"I want to cite Lindsey Graham, Sam Brownback, Mel Martinez, Ken Salazar, myself, Dick Durbin, Joe Lieberman ... who've actually had to wake up early to try to hammer this stuff out," he said.
To Senate staff members, who had been arriving for 7 a.m. negotiating sessions for weeks, it was a galling moment. Those morning sessions had attracted just three to four senators a side, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., recalled, each deeply involved in the issue. Obama was not one of them. But in a presidential contest involving three sitting senators, embellishment of legislative records may be an inevitability, Specter said with a shrug.
What senators have as they make their presidential runs is the mark they leave on the nation's laws — and in Obama's brief three-year tenure, as well as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's seven-year hitch, those marks are far from indelible.
"It's not an unusual matter for senators to take a little extra credit," Specter said.
Both Obama and Clinton have tried to make the most of it, and Clinton has attempted to bolster her Senate resume with her less-than-transparent track record as first lady. The release Wednesday of more than 11,000 pages of documents from Clinton's years in the White House sent reporters and political opponents scrambling for evidence that might contradict her lofty assessment of her performance in those years.
The Obama campaign pounced on the documents, using them to argue that the senator from New York had understated her role in securing the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement and overstated her roles in foreign policy decisions and passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act early in her husband's administration.
With colleagues in Congress quick to claim credit where it is due, word moves quickly when undue credit is claimed.
"If it happens once or twice, you let it go," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., an Obama supporter. "If it becomes the mantra, then you go, 'Wait a minute.'"
Immigration is a case in point for Obama, but not the only one. In 2007, after the first comprehensive immigration bill had died, the senators were back at it, and again, Obama was notably absent, staffers and senators said. Just last week, as the financial markets were roiling in the wake of the Bear Stearns collapse, Obama made another claim that was greeted with disbelief in some corners of Capitol Hill. On March 13, Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, unveiled legislative proposals to allow the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee new loans from banks willing to help homeowners in or approaching foreclosure.
Yet Obama last Monday appeared to seek top billing on Dodd's proposal.
"We should pass the legislation I put forward with my colleague Chris Dodd," Obama said.
Dodd did say that Obama supported the bill, as does Clinton. But he could not offer pride of authorship to the candidate he wants to see in the White House next year.
Clinton also has her share of colleagues only too willing to scrutinize her claims. Her campaign website describes Clinton's "successful effort to create" the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program during her husband's tenure in the White House, and she has placed herself in the middle of major international events, including the Northern Ireland peace process and the Balkan conflict.
But prominent Democratic senators, Irish historians and even Sinbad the comedian, who accompanied Clinton to Kosovo, are challenging some of her assertions.
During months of SCHIP negotiations in 1997, her name rarely surfaced in news accounts. Clinton never testified before Congress or held a news conference on the bill. When Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the lead GOP negotiator of the children's health bill, heard reports that Clinton was depicting herself as SCHIP's main advocate, "I had to blink a few times," he said.
Some Clinton insiders also are uncomfortable with some of her assertions. "I don't really like the way she talks about her role in SCHIP," conceded one former Clinton administration official, who supports the first lady's candidacy, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to express his views candidly. "She doesn't say it right. What she should say is 'I was the driving force in the administration.' That's pretty big, and it's all true."
standin above the crowd
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
I would really like to see the content of these threads be addressed instead of sour grape complaints.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Fuck that. Obama is JUST like Jesus. Almost uncanny the similarities.
I guess Captain Obvious is working at the Washington Post now.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
well, as long as you're ok w/ electing blatant liars....
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
honestly, I'm not overly shocked...please note, I'm not downplaying it, I'm just saying I'm not shocked...
We've been electing blatant liars to public office for my entire life.
Like inmytree said, it's not like I agree with what they are doing, it just doesn't surprise me in the least.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
then........where's the fucking change at??
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
Well golly gee, I wonder why things never get better, only worse in our elected government? There's no accountability so they don't have anything to worry about anyways...they'll still get voted in regardless because even our intelligent and well aware citizens will just keep playing ball even when they keep getting hit by the pitches. Apathy rules the day and we'll never stand up anything better...for some REAL change. We'll just shrug and say 'Well, this is just the way it is, always will be and we're powerless to stop it.'
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Well golly gee, I wonder why things never get better, only worse in our elected government? There's no accountability so they don't have anything to worry about anyways...they'll still get voted in regardless because even our intelligent and well aware citizens will just keep playing ball even when they keep getting hit by the pitches. Apathy rules the day and we'll never stand up anything better...for some REAL change. We'll just shrug and say 'Well, this is just the way it is, always will be and we're powerless to stop it.'
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
you tell me...
I'll say this, it ain't with Nader...where the fuck was he a year ago...? why is he spouting off now...? what about is lofty stock portfolio...?
Listen, I hear what you're saying, and you'll notice in my response I thanked you for the information...and I'll use it accordingly...but damn, I really don't know what you want me to say...
Personally, I'm not sure I want a huge amount of change...I want to be able to have a job, pay my bills, and enjoy my time off...that's it...if that selfish, so be it...but the current system in the US has worked for a long time...it just seems right now power and money is skewed toward the top...well, I see that changing someday...the pendulum will swing back down...I'd like to see it in the middle...I want business to make money and I want people to be happy and able to enjoy their lives...is that so bad...?
Just because I don't want Nadar doesn't mean I don't want change...I just don't see him as an effective leader...if he was, his ass would be in the Senate or the House....or he would have been President by now...
again, I get it...I want many of the same things you want, I just have a different idea as how to get there...
please see my other response....
and I will add this...I'm also very aware of my local and state leaders....I do my best to hold them accountable with my voice and vote...
This thread isn't about Nader. And yes, Nader has been working his whole life fighting these injustices which is more than I can say for most of us. No one is telling you to vote for Nader, that choice is yours. I'll tell you all day why I think he's the best choice but in th end it's up to you to vote for whpo represents what you believe in. At the very least, you guys could be more critical of Obama and be honest about his downfalls instead of getting all bitchy when we bring it up. It's up to you to let your candidate know what matters to you so you the voter can guide his policy. That's democracy...elected officials represent the people's views not the other way around.
And change doesn't just happen one day when you're not looking....you have to push for it, work for it....make it happen. You can't keep expecting others to do it in some future moment....the time is now and if you see problems you don't just shrug and accept them, you stand up and speak out. You don't have to play along.
Apparently, I see the current system as much more fucked than you do.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
but not on a presidential level?
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
so you have no problem that people lie on their resume. i will still say that it looks liek to me that America will still the president that they deserve (sadly)
- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me."
- Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884-1980)
who's getting bitchy...?
anyway...what do you want me to do...? what do you want everyone else to do...?
fine, this not about Nadar, it's about Obama exaggerating....and I responded...and it wasn't well received by some...that's cool...I responded again....I was honest in reply...yet, it's not good enough...
perhaps you can do me a favor and define "change", in your view...perhaps then we can have a starting point...again, if not supporting someone other than a Obama makes me a bad person, so be it...
I'm a simple person, I want to work, live, and enjoy what I have...why is that bad...?
please tell me, tell us...what do you want me and everyone else to do...?
I'm pretty sure I spoke out about bush and co...
and I've spoke out about the dems sticking behind W. Jefferson, and I'm pretty sure I've complained about Pelosi and Reid...
What are you going on about? I replied to your post. If you don't want to carry on this discussion then don't but I'm simply disagreeing with your assertions. Is that okay? I don't want anything of you but to either reply and let me know where you're coming from like I have been doing and let me know what you thought of the points I brought up in my last reply or don't. It's that simple and that's the dynamics of every other discussion where people disagree on the board. I want you to reply to my points or don't.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
and I'm trying to share my point of view, as well...and I get "then........where's the fucking change at??"
as for pushing for change (a point you raised in an earlier post)...I'm not sure what that means...do I have to take to the streets...? do I have to vote exclusively third party...?
I know what I'd like to "change" and I'm ok with the person I support...I'll be critical...I won't follow blindly, nor will I look away if he or she screws up...
Okay, so when people bring up why we don't see Obama as much of a change then bring up why you think he is or why you think this point doesn't mean he's not a change from past politicians.
It's like you guys keep saying how Obama is this change we need then when we point out how he's not, we get replies like 'Duh, he's politician'. You can't have it both ways...either he's this fresh new change or he's the same.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
How does he give the best interview? Telling you want you want to hear?
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
UH.....yes. Generally that's what happens in an interview. Should I hire the people that tell me how ineffectual the are going to be??? Look, if it turns out Barack doesn't perform then I won't renew his contract in 4 years. But if I'm going to hire someone now....it's him.
ok...
I've said this elsewhere, but here goes...
the man can speak...it's that simple...I know that's subjective and not what some are wanting...He seems willing to stay above the fray of normal politics...I'm sure he could be saying a few things about Hillary, but he has refrained...I guess the "change" I'm looking for is having someone in charge that can lead, clearly state his position, and act on it...I don't get that from Hillary and Bill, Mcbush or Nadar...
who would have thought he would be in the position he is in right now, not me or clintons, heck the media has no idea what to say about this guy...He is not easily rattled and with him, I don't feel like I'm being talked down to...for me, the others are condescending...
is he perfect, no...can he clearly share is views and is he believable...for me, yes...
If I'm being duped, so be it...I'll own that if needed...unlike the bushy lovers of years past...many of whom never show up around here any more...
I sense you're frustrated with the current choices, and to be honest, so am I...
The corporate Dems will all stick together. If one drops the ball on the other then their whole party would fall apart from all exposing what a fraud they all are.(that I wouldn't mind seeing, actually)
I will also add Nader is known for his articulation and moving speeches.
And why don't you get that from Nader? I agree with you on the others.
I expected it. The media has been eating him up since his speech at the DNC in 04. It's been a media love affair with no basis on actual action and record from Obama to support their crush.
I never feel like politicians are talking down to me. I always feel like they're trying to kiss my ass.
So can Nader. Hillary's a proven liar and McCain is too, well, conservative.
Don't say we didn't try to warn ya beforehand.
On that we can agree, then.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
And Pearl Jam affects the policy decisions made in this country how?
Pearl Jam were also different where it counted. They weren't all image and no substance.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde