She fell and hurt her head, but Hillary Clinton’s chutzpah survived intact. In her latest defense of Benghazi, the former secretary of state comes awfully close to making herself the fifth victim.
Not to worry — Libyan terrorists aren’t stalking her. It’s those evil Republicans and some in the media who are playing politics with the deadly attack that’s got her claiming to be a target.
“I will not be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans,” she writes in her new book. “It’s just plain wrong, and it’s unworthy of our great country. Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me.”
She surely wrote that passage herself because only a Clinton would dare attempt such political jiujitsu. Her career was created out of the ashes of Monicagate, and playing the victim card has been her serial response to criticism ever since. When trouble is brewing, she invariably spies a vast right-wing conspiracy hiding in the bushes.
And so she begins the next phase of her presidential campaign by accusing any and all critics of being out to get her. Even the chapter’s title, “Benghazi: Under Attack,” seems to be about her feelings instead of the people actually killed.
Her gall is galling. Consider:
She timed the leak of the Benghazi chapter from her unpublished book to a new congressional investigation — and she accuses the other side of playing politics.
She urged congressional Democrats to put members on the select panel because their absence would have given her no defenders — and she accuses the other side of playing politics.
Politico, which got a copy of the chapter, reports that Clinton has hired Tommy Vietor, a former national security aide to President Obama, to help fend off Benghazi-related criticism — and she accuses the other side of playing politics.
Clinton’s decision to go this route is as predictable as it is disappointing. It recalls the essence of Obama’s criticism against her in the 2008 primaries: that she was backward-looking and nominating her would mean the nation would have to refight the battles of the 1990s.
How fitting that she launches her 2016 quest not with a new idea about how to secure the nation’s future, but with a tortured defense of her role in the attack that left four Americans dead, including our Libyan ambassador, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11.
If there’s any news, it’s that Clinton practically doubles down on the initial lie that an anti-Muslim video sparked the attack. She writes, according to Politico, that “there were scores of attackers that night, almost certainly with differing motives. It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video. It is equally inaccurate to state that none of them were. Both assertions defy not only the evidence but logic as well.”
Really? The video story has been completely debunked, with the CIA saying it had nothing to do with the preplanned attack. Even the White House has stopped blaming the video.
The video lie, which Clinton repeated to the families as they watched their loved ones’ bodies come home from Libya, marked the first interjection of politics into Benghazi. Coming late in the 2012 presidential campaign, the attack had the potential to discredit Obama’s claim that al Qaeda was on the run.
The attack also undercut Clinton’s claim of competence. It was on her watch that the first ambassador in more than 30 years was murdered, and it happened on the anniversary of the terrorists’ biggest triumph because there was insufficient security at the diplomatic outpost.
And so the video fiction was born. Clinton and Obama both screwed up big time, yet neither is willing to admit it. That’s the real politics of Benghazi.
And what is truly unworthy of our great nation are leaders who embrace the honors of office but spare no effort in trying to dodge accountability when things go wrong.
Clinton was vested with great power and respect, but, at the moment of crisis, she retreated to the corner. To judge from her book, she intends to keep hiding.
Chutzpah, yes. Integrity, no.
Wrong way on street safety
As the City Council prepared to pass a series of traffic-related bills, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito declared they would “make our streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists alike.”
Perhaps, but City Hall might want to keep a fleet of ambulances handy just in case.
The bills increase some punishments for drivers who hit pedestrians and cyclists, but do next to nothing to address the underlying causes of the near-permanent mayhem on Gotham’s streets. City policies add to congestion by eliminating parking spots and creating largely unused bike lanes, while turning a blind eye to reckless pedicab drivers and cyclists. The result even for experienced city drivers is a permanent sense of menace and rampant illegal behavior ignored by cops.
On a recent night, a car zoomed east at what seemed 70 miles an hour on a section of West 48th Street, while nearby, a pack of pedicabs weaved in and out of traffic as they hustled riders.
The only surprise was not also seeing a bicyclist going the wrong way. Their flaunting of traffic rules is routine, and illustrates how little they fear a ticket.
The council bills are part of Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan that aims to eliminate road deaths. It’s an admirable goal, but the first order of business ought to be restoring a sense of order.
Instead, the city is creating disorder, and seems to see congestion as part of its safety plan. But squeezing cars, trucks and buses into tighter spaces, then adding pedicabs, thousands of bicycles and 50 million tourists to the mix is a recipe for everything except safety.
The safest spot may be in a horse-drawn carriage. Naturally, that’s the one thing the mayor wants to ban.
Who’s next, O?
Maybe good news comes in groups of three. Now that President Obama accepted the resignations of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and press secretary Jay Carney, a third spot is open. The long list of candidates qualified for dumping starts with John Kerry at the State Department.
Hope for change.
Farina’s miseducation
Chancellor Carmen Fariña still sees only a few trees and not the forest. At a public appearance, she cited the new pre-K program, arts education and expanded after-school programs as reasons why the city has a “unique opportunity to transform our values into historic gains.”
As I’ve noted, improving classroom performance for the 1.1 million kids already in the system is apparently not one of her values.
NYC fiscally unfit
The American College of Sports Medicine ranks New York 24th on its national “fit city” index, which is certainly nothing to brag about. But when it comes to taxes, we’re still No. 1 and remain the tax capital of America.
Take that, Peoria.