Hillary Scam, Or Scammed, Again?

Lost in today's reporting around Cesar A. Borja is the significant role Hillary Clinton seems to have played in helping a bit of fiction play out on the National stage.

For days, a New York City police officer, Cesar A. Borja, who died of lung disease last month, was held up as a symbol of the medical crisis affecting the thousands of emergency personnel and construction workers who labored on the smoking remains of the fallen World Trade Center after the 9/11 attack.

The Times on Line took Hillary to task for providing her very own skutnik at Bush's recent State of the Union Address:

One January evening in 1982, Lenny Skutnik, a government employee, dived into the freezing waters of the Potomac River to rescue a victim of a plane crash. Two weeks later, during his second State of the Union address, with the US mired in recession, Ronald Reagan had Mr Skutnik sit in the gallery and paid a moving tribute to his heroics.

This week, for his penultimate State of the Union, Mr Bush had a veritable galaxy of skutniks — soldiers, military people, a firefighter. ...

Usually the skutnik is a presidential privilege. But so intense already is the competition for the 2008 presidential race that others have muscled in.

And so Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton had a skutnik of her own. She arranged for the son of a New York policeman sick with lung cancer to be there. As it happened, the man’s father died that day, and the son’s grief became a sad and very visible coda to the event.

Hillary brought the issue to the Nation's and Bush's attention:

Clinton sent the president a letter yesterday, urging him to meet with Borja. The 21-year-old wants the president to authorize more funding for the treatment of sick world trade center first responders.

Unfortunately, now it seems as though significant elements of the story are false. So, according to Hillary's revisionist history, Bush fooled her on WMD and now The Daily News fooled her on 9/11. Whether she was consistently fooled by husband Bill is a matter of debate. But the real question is, how does she think she's up for being President, if it seems she's an easy mark, destined to be fooled again and again?

NEW YORK Questions are being raised about the story of a New York City police officer whose death sparked wide interest in the plight of ailing September Eleventh first responders.

The New York Times says Officer Cesar Borja did not rush to the World Trade Center after the attacks. It says he never removed debris from the towers, and that he didn't work a formal shift at the site until December of 2001.

Media accounts had implied that he worked long hours there, breathing toxic dust while not wearing protective gear. The reports led President Bush to say he wanted to see money spent on the treatment of first-responders. And Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton cited the accounts in asking Bush for more money for ailing workers.

Comments

[BobInStamford]

Ok flat-earthers, one more time. Until you find some of those elusive WMDs, you have NO CREDIBILITY. Hundreds of billions of $ squandered, thousands dead and a situation that must improve to earn civil war status - complete.miserable.failure.

Oh, and look at how desperate the military is getting.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070214/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_recruits_waivers

Keep staying the course, brave heros!

[LOL]

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

[Purple Avenger]

Daily News: "it is important not to lose sight of the big picture"

Translation: We lied, you caught us, but the narrative is still accurate even though the story may be fake.

The Daily News didn't even bother denying the NYT's charges the story was bogus -- they went straight to the "rationalization" ;->

[severepain]

Honestly Im not a Hillary fan.I would prefer Bill Richardson or Barack Obama(the Kenyan)demonize him......But I would love to see the look on all you right wingers face if her and Billy are back in the wh...It would be so...priceless............

[scarshapedstar]

That's nothing. Wait 'till someone gets a 'candid' shot of Bill sneaking back into the Oval Office chair.

...with a bottle of viagra in one hand, a towel in the other, and the hem of a blue dress peeking out from underneath the desk. The "wicked witch of the west" song plays in the background... da na da na da NA na, da na da na da NA na... and wingnut heads explode to the beat.

[Purple Avenger]

"But I would love to see the look on all you right wingers face if her and Billy are back in the wh..."

You've got a better chance of sighting (the real) Elvis at a 7-11 first though ;->

[Purple Avenger]

"Until you find some of those elusive WMDs"

You mean other than the sarin & mustard gas rounds, tons of enriched uranium, illegal missiles, and bio-cookers right?

[K]

It isn't at all important if Hillary got fooled on whether the man worked at the site. Republicans make mistakes, Democrats make mistakes, and so does everone else.

I do find some interest in the story. The guy's relatives more or less say the guy died and the WTC was in NYC so we must deserve something. And Hillary more or less says it doesn't make any difference because anyone anywhere nearby, then or later, is/was a vicitm. So send money to NY.

The guy was a NYC policeman. Does anyone believe he died because he lacked medical care? Hillary is simply asking for federal money for NYC medical expenses. That may be reasonable, or not, depending on the facts; it doesn't have much to do with this death.

[templar knight]

Damn, and these liberals claim to be smart. LOL, it goes like this:

Fool me once, shame on you,

Fool me twice, shame on me.

I hope that's not too deep for you, sparky!