Big Hit On Hillary Mostly A Miss

Look, I don't want Hillary to be the next President any more than anyone else on the Right. But has anyone taken the time to go back and read her original quote? She couched it just enough to put her in step with enough people to get by on it politically speaking. Even the NY Times noted the well-crafted endorsement of Spitzer's plan at the time. The double-talk charge stands, it does for mostly every candidate on one issue, or another. But she can point to the record to get off on the amnesty charge.

Clinton Takes Stand on Driver’s License Issue (Sort Of)

Updated, 6:45 p.m. | In a recent sit-down interview with the board of The Nashua Telegraph, a leading New Hampshire newspaper, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton finally was asked what she thinks of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s policy to allow illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses.
Her answer? Judge for yourself:

I think it’s important to bring everybody out of the shadows. To do the background checks. To deport those who have outstanding warrants or have committed crimes in the United States, and then to say to those who wish to stay here, you have to pay back taxes, you have to pay a fine, you have to learn English, and you have to wait in line. And I hate to see any state being pushed to try to take this into their own hands, because the federal government has failed.

So I know exactly what Governor Spitzer’s trying to do and it makes a lot of sense, because he’s trying to get people out of the shadows. He’s trying to say, “O.K., come forward and we will give you this license.”

But without a federal policy in effect, people will come forward and they could get picked up by I.C.E. tomorrow. I mean, this can’t work state-by-state. It has to be looked at comprehensively. I agreed with President Bush and his efforts to try to approach this. He just didn’t have the political capital left by the time he actually got serious about it.

And it’s unfortunate that too many people are using this to demagogue the issue, instead of trying to solve it: you know, people in politics, people in the press, and there’s a kind of unholy alliance.

Comments

[docweasel]

I think the last question, about Spitzer's illegal alien driver's license plan, really rattled her. She must know she looked bad because Drudge has a story up with her campaign lackeys bitching about how unfair Russert was to her (he asked her directly what her position on the issue was, and she had to give a straight answer: HOW UNFAIR OF HIM!!!)