Questions for Sen. Hillary Clinton

Every now and then, a national Democrat slinks into the Boston Globe offices for an interview with the Boston Globe editorial board and selected reporters and columists. The readers never know about the interviews in advance. We get word after the fact, as we did on September 25, when the Boston Globe reported that Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi sat for an hourlong interview the day before (Blogger's Note: Madame Speaker was widely-quoted from this interview; I'll address the primary quote in a later blog post).

Well, a few days ago I read someplace, it must have been in a story about Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu and all the illegal campaign contributions he's been funneling to Democrats, that Sen. Clinton had a fund-raiser scheduled for Boston on October 10. Thinking the Senator might manipulate the (news)paper into conducting what they think is an interview but what she really knows is free advertising, I thought I'd try to remind my friends at the Boston Globe why they went to journalism school in the first place (anyway, more evidence of how clearly I can see future events). The email below was originally addressed to all the politcal correspondents and editorial writers at the Boston Globe. The entire email bounced back to me. Apparently, the Boston Globe has had enough of me. Well, I asked a confederate to send the email along for me. My confederate assisted beautifully. The email my cowardly friends at the Boston Globe received:

Friends,

I recently read that Sen. Hillary Clinton has a fund-raising event planned for Boston on or about October 10. On the chance she uses the Boston Globe for a scripted, propaganda event and any one of you are cleared by her over-protective staff to sit-in on an interview because you're deemed "safe" and will not ask any tough questions, how about you mix it up a little bit and ask questions along any of the following themes (Mr. Jacoby, I just cc'ed you for obvious reasons. Blogger's Note: Mr. Jeff Jacoby is the only conservative voice at the Boston Globe; obviously Sen. Clinton would never allow Mr. Jacoby to ask her a question.):

1. Assume she's President Bush. Then, ask her any question you would ask President Bush if he said at a debate on June 3 (as she did), "we are safer than we were" on September 11, 2001.

2. If she backtracks from her statement that we are safer, why has she never said we are not? What legislation has she written to make us safer? Leaders lead; how has she demonstrated leadership on homeland security?

3. Assume she's President Bush. Then, ask her any question you would ask President Bush if he said on or about June 21 at a Take Back America conference that our "military has succeeded" in Iraq (recall, President Bush gave an entire speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln talking about how long the war against terrorists was going to wage and all the dopes could focus on was a sign and two words President Bush never spoke).

4. "If elected, will you fire Gen. David Petraeus?" I think you all know the appropriate follow-ups if she has the courage to answer "yes" or "no".

5. Assume she's any Republican. Then, ask her exactly what vetting procedures were used to make sure her #1 bundler, Norman Hsu, was legit. The #1 fund-raiser slipped through the cracks? You have to be smoking crack to believe that. Will U.S. Supreme Court nominees be properly vetted? How can we trust her they will be?

6. In the hugely ignored speech by her husband on December 16, 1998 when he referenced Saddam's WMD about 8 times and twice said "mark my words, he'll use them again", ask Sen. Clinton if her husband lied about Iraq's threat. Ash her if President Clinton hyped the evidence in order to justify attacking Iraq. If she defends her husband, ask her when Saddam proved he disposed of his WMD prior to her vote for war in October 2001. "Senator Clinton, did your husband cherry-pick and then hype Saddam's WMD capabilities in order to justify a massive cruise missle attack that also killed innocent Iraqis?"

7. She admits she didn't read the last NIE published prior to her vote for war. She now says she was "misled" by President Bush. If she didn't read what the smart people wrote and was convinced by "stupid" President Bush, get around to asking her who is smarter, her or the guy that convinced her of something she didn't want to believe. Or, who willfully suspended disbelief?

8. "Was your knee-jerk reaction to Dubai Ports World purchasing port operation rights at six U.S. ports an anti-Muslim, bigoted reaction, a reaction that should offend Muslims everywhere?"

9. "Who is the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan (Shavkat Mirziyayev)?". Recalling the hit-job John Hiller did on Bush; obviously, if Sen. Clinton knows, then don't publicize she knew. As with Hiller, only publish the Q&A if she doesn't know. (Blogger's Note: Mr. John Hiller, a local political TV personality, sat with then-Gov. George Bush prior to the 2000 Presidential election. Mr. Hiller asked Gov. Bush who the Prime Minister or President of Pakistan was. Gov. Bush didn't know. It was a 43 day story here in Boston.)

10. Be creative with how you compare and contrast Chelsea and the Bush daughters (you know, being photographed, mocked about enlisting in the military, etc.). You might want to put on protective head gear when asking these questions.

Or, you can do exactly what you are expected to do. (End of email to my friends at the Boston Globe.)