American Prospect Co-Editor Smears Both Clintons, Compares Murdoch's Hillary Fundraiser To 'Hitler-Stalin Pact'

The American Prospect's co-editor Robert Kuttner has penned an op-ed in the Boston Globe attacking both Bill and Hillary Clinton for being "calculating, poll-tested, and money-driven." Mr. Kuttner doesn't bother to offer any evidence for why Bill Clinton (or Hillary's "faithless husband" as he refers to him) is any of these things. Like so many of those who attack the Clintons, he appears content with parroting Republican talking points, without looking at the actual evidence.

President Bill Clinton has numerous times put the Democratic party ahead of himself. In 1996, when Clinton was campaigning for reelection, consultant Dick Morris told him that if he were to abandon his favorable position on affirmative action, Clinton would be assured victory in November. Clinton declined to change his stance, stuck with his principles, and was reelected by a wide margin anyway.

That is not by any means the only example of Clinton consistently defending his progressive positions. On a wide variety of issues, from gun control and the Assault Weapons Ban, to the environment and his support of the Kyoto Accord, Bill Clinton has chosen his heart, his principle, and the Democratic Party's long-term success over any short-term gains in the polls.

There are certainly positions taken by Bill Clinton that are not consistent with what many in the party's more liberal wing believe in, but we should make sure to differentiate between honest disagreements, and opportunism.

Mr. Kuttner's thesis for his op-ed is that Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of herself for allowing Rupert Murdoch, the conservative mogul who owns News Corp. and thus right-wing TV outlet Fox News, to hold a fundraiser for her this July. He goes on to compare this so-called "alliance" to the Hitler-Stalin pact.

To write this is to assume a number of things. First is that Senator Clinton is actually desperate for the money Mr. Murdoch would raise. This is absurd, since the Senator has already raised more money than an other potential candidate for 2008 presidential race (yes, lets assume she's running for now). The second assumption is that the Prospect would decline a generous donation from Mr. Murdoch, were he to offer one. I very much doubt it.

Also, one would have to assume that Hillary Clinton has had a history of doing outrageous things to anger an editor at the liberal Prospect so much. Mr. Kuttner complains that Hillary "cuts Bush so much slack on the Iraq war," however Senator Clinton has made it clear she wouldn't have voted for the war if she knew that most of the Iraq intelligence was incorrect. She has also said that when America went to war "this administration was either not being honest with the American people or did not know what was going on in Iraq."

Mr. Kuttner starts his article by crying "[s]hame on Hillary Rodham Clinton", but in the end of the day, the only person who should be ashamed is Mr. Kuttner.