A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE CLINTON YEARS

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A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE CLINTON YEARS

RALPH NADER - A brainy White House assistant to Mr. Clinton told me in
1997 that the only real achievement his boss could take credit for was
passage of legislation allowing 12 weeks family leave, without pay.

He pushed through Congress the NAFTA and the World Trade Organization
agreements that represented the greatest surrender in our history of
local, state and national sovereignty to an autocratic, secretive system
of transnational governance. This system subordinated workers, consumers
and the environment to the supremacy of globalized commerce.

That was just for starters. Between 1996 and 2000, he drove legislation
through Congress that concentrated more power in the hands of giant
agribusiness, large telecommunications companies and the biggest jackpot
- opening the doors to gigantic mergers in the financial industry. The
latter so-called "financial modernization law" sowed the permissive
seeds for taking vast financial risks with other peoples' money (ie.
pensioners and investors) that is now shaking the economy to recession.

The man who pulled off this demolition of regulatory experience from the
lessons of the Great Depression was Clinton's Treasury Secretary, Robert
Rubin, who went to work for Citigroup - the main pusher of this
oligopolistic coup -�just before the bill passed and made himself $40
million for a few months of consulting in that same year.

Bill Clinton's presidential resume was full of favors for the rich and
powerful. Corporate welfare subsidies, handouts and giveaways
flourished, including subsidizing the Big Three Auto companies for a
phony research partnership while indicating there would be no new fuel
efficiency regulations while he was President.

His regulatory agencies were anesthetized. The veteran watchdog for
Public Citizen of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Sidney Wolfe,
said that safety was the worst under Clinton in his twenty nine years of
oversight.

The auto safety agency abandoned its regulatory oath of office and
became a consulting firm to the auto industry. Other agencies were
similarly asleep — in job safety railroads, household product safety,
antitrust, and corporate crime law enforcement. . .

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TIME: CLINTONS LOSING THE ESTABLISHMENT

TIME - With the Obama endorsement of Ted Kennedy following in the
footsteps of endorsements from party luminaries such as Claire
McCaskill, Janet Napolitano, and Kent Conrad, it's clear that Hillary
Clinton is not getting the support of some of the establishment
Democrats she might have been counting on. This is an important
development that is not just about campaign momentum. "Party luminaries"
comprise about 800 of the delegates to the Democratic convention --
approximately 20% of the total. Up until now, it has been widely assumed
that the party establishment would rally heavily to the establishment
candidate, namely Clinton, providing her a necessary boost of delegates
should the race remain close.

With a general revulsion to the Clinton's campaign tactics now settling
in, that assumption is now questionable. Moreover, even if Clinton
should ultimately prevail in a close contest, she and her husband have
so alienated a significant number of Democrats that there is likely to
be a significant swath of delegates on the floor in Denver who are going
to need a lot of persuading to keep them from embarrassing Clinton in
her moment of triumph.

http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/01/the_clintons_begin_to_lose_the.html


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