In a rare feat, the Democratic front-runner appears on all five major Sunday programs, discussing Iraq and her health plan.
By Jim Puzzanghera
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 24, 2007
WASHINGTON —
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton reinforced her position as the
Democratic presidential front-runner Sunday as she executed the rare
feat of appearing on all five major TV talk shows in one morning,
defending her new healthcare proposal and vowing to oppose any Iraq war
funding unless it is tied to starting a U.S. troop withdrawal.
“I will not vote for any funding that does not move us toward beginning
to withdraw our troops, that does not have pressure on the Iraqi
government to make the tough political decisions that they have, that
does not recognize that there is a diplomatic endeavor that has to be
undertaken,” the New York Democrat said on “Fox News Sunday.”
President Bush plans to ask Congress this week for nearly $200 billion to fund the war through the end of next year.
Clinton — who holds a 22-point lead over her closest rival, Sen.
Barack Obama of Illinois, in the latest national Gallup Poll on the
Democratic presidential field — did not criticize her opponents for
the party nomination. Instead she focused on her general-election
prospects, highlighting her success in winning Republican and
independent votes in her two Senate races.
“Anyone who gets the Democratic nomination is going to be subjected to
the withering attacks that come from the other side,” Clinton said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think I’ve proven that I not only can survive them but surpass them.”
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday” for the first time
in more than three years — and almost exactly a year after former
President Bill Clinton had an angry confrontation on the show with host
Chris Wallace over attempts in the 1990s to capture Osama bin Laden —
the senator laughed loudly when asked why she and her husband “have
such a hyper-partisan view of politics.”
“Well, Chris, if you had walked even a day in our shoes over the last
15 years, I’m sure you’d understand,” she said. “But you know, the real
goal for our country right now is to get beyond partisanship, and I’m
sure trying to do my part, because we’ve got a lot of serious problems
that we’re trying to deal with.”
Clinton took to the airwaves Sunday after unveiling her long-awaited
healthcare proposal, the American Health Choices Plan, last week. It
would require everyone to have medical insurance and would offer tax
credits to those who can’t afford it. Half of the program’s
$110-billion-a-year price tag would come from savings she says she can
squeeze from the current healthcare system, which she calls bloated and
inefficient. The rest would come largely from repealing tax cuts for
those earning more than $250,000 a year.
“It is not only a moral imperative that we try to cover everyone, it is
now an economic necessity,” she said on “Meet the Press.”
Clinton dismissed criticism from Republican presidential candidate
Rudolph W. Giuliani that her healthcare plan amounted to “socialized
medicine.” She said it created no new federal bureaucracy and addressed
a crucial problem.
“I’m waiting for any Republican candidate to come out with a plan
that can be really scrutinized, that we can ask hard questions about,”
she said on ABC’s “This Week.” “It seems as though they’re in the ‘just say no’ category, and I don’t think that’s good for the country.”
But Iraq was the focus of much of the interviews. Clinton again
defended her 2002 vote authorizing the use of military force against
Iraq. Many antiwar activists have called for her to apologize for that
vote.
“I cast a sincere vote based on my assessment at the time, and I take
responsibility for that vote,” she said on “Meet the Press.”
She continued: “It’s fair to say that the president misused the
authority that he was given, and if I had the opportunity to act now
based on what I know now, I never would’ve voted that way.”
Clinton also would not directly criticize the liberal group MoveOn.org
for its recent full-page ad in the New York Times referring to Army
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, as “General Betray
Us.” Republicans condemned the ad, and Bush said Democrats were afraid
to criticize the group because of its liberal clout.
“I don’t condone attacks by anyone on the patriotism and service of our military,” Clinton said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”
“But let’s be clear here. This debate should not be about an ad. This
debate should be about the president’s failed policies.”
Asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation” whether her husband would have a policy role if she is elected president, Clinton responded, “No. No.”
“Among the many lessons that I have learned, we want to be sure that
the president, my husband, does whatever he can, just as I tried to do
whatever I could, and I think he has a very special and important role
in reaching out to the rest of the world,” she said.
Appearing on all five major Sunday talk shows — the political
equivalent of hitting for the cycle in baseball — is known among TV
producers and political operatives as a “full Ginsburg,” after the
first person to pull it off, Southern California attorney William H.
Ginsburg. He made the circuit on Feb. 1, 1998, in defense of his client
Monica S. Lewinsky, the onetime White House intern at the center of a
Bill Clinton sex scandal.
Ginsburg had to scurry from studio to studio that day; Clinton taped her appearances from her home in Chappaqua, N.Y.
Only high-profile guests in the midst of major news events have the
cachet for the five-show circuit. Those who have done it include
then-vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney during the 2000 Republican
convention; Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, then the Democratic vice
presidential candidate, during the 2000 Florida recount; and
then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell during a nuclear weapons
showdown with North Korea in 2002. Giuliani and then-Rep. Rick Lazio
(R-N.Y.) also did it in 2000 in their race against Clinton for the
Senate.
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