Was Clinton out of bounds with his comments about Finkelstein?

[EnfantTerrible]

Just curious what you all think...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/04/15/finkelstein/index.html

:shrug:

[MrModerate]

1. Clumsy, perhaps, but not out of line.

Bill Clinton knows a sexual hypocrite when he sees one. He's been there himself and he's been savaged by them as well.

To support a party that considers "your kind" an abomination -- as Finkelstein does -- might be a sign of self-loathing, or (as above) hypocrisy of a particularly despicable type.

I don't interpret Clinton's remarks as gay-baiting.

[Mend]

2. Every time we fight back, we are criticized and called

"out of bounds". Do you hear what the forces of evil say about gays, about Kerry, about Clinton, and all the rest of us. He was not dissing the homosexuality, just the hypocrisy.

[Andromeda]

3. No, I don't think so.

He's just defending his wife and besides aren't the Republicans trying to "defend" marriage and family from those terrible gays who want to (gasp) get married -- to each other?

I guess it's okay to have a double standard when you're a Republican.

[yurbud]

4. he was actually very polite

[ohtransplant]

5. Well within bounds.

Bubba knows his rhetoric and knows where the lines are. Defending his wife and drawing attention to hypocrisy have to be allowed.

Also, don't forget it was WJC's '92 campaign that fully developed the rapid response to attack. Old habits...

[Lindacooks]

6. Considering what the fucking right wing said about him

he was too gentle. He has every right to stand up for his wife. Notice that right wingnut whackos are always attacking other people FIRST? And when decent liberals stand up to the whackos the LIBERALS are criticized?

Those are the rules of an abuser.

[FreedomAngel82]

16. You're right

They know it best, don't they? They scream "oh the mean liberal is attacking me!" but look what they've done to him and Mrs. Clinton and to Kerry. They deserve it. Mr. Clinton always has pure class.

[oasis]

7. Folks who work against their own self interest are often criticized. And

rightly so.

[kweerwolf]

8. Clinton was a hell of a lot nicer than I would have been.

As a progressive and a gay man, I don't even consider a pathetic worm like Finkelstein 'gay.'

Just as blacks who pushed for civil rights called members of their race who opposed them "Uncle Toms," I'd classify Finkelstein by the same term his right-wing cohorts no doubt call him behind his back: faggot.

[WillyT]

9. Question: Does The Gay Community Have A Word\Phrase That...

equates to blacks calling other blacks 'Uncle Tom'???

:shrug:

[norml]

10. A Roy Cohn?

[WillyT]

12. Works For Me !!!

:hi:

[Behind the Aegis]

17. That is the term I use

When I encounter a gay "right-winger, " I will call them an "Uncle Roy." I usually have to explain it, but I don't care. It fits those types to a "T!"

[QC]

13. I like the term "kapo."

But then, I'm a sentimental, old-fashioned sort.

[Pepperbelly]

11. He should hunt the son of a bitch down and punch him in the nose. nt

[blm]

14. heheh....and that is why I luvzyaso......

!

[CatWoman]

15. perhaps you should read some of the readers feedback

Letters
Readers respond to Farhad Manjoo's "Did Clinton Play the Gay Card?"

I don't understand Farhad Manjoo's point. Are Democrats allowed to point out Republican hypocrisy only when it's not gay-related? What Bill Clinton did was point out Finkelstein's hypocrisy (which happens to be that he is gay, yet worked to promote conservatives such as Jesse Helms). It seems Farhad Manjoo is the one playing the "gay card" in writing the article, busily contacting various gay and lesbian organizations trying to find someone offended by Clinton's remarks. How about asking the same organizations if they are offended by Finkelstein's hypocrisy?

Now, is it hypocritical for Bill Clinton to call someone a hypocrite? There's certainly a point to be made there, but this article was too busy playing the gay card to notice.

-- Seth Aronson

It is incredibly misleading to say that President Clinton promised to allow gays in the military, then signed the "don't ask, don't tell" law; it makes it sound as if he simply lied and abandoned us. Clinton had every intention of lifting the ban by executive order, but he was blindsided by attacks from Colin Powell, Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn (then chair of the Armed Forces Committee) and others, making the end of the ban politically untenable.

While Clinton ended up disappointing the gay community in some particulars, he was the first (and only) president to recognize our humanity and to raise the profile of issues that matter to us.

-- Robert Massing

http://www.salon.com/opinion/letters/2005/04/16/clinton/index.html

[EnfantTerrible]

18. I did read some of the feedback

I was just curious as to how my fellow DUers felt. That's all. I'm of the opinion that he was completely within bounds given the situation...

[Blue Moon]

22. I don't think it's gay baiting

but my guess is that the majority of gay people think it is. Either way, it was not a smart thing to say.

[rman]

19. It's a nice diversion from the scam this AIDS medicine for Africa plan is

But i guess it's not to be expected from "the best republican president we've had in a long time" that he'd come up with a real solution rather then yet another ploy to enrich the owners of big US corporations.

Fact is that under so called "free market" trade agreements, Africa is not allowed to buy cheap alternatives to AIDS medicine from countries like Brazil and Argentina.
So the solution is to get Africa to accept loans from the World Bank to pay for expensive medicine from US (-friendly) corporations, loans that have to be paid back with interest, thus creating a debt that African nations cannot pay back, so that it will be used to make demands about the economic measures these nations have to take in order to pay off the debt, measures that will plunge these nations into ever deeper economic misery, much like it goes everywhere where IMF/WTO/World Bank interfere with local economies.

[BeeBee]

20. No, hypocrisy is hypocrisy is hypocrisy... n/t

[NashVegas]

21. Get Real

"Clinton was asked what he made of Finkelstein's plan to launch a multimillion-dollar, Swift Boat-style ad campaign to derail Hillary Clinton's 2006 Senate reelection campaign, and stop her likely run for the White House in 2008. "

I would imagine if Bill had addressed this question, his answer may have been even less what some people would call, "polite."

"'I was sad," Clinton told reporters. "I mean, there were two stories. One is that he went to Massachusetts and married his longtime male partner, and then he comes back here and announces this .'"

His comments about Finkelstein either being a total cynic or self-loathing are what many of us pondered on when reading the original article. Heaven forbid a liberal should examine someone's motivations.