Clinton: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Bill Clinton — who was vilified and slandered by Republicans all through his presidency and has been the wingnuts’ favorite punching bag for the past 4½ years — has finally spoken out. It’s about time.

It’s great that Bush, Bush & Clinton have raised so much money for Katrina victims. But let’s face it, the Bushes and Clintons hate each other like the Hatfields and McCoys. It was getting too weird, too phony, to see them standing there like three Stepford Husbands. Enough already. Let the sparks fly.

Yesterday Clinton criticized the Bush Administration’s disaster “plans.” He noted that poverty had declined sharply during the Clinton presidency, and that the Katrina disaster revealed the blatant class divisions of the past few years.

“It’s like when they issued the evacuation order. That affects poor people differently. A lot of them in New Orleans didn't have cars. A lot of them who had cars had kinfolk they had to take care of. They didn't have cars, so they couldn't take them out. This is a matter of public policy. And whether it’s race-based or not, if you give your tax cuts to the rich and hope everything works out all right, and poverty goes up and it disproportionately affects black and brown people, that’s a consequence of the action made. That’s what they did in the ‘80s; that’s what they’ve done in this decade. In the middle, we had a different policy.”

He added “you can't have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle-class people up, and when you tell people to go do something they don't have the means to do, you’re going to leave the poor out.”

Also, FEMA performed much more efficiently during Clinton’s presidency. The agency used to be staffed with qualified people, instead of the current crew of inexperienced and incompetent but well-connected friends-of-friends.

Let’s hope Clinton keeps offering his opinions. He’s been way too nice to the Bush Dynasty. He needs to take the gloves off and keep them off.