You Huff(ingtong) and you puff

While I very much enjoy reading the wide variety of bloggers at The Huffington Post, I don't often comment on the entries by the owner herself. She's simply a bit shrill, even for my tastes, most days. That doesn't really cover it, though. Saying that Arianna Huffington is "a bit shrill" is like a survivor of the Indonesian Tsunami saying the experience was "a bit damp."

Today, however, she's got some words for Hillary Clinton regarding her recent fundraising appearance. I think they're worth a look for all progressives who may be considering backing her for the White House in 2008. (Emphasis mine.)

The trouble with Hillary’s speech was that for all the partisan speechifying, it was almost exclusively empty rhetoric that she was dishing out. "We can’t ever, ever give in to the Republican agenda... it isn’t good for America," she declared. This from a United States Senator who voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice, supported the invasion of Iraq, and came back from a March trip to Iraq sounding more like a White House flack than a potential standard bearer of the opposition party.

Indeed, throughout the speech, Hillary adopted the tone of a powerless activist whining about those in power rather than a high-profile member of the World’s Most Exclusive club. The low point came when she blamed much of the Republicans’ success on a too timid press corps ("Where are the investigative reporters today? Why aren’t they asking the hard questions?") and suggested that reporters should look into such issues as the $9 billion missing in Iraq.

Of course she’s right about the mainstream media abdicating their investigative role... but, c’mon, it’s not like Senator Clinton and her congressional cohorts are powerless to look into such things. In fact, that’s what the constitution says they are there for. It’s called Congressional Oversight, HRC... I’m sure it was in the introductory packet they handed you when you first arrived. I mean, if you are so worried about the missing $9 billion, why not demand that the GOP pals you’ve famously been making in the Senate -- including Rick Santorum, after all -- create a modern Truman Committee and, if they refuse, keep bringing it up every day until they do. That’s your job -- and if you begin doing it maybe the media will be forced to do theirs.

My favorite bit was when she urged reporters to “get some spine.” Uh, right back at ya, Senator.

Bill Clinton ran one hell of an administration, assuming you overlook the fact that he had the moral high ground of an alley cat. This does not, however, translate into Hillary having those same credentials. She's so far scattershot across the issues, saying what politics deems needs to be said at any given moment, that I've lost any faith I might have gained in her credentials to lead us out of the Bush disaster. We can do better, people. And we should.