At the same time there have been a spate of vicious articles with a strong antiwoman and anti–working class thrust targeting Hillary Clinton and former president William Clinton. Many of these have taken advantage of the Clinton's decision to accept nearly $200,000 in gifts prior to leaving the White House and extensive presidential pardons with dubious financial and political connections, including such figures as billionaire Marc Rich.

Ashcroft won Senate approval of his nomination to head the Justice Department in a 58-42 vote February 1, with all Republicans and eight Democrats voting in favor. His nomination drew more votes against than any other nomination for attorney general since 1925. The New York Times reported that during the two-day confirmation hearings, "senators sparred across an array of social issues like abortion, civil rights, gun control, and religion. And the final hours of debate grew particularly harsh." Ashcroft also opposed a school desegregation plan in Missouri; fought the nomination of industrialist James Hormel, who is openly gay, as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg; is against affirmative action; and worked to defeat the appointment to a federal judgeship of Ronnie White, Missouri's first Black Supreme Court judge.

Democrats declined to organize a filibuster to block the nomination, saying it was inappropriate to oppose a cabinet nominee in that manner. The 42 votes against are enough to mount such a delaying tactic in the Senate for other Bush nominations, which Senator Thomas Daschle from South Dakota said "is not a threat. We retain our right to use those options available to us if somebody from the far, far right, the extreme right, would be nominated for an important and sensitive position."

New York senator Charles Schumer said the vote was a "shot across the bow" of the Bush administration and told the Senate that what has "happened with the Ashcroft nomination in terms of divisiveness would look small compared to the divisiveness that would occur if someone of Senator Ashcroft's beliefs were nominated to the United States Supreme Court."

John Edwards, Democratic senator from North Carolina, worried that when "so many Americans believe that when the doors are closed and the lights and the cameras are off, that Senator Ashcroft will not protect their interests, our responsibility is to do what is best for the country."

In response to the partisan dispute, New Hampshire Republican Robert Smith said the debate "is about the continuation of the election. The election is over," he told his Senate colleagues.

Ashcroft is also a firm proponent of the death penalty and is an opponent of immigrant rights. Neither of these were the subject of the Senate debate. The Wall Street Journal noted the debate over "Judge White had been about crime, specifically the death penalty, and Democrats sure didn't want to be soft on that."

Underpinning these ideological conflicts within the ruling class are divisions over how best to prepare for coming social and political struggles of working people as they resist the effects of the capitalist economic crisis and bipartisan assault on the gains and conquests of workers and farmers.

For example, the Associated Press reported on a meeting of 800 government officials in Washington February 1 to discuss "the sensitive issues of poverty, illegitimacy, and how to aid Americans with the most severe problems." The article notes that "strict rules, combined with a strong economy, have driven huge numbers off the [welfare] rolls entirely.

Meanwhile, people at the bottom of the income scale appear worse off than they were before the new rules took place. Most also agreed on the major questions remaining, including what happens when the economy falls, and what happens to people when they use up their maximum five years of benefits." The article cites figures from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities that estimate 700,000 families are worse off today than when the "welfare reform" act became law in 1996.

Bush is also pressing an assault on Social Security by calling for the creation of individual investment accounts and is proposing to weaken Medicare by making it rely much more heavily on private health plans. Both of these moves would undercut the two programs as government-funded entitlements guaranteed for all. A recent General Accounting Office report warned that the institution of the proposed individual investment accounts would cut the average Social Security benefit for disabled people from between 4 percent to 18 percent. About 7.5 million of the 45 million people on Social Security, or 17 percent, are disabled. They receive an already low average benefit of $786 a month.  
 
Clinton pardons
Two hours before leaving office January 20 Clinton granted 140 pardons and commuted 36 sentences. The most controversy has been generated around the pardon of commodities trader Marc Rich who fled to Switzerland after being indicted on charges of income tax evasion and violating U.S. government price controls on oil in 1983. Rich's ex-wife Denise donated more than $1 million to Democrats, including to Hillary Rodman Clinton's campaign for U.S. Senate. The Senate judiciary committee and the House government reform and oversight committee are expected to hold hearings on the Rich pardon this week.

One of those who appealed to Clinton on behalf of Rich was Shabtai Shavit, the former head of the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad. "As the head of Mossad, we requested his assistance in looking for MIAs (missing in action) and help in rescue and evacuation of Jews from enemy countries," Shavit wrote. "Mr. Rich always agreed and used his extensive network of contacts in these countries to produce results sometimes beyond the expected."

Clinton also came under attack for his decision to rent a $650,000 a year office, taking up an entire floor at the Carnegie Hall Tower in central Manhattan. The federal government pays the rent for offices of former presidents. After a stir, Clinton announced his Presidential Library Foundation would pay part of the rent. And the Clintons were forced to agree to pay for $85,966 of furniture, china, silver, and other items wealthy donors contributed to them to furnish their new houses.

Taking advantage of these excesses of the now former president, right-wing forces and some liberals have issued vitriolic articles with heavy antiwoman and anti-worker overtones. Dave Shiflett, in a column posted in the National Review web site, said that now that the Clintons are out of the White House both are seen as "two heaving sacks of White Trash." In an anti-worker attack, he said Clinton's "bearing is the result of an eat-beans-from-the-can, momma's-doin'-the-milkman Arkansas upbringing he just couldn't shake."

The New York Times hammered Rodham Clinton for accepting the gifts, saying it betrayed the state's "progressive senatorial tradition," and for opening herself to "Republicans accusing her of mimicking her husband's grasping approach to money and political favors." They called her decision to pay for some of the gifts an "important act of contrition" and encouraged her to "engage in an open discussion of her role in the commutation of sentences [by Clinton] for four Hasidic men from New Square, N.Y., who were serving time for embezzling funds from the federal government."

Part of this campaign has focused on the physical appearance of Rodman Clinton. Lloyd Grove from the Washington Post wrote that Clinton "has started wearing a rough-and-ready do that belongs on a soccer mom. The dry-and-go bangs hang limply down her forehead like rain-battered weeds, and she doesn't appear to be using much in the way of hair spray, mousse, or even makeup."

Jay Leno said on his nightly show that Clinton "stopped wearing makeup and nail polish. She stopped having her hair done. She's also wearing less fashionable clothes. Isn't she worried her husband might lose interest?"  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home