Happy anniversary!
The Clinton administration completely bungled Waco, and the resulting deaths enraged would-be revolutionary Timothy McVeigh, who blew up the Oklahoma City federal building in retaliation. Before the bodies were even cold, Bill Clinton shamelessly exploited the event to rail against "extremist" rightwing talk and rejuvenate his poll numbers. And now, 15 years later, the left is despicably trotting out the anniversary (with Clinton's help, no less) in an effort to discredit and marginalize the tea party movement. Mark Halperin of Time magazine even admonishes bloggerss to watch their tone:
Clinton's famously hardy optimism has always led him to believe that the blood sport of Beltway politics — and the 24/7 media coverage it now excites — masks a more centrist and less destructive outlook for the vast majority of American people. But many liberals, and some analysts, disagree. In their minds, a mass continuous loop of antipathy and anti-Washington vitriol, from extremist talk radio to abrasive commentary on Fox News to Tea Party bluster to reckless Republican activists and politicians, has created an environment ripe for the creation of another McVeigh.
[. . .]
Free speech is indeed a glorious thing, but too often these days it is sullied by excessively crude and threatening invective. On this important anniversary, partisans should take a break from pointing fingers across the aisle and look into their own hearts (and on their blogs).
But, actually, that's not the anniversary I had in mind.
It was also on this day, in 1775, when British Gen. Thomas Gage ordered 700 troops to Lexington, Mass., to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock. But the rebels had been warned and were waiting for the British on Lexington Green. Nobody knows who opened fire, but it was "the shot heard round the world," and the Revolutionary War was on.
There is a vast difference between words and deeds. Bill Clinton may not know the difference (or, rather, he pretends he doesn't when it suits his purpose),
