Will Les Clinton
Scuttle US/Iran Rapprochement?
By Franklin Lamb
Beirut
In short, they will if they can. And in league with the US Zionist lobby they well might. The Lobby is currently eager to fund and promote an au courant Clinton project, this according to New Orleans sources close to political operative James Carville. A veteran of three Clinton and two Obama presidential campaigns, Carville has publicly sworn recently, while out late with drinking buddies in his favorite French Quarter bar, that he has finished "pimping for the Clintons." Plus, it is said, he has come to "really admire the current President".
But Bill, let it be said, has not and does not.
Though the Clinton estate has rapidly expanded since the White House days and is now valued at tens of millions of dollars, the former president is reportedly often short-tempered and grouchy these days.
Put very simply, Bill's problem has to do with his planned "third act" in life. Le Clinton needs La Clinton in order to return the Oval Office--the locus in which Le claims he belongs. But La is tired and laments that she does not really want to go through another grueling and humiliating (her word) presidential campaign season. Adding (one imagines) to domestic pressure at home is the fact that the 2016 campaign is already starting to roll--with White House aspirants moving languidly about Iowa and New Hampshire and with certain distinctive "trial balloons' beginning to flutter toward the ozone-infested heights.
Mrs. Clinton is reportedly hearing from her husband sweet entreaties and whispers--to the effect that all she needs to do is focus on getting elected in November of 2016. He will help her campaign, and if things work out as hoped, La Clinton's name will be on the White House stationery, but Le will run the show through 2024. This of course will be from "behind the curtains," where Le, magnanimously, will "do the yeoman labor in the vineyards for America," according to one former member of the Democratic National Committee with whom this observer served as a DNC member years ago.
Though the former president's plan is reported to be carefully crafted, several problems, some apparently not anticipated, are beginning to materialize. One increasingly major one is perceived in the person of President Obama. "Barack appears to be threatening to break out of the Uncle Tom mold and get all uppity and radical and do things he claims to have believed in from childhood but put off until his last term," according to the same source. American history, of course, reveals numerous similar transformations of lame duck presidents, with many falling short of their last term goals. Obama, however, appears ready to fight for his.
As he increasingly discusses privately with friends in Congress, Barack Obama wants to extricate the US to some extent from the Middle East quagmire, hoping to close out more than a decade of criminal wars as well as to get real about the phony "war on terror.' Additionally, he envisions a lessening of US funding--and perhaps even a reduction of US and UN political cover--for the Zionist regime still illegally occupying Palestine. Equally passionate is he about the need to "re-build America--its schools, medical system and infrastructure," a need he talked about during the 2012 campaign shortly before his stronger-than-expected showing against Mitt Romney on election night.
Moreover, Republicans don't appear to have connected much with the voters, and they have yet to capitalize on Obama's shortcomings. Bottom line: the Clinton camp sees Obama's hoped for legacy as fatal to their chances, not least for the reason that the present Oval Office occupant makes no bones about being livid over Tel Aviv's obstructionism during "peace negotiations," which he reportedly has come to believe are a ploy to steal more Palestinian land and undermine any realistic prospect for a viable Palestinian state.
The Clintons are also said to believe that if Obama breaks loose from the Washington establishment, returning in the process to the ideas of his unconventional mother (an activist, liberal, multicultural student who not only advocated full racial and gender equality but married an African), that US right-wingers and the Zionist lobby will be able to unite to put a Republican in the White House.
One political operative on Capitol Hill who follows Presidential politics closely claims that over the past few weeks one issue has come to symbolize the Obama Administration's goals and the president's potential legacy, and that is restoring some modicum of normalization of US-Iranian relations. This, should it be successful, could also play into the hands of John Kerry. A potential 2016 White House candidate himself, Kerry stands to gain substantially at the ballot box for his role given the fact that his and Obama's views are increasingly in synch with the American public, which, according to a recent poll, favors improved relations with Iran by more than 80%.
Certainly not good news for Le Clinton and his team, even less so for the Zionist Congressional lobby--reliably and consistently voting for Israel's interests, as it does, over their own constituents' needs and wishes. For this reason Tel Aviv has gone all out to force Congress to impose more sanctions on the people of Iran, this in an effort to raise barriers to the Obama-Kerry initiative. But try as they might, they have so far failed--failed to scuttle hopes for improved relations between the two nations, and failed to force the Rouhani government in Tehran to retreat from its gamble that the American side is serious about resolving the nuclear file.
But do not expect them to abandon their efforts. There is a regular cast of characters who appear as if for a Broadway curtain call when summoned by AIPAC. Yet Congress members Eric Cantor, Mark Kirk, Ed Royce, Elliot Engel, Robert Menendez, Michael McCaul, Brad Sherman--all these, and others, failed to parry John Kerry's arguments before Congress in the second week of December as he argued in support of giving the talks with Iran more time. One Maryland congressman, whose staff members swear they read CounterPunch and my 2-cents worth of rants, actually balked and left the lobby high and dry in its aim at aborting the White House initiative. Times they may be changing--however, late on the game clock.
But even as the Administration appeared to gain ground in its fight to stave off even tougher sanctions, it also cracked down on oil and shipping companies accused of helping Iran evade economic sanctions already in place. "We will continue to take action against those who evade, or attempt to evade, our manifold sanctions on Iran," David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said to Congress this week. "Make no mistake about it, Iran is still off-limits for most oil and banking transactions."
The enforcement actions against Asian, European and Iranian firms were announced moments before two of the administration's top experts on Iran appeared before a Senate panel to warn that the imposition of further sanctions could doom any chance of a final agreement with Iran on permanent limits to the country's nuclear program. The White House is reported to have loved the timing, which helped deflate the Zionist project.
Late this week, according to a former aide who claims that she has given up politics, word from the Clinton camp is that Bill has apparently concluded that La Clinton can't secure the Oval Office without the green (as in the color of US currency) light from Tel Aviv.
Even though this observer was a Jerry Brown supporter at the 1992 Democratic Convention in New York and stuck with my guy despite heavy lobbying from William Jefferson Clinton, I sort of like the fellow and think the charitable work he is doing is helping many and that he should stick with it. As for Hilary, as she told Katie Couric recently, what she really wants most is a grandchild to love and spoil. Let it be so"
By Franklin Lamb
Beirut
In short, they will if they can. And in league with the US Zionist lobby they well might. The Lobby is currently eager to fund and promote an au courant Clinton project, this according to New Orleans sources close to political operative James Carville. A veteran of three Clinton and two Obama presidential campaigns, Carville has publicly sworn recently, while out late with drinking buddies in his favorite French Quarter bar, that he has finished "pimping for the Clintons." Plus, it is said, he has come to "really admire the current President".
But Bill, let it be said, has not and does not.
Though the Clinton estate has rapidly expanded since the White House days and is now valued at tens of millions of dollars, the former president is reportedly often short-tempered and grouchy these days.
Put very simply, Bill's problem has to do with his planned "third act" in life. Le Clinton needs La Clinton in order to return the Oval Office--the locus in which Le claims he belongs. But La is tired and laments that she does not really want to go through another grueling and humiliating (her word) presidential campaign season. Adding (one imagines) to domestic pressure at home is the fact that the 2016 campaign is already starting to roll--with White House aspirants moving languidly about Iowa and New Hampshire and with certain distinctive "trial balloons' beginning to flutter toward the ozone-infested heights.
Mrs. Clinton is reportedly hearing from her husband sweet entreaties and whispers--to the effect that all she needs to do is focus on getting elected in November of 2016. He will help her campaign, and if things work out as hoped, La Clinton's name will be on the White House stationery, but Le will run the show through 2024. This of course will be from "behind the curtains," where Le, magnanimously, will "do the yeoman labor in the vineyards for America," according to one former member of the Democratic National Committee with whom this observer served as a DNC member years ago.
Though the former president's plan is reported to be carefully crafted, several problems, some apparently not anticipated, are beginning to materialize. One increasingly major one is perceived in the person of President Obama. "Barack appears to be threatening to break out of the Uncle Tom mold and get all uppity and radical and do things he claims to have believed in from childhood but put off until his last term," according to the same source. American history, of course, reveals numerous similar transformations of lame duck presidents, with many falling short of their last term goals. Obama, however, appears ready to fight for his.
As he increasingly discusses privately with friends in Congress, Barack Obama wants to extricate the US to some extent from the Middle East quagmire, hoping to close out more than a decade of criminal wars as well as to get real about the phony "war on terror.' Additionally, he envisions a lessening of US funding--and perhaps even a reduction of US and UN political cover--for the Zionist regime still illegally occupying Palestine. Equally passionate is he about the need to "re-build America--its schools, medical system and infrastructure," a need he talked about during the 2012 campaign shortly before his stronger-than-expected showing against Mitt Romney on election night.
Moreover, Republicans don't appear to have connected much with the voters, and they have yet to capitalize on Obama's shortcomings. Bottom line: the Clinton camp sees Obama's hoped for legacy as fatal to their chances, not least for the reason that the present Oval Office occupant makes no bones about being livid over Tel Aviv's obstructionism during "peace negotiations," which he reportedly has come to believe are a ploy to steal more Palestinian land and undermine any realistic prospect for a viable Palestinian state.
The Clintons are also said to believe that if Obama breaks loose from the Washington establishment, returning in the process to the ideas of his unconventional mother (an activist, liberal, multicultural student who not only advocated full racial and gender equality but married an African), that US right-wingers and the Zionist lobby will be able to unite to put a Republican in the White House.
One political operative on Capitol Hill who follows Presidential politics closely claims that over the past few weeks one issue has come to symbolize the Obama Administration's goals and the president's potential legacy, and that is restoring some modicum of normalization of US-Iranian relations. This, should it be successful, could also play into the hands of John Kerry. A potential 2016 White House candidate himself, Kerry stands to gain substantially at the ballot box for his role given the fact that his and Obama's views are increasingly in synch with the American public, which, according to a recent poll, favors improved relations with Iran by more than 80%.
Certainly not good news for Le Clinton and his team, even less so for the Zionist Congressional lobby--reliably and consistently voting for Israel's interests, as it does, over their own constituents' needs and wishes. For this reason Tel Aviv has gone all out to force Congress to impose more sanctions on the people of Iran, this in an effort to raise barriers to the Obama-Kerry initiative. But try as they might, they have so far failed--failed to scuttle hopes for improved relations between the two nations, and failed to force the Rouhani government in Tehran to retreat from its gamble that the American side is serious about resolving the nuclear file.
But do not expect them to abandon their efforts. There is a regular cast of characters who appear as if for a Broadway curtain call when summoned by AIPAC. Yet Congress members Eric Cantor, Mark Kirk, Ed Royce, Elliot Engel, Robert Menendez, Michael McCaul, Brad Sherman--all these, and others, failed to parry John Kerry's arguments before Congress in the second week of December as he argued in support of giving the talks with Iran more time. One Maryland congressman, whose staff members swear they read CounterPunch and my 2-cents worth of rants, actually balked and left the lobby high and dry in its aim at aborting the White House initiative. Times they may be changing--however, late on the game clock.
But even as the Administration appeared to gain ground in its fight to stave off even tougher sanctions, it also cracked down on oil and shipping companies accused of helping Iran evade economic sanctions already in place. "We will continue to take action against those who evade, or attempt to evade, our manifold sanctions on Iran," David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said to Congress this week. "Make no mistake about it, Iran is still off-limits for most oil and banking transactions."
The enforcement actions against Asian, European and Iranian firms were announced moments before two of the administration's top experts on Iran appeared before a Senate panel to warn that the imposition of further sanctions could doom any chance of a final agreement with Iran on permanent limits to the country's nuclear program. The White House is reported to have loved the timing, which helped deflate the Zionist project.
Late this week, according to a former aide who claims that she has given up politics, word from the Clinton camp is that Bill has apparently concluded that La Clinton can't secure the Oval Office without the green (as in the color of US currency) light from Tel Aviv.
Even though this observer was a Jerry Brown supporter at the 1992 Democratic Convention in New York and stuck with my guy despite heavy lobbying from William Jefferson Clinton, I sort of like the fellow and think the charitable work he is doing is helping many and that he should stick with it. As for Hilary, as she told Katie Couric recently, what she really wants most is a grandchild to love and spoil. Let it be so"
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