TheDC Morning

TheDC Morning: Hillary Clinton, secretary of sanctimony

Jamie Weinstein Senior Writer
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1.) Hillary Clinton, secretary of sanctimony — Hillary Clinton doesn’t think Israelis have been particularly generous to the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza. TheDC’s Gregg Re reports:

“Speaking at a forum at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy in Washington on Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israel is suspicious of Palestinians and doesn’t care enough about their plight. ‘I’m not making excuses for the missed opportunities of the Israelis, or the lack of generosity, the lack of empathy that I think goes hand-in-hand with the suspicion,’ Clinton said, after praising the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for working with her in 2009 to offer a moratorium on building new Jewish settlements … ‘So, yes, there is more that the Israelis need to do to really demonstrate that they do understand the pain of an oppressed people in their minds, and they want to figure out, within the bounds of security and a Jewish democratic state, what can be accomplished,’ Clinton added.”

In 2005, Israel generously left Gaza without getting anything in return — not even a promise of security. For the act of generosity, Israel got a terrorist state on its border.  And when Israel left Gaza, several pro-Israel billionaires raised $14 million to go with the Israeli government’s $55 million to purchase greenhouses in Gaza as a gift for the Palestinian Arabs residing there. The hope was the gift would be used as a foundation for a new economy. In return for the act of generosity, Palestinian Arabs living in Gaza immediately destroyed the gift. Regularly, Israel generously opens up its hospitals to treat Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza — unfortunately, on more than one occasion Palestinian Arabs have tried to exploit that generosity to blow up the hospitals. Israel has offered  generous peace terms to the Palestinians over and over again. As even Hillary Clinton noted, Palestinian leaders have again and again dismissed the offers and resorted to terrorist violence against Israel. It is hard to see how Israel needs a lecture from Hillary Clinton on generosity.

2.) How much time is this lecture going to Costas?  — Perhaps not wanting to feel left out of the sanctimonious lecture circuit, Bob Costas got in on the action during halftime of a football game, reports TheDC’s Jeff Poor:

“During halftime of NBC’s coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Dallas Cowboys, NBC Sports analyst Bob Costas made a plea for gun control during his weekly commentary on ‘Sunday Night Football.’ Responding to the weekend murder-suicide by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, Costas relied on a column by writer Jason Whitlock, formerly of the Kansas City Star, to make a gun-control argument. … Costas quoted Whitlock’s suggestion that a gun ban would have prevented the tragedy.”

Yes, because an NFL linebacker is obviously incapable of killing a woman without a gun. And certainly there is no other way to commit suicide other than shooting yourself. But most importantly: Why, again, is Costas subjecting NFL fans to amateur-hour political lectures during a football game?

3.) Just Joe being Joe — If Joe Biden wants to congratulate an accused pedophile for winning an election he dropped out of, then you damn well better believe Joe Biden is going to do it. TheDC’s David Martosko reports:

“Vice President Joe Biden, fresh from a re-election campaign that featured gaffes and goofs galore, made what might be the more cringe-inducing blunder of the year on Nov. 19, sending a congratulatory letter to a Republican state Senate candidate who withdrew from his race in October. Worse, Delaware’s Eric Bodenweiser didn’t just have a change of heart: He was indicted on 113 felony counts related to accusations he raped a boy 39 times between 1987 and 1990 — beginning when the victim, now in his 30s, was 13 years old.”

This is what you voted for America! Great job. Really.

4.) And then there is this ... — What other online newspaper publishes short fiction from former Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter? None TheDC Morning is aware of (though in fairness, we haven’t looked). McCotter opens his story:

“At night the soldiers slept, the prisoners prayed and the jungle shrieked with life. Tomas retrieved his small burlap sack from its hastily dug hole and crept from the matted grass where he and the other boys slept. Worried one of them would awaken, trail him and horn in on his loot, he warily surveyed the faces he passed. The score of sleeping boys alternately cringed from their nightmares or lay comatose from exhaustion. Tomas hid behind a tree encircled by barbed wire and listened for boots and grunts. If the soldiers caught him, they’d kill him.”

Read on, McCotter-maniacs.

5.) Tweet of Yesterday — Andy Levy: Bob Costas, who’s gotten rich thanks in part to a sport that destroys men’s bodies and brains, gives us a little civics lecture.

6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: “Kim Jong Il’s Feats Praised by Ecuadorian Library”

VIDEO: Grover Norquist warns of rise of another tea party 

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Jamie Weinstein