With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
Monday June 19, 2000; 7:25 PM EDT
Hillary Hit on Guns and Tobacco at Merchant Marine Commencement
It was a scene right out of First Lady Hillary Clinton's past,
when -- as a Wellesley validictorian -- she taunted her college's
commencement speaker, Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke, as an
out-of-touch limousine liberal. Hillary's speech was such an
instant hit with the liberal intelligentsia she was profiled in
Life Magazine.
On Monday, as Senate candidate Hillary Clinton was waiting to
give her own commencement address to the U.S. Merchant Marine
Academy at Kings Point, New York, midshipman validictorian Adam
Jay Vokac gave her some of her own medicine.
As the staunchly pro-gun control, anti-tobacco first lady sat
listening just feet away, Vokac went on a tear about the evils of
big government and spreading federal regulation.
"Guns and cigarettes have been hot topics lately," began the
defiant graduate. "It seems that every day one reads about more
laws and legal actions against these industries. Soon they will
be so restricted as to be essentially illegal."
Hidden behind dark sunglasses, Mrs. Clinton didn't seem to
flinch as Vokac continued.
"I am not a smoker, nor do I own a gun. But shouldn't a
responsible individual be allowed to smoke or own a gun in a free
country?"
The crowd applauded as Mrs. Clinton sat unmoved.
Vokac called it "a basic human right" not to have to live in fear
of the legal system. He challenged his fellow graduates to
"strive to keep and regain our individual liberties promised to
us in the Bill of Rights.
"We must not stand by complacently. The longer we wait to assert
our freedom, the longer it will be to truly obtain."
If Vokac's speech made the first lady nostalgic for the days when
she played the defiant rebel, her own prepared remarks betrayed
no hint of it.
Sounding more like a president than a first lady, Clinton tried
to touch on all the issues Navy Secretary Richard Danzig might
have, had she not bumped him as commencement speaker last month.
( See: Hillary Bumps Navy Secretary at Merchant Marine
Commencement)
Clinton pushed all the right buttons, invoking military pride,
national sacrifice, American security interests and even
burgeoning globalism. Still, the applause she received was less
than frequent and polite at best.
As always, she never missed a chance to tout the
"accomplishments" of the Clinton presidency.
Despite moderately good weather and the star power of a sitting
first lady, there were plenty of seats left empty at the edges of
the crowd. Only a handful spectators stood when she was
introduced. Fewer still rose to their feet after her speech was
over.
Even before Vokac's remarks, the estrangement between the Senate
candidate and the service academy was apparent. She was
introduced twice as Hillary "Rodman" Clinton.
When her turn came, Mrs. Clinton invoked the memory of another
first lady's visit to the academy, telling the graduates and
their guests:
"You stand in the tradition of the midshipmen that Mrs. Roosevelt
came to pay tribute to. She spoke about the heroics of the cadet
midshipmen, who were at that time, waging freedom's fight in
World War II. During the war years Mrs. Roosevelt kept a prayer
by her bedside. 'Help me to remember,' it said, 'somewhere out
there a man died for me today.'"
Apparently unaware of declining combat readiness and plummeting
recruitment, Mrs. Clinton praised the military of the Clinton
years as, "the best trained, best equipped, best led armed forces
anywhere, at any time in history."
And without a hint of irony she announced, "It is time for the
international community to join us in cracking down on
terrorists.... from arms dealers to bombmakers to cyber-criminals
to rougue states."
She did not mention the Chinese arms dealer her husband feted at
the White House in 1996, or the Puerto Rican bombmakers he
pardoned last year to help her with New York's Hispanic vote.
Two midshipman gave NewsMax.com their reaction to Mrs.
Clinton's speech as the graduates waited to accept their
diplomas.
"If Secretary Danzig had been the speaker, those empty seats
would be filled," one said, complaining that he thought a Senate
candidate's presence had politicized the event.
"As a New Yorker and a Republican, I probably had a bad attitude
about her coming here to begin with," said the other. "But you
saw how few people stood up when she got here -- that gives you
an idea of her support."
The Secret Service was unobtrusive and one agent even agreed to
answer questions off-the record. But when asked if he'd seen any
evidence of Mrs. Clinton's notoriously abusive temper, the agent
told NewsMax.com, "I can't talk about things like that."
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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