"Hillary re-takes seattle"

BlatherWatch:

It sure was quiet around KVI today as Hillary Clinton strode into Seattle, today.

A little different than that sunny summer day in 1994, that Kirby Wilbur (KVI m-f, 5-9a) led his fired-up listeners into the belly of the Seattle beast- to the environs of the Westin Hotel where the First Lady was appearing to promote her health-care plan.

National news was made as they heckled Clinton, and traded insults with an outnumbered crowd of Clinton supporters. The Seattle Times says "KVI made public officials dyspeptic and gave local media the hives."

David Postman writes:

If the Westlake protests are now part of Republican lore, it's worth refreshing our memories about that day... There was a lot of shouting and crosstalk between Clinton supporters and opponents. And it got ugly. As Joel Connelly has reported: Signs called the first lady a "witch." As Clinton's limousine exited the Westin garage, passenger Sen. Patty Murray recoiled at hearing the bellowed shout: "Kill the bitch!"

Even though GOP Chair Luke Esser called on Republicans to go out and protest Hillary Clinton tonight, the protesters were louder than numerous. In 1994 it was the dawning of the Republican realignment as conservatives came out of the woodwork to rise up against the liberal establishment.

Talk radio was beginning its heyday, stoked and fed by the Evil Clintons. Wilbur and Esser still take credit for bringing on the Republican revolution and for singlehandedly defeating Hillary-care.

Postman writes: "It is a huge stretch to claim that the protest against Clinton here was either what killed health-care reform or lit the fuse on the '94 GOP takeover. If anything the protests were an early sign of what was already happening across the country."

Besides, that was then.

Although Kirby Wilbur still refers to Hillary as the Antichrist, 13 years have passed, times have changed, and Hillary's changed. She's not the naive idealist she once was- she's walked through the incredible fire of being First Lady to Bill Clinton and all the shit brought down on him (and her) by the right. She's honed her political skills and worked hard to gain bipartisan respect as more than just a celebrity senator.

The right is on the national shit list after the debacle of the Bush years; health-care is rated 2nd or 3rd as an issue after the Republicans' war, and Hillary is way out ahead of it.

The GOP presidential candidates look like the Poozle Patrol from the Teddy Bears' Picnic.

She's tougher than they are, and smarter.

(The good news for Kirby and his fellow reactionaries is that another Clinton presidency could very well revive the flagging ratings of talk radio as Bill Clinton's elections did in the '90's. Rush Limbaugh owes a great debt to Bill and Hillary, as he's acknowledged many times).

We haven't made up our mind who we're supporting for president in '08- And we do have some issues with Hillary Clinton: especially her signing on to the warmongering Lieberman-Satan Resolution branding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. We also have grave doubts about her Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe: OATS HAVE NO DAMN PLACE IN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES! (case closed)

But all in all, we have no doubt as to the electability and competence of Hillary Clinton, As she told the crowd tonight, we Washingtonians "like having a strong woman in charge."

We're sure glad she's on our side.