OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2016
Clintonism of the ’90s, rest in peace
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
A victory for smart,
courageous citizens
Some big opportunities are not worth it
S
o this is how it ends. Oregon LNG representatives call the
mayor of Warrenton and email the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality to say the company is dropping
its long-standing proposal. That’s what happened Friday.
7KHFRPSDQ\¶VGUHDPRIDOLTXH¿HGQDWXUDOJDVWHUPLQDOLQ
Warrenton on the Skipanon suddenly died.
Community opposition property in 2004, which the
may not have drove the Port leases from the state.
company to call it quits. It was an absurd lease, in
Perhaps the company’s which the Port gained noth-
¿QDQFLDO KHDGV ORRNHG DW ing but a headache.
While Oregon’s federal
the chessboard and saw the
three ways their plan was RI¿FLDOV VXFK DV 86 6HQ
blocked: by the county com- Ron Wyden, former U.S.
mission, by the U.S. Army Rep. David Wu and U.S.
Corps of Engineers and by a Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
:DUUHQWRQKHDULQJVRI¿FHU¶V read the situation correctly
and spoke for us, Salem was
recommendation.
Money managers usu- hopelessly slow. Former
ally are who pulls the plug Gov. Ted Kulongoski had to
on giant energy projects. be dragged into awareness.
It was Wall Street — not Former Gov. John Kitzhaber,
Northwest environmental- during his 2014 campaign
ists — who pulled the plug for a fourth term, incredu-
on the Washington Public lously asked if county pub-
Power Supply System lic opinion opposed the
nuclear plants in 1983 and Skipanon LNG project.
Neither LNG proposal
generated the largest munic-
ipal bond default in U.S. his- — Bradwood or Skipanon
tory. The Bradwood Landing — would have been good
LNG project ceased in 2010 for this county. They car-
because of that company’s ried enormous safety con-
sequences. And like all such
bankruptcy.
If you lived in Clatsop big energy projects, they
County, it was hard to avoid were prone to the boom and
the LNG debate. Opposition bust cycle. Between the proj-
went from being lonely busi- ects’ launching and today,
ness to becoming the major- global fossil fuel supply has
ity opinion. LNG was on the been transformed in a way
county ballot three times: that makes such terminals
in Dirk Rohne’s 2008 elec- a very dubious proposition.
tion to the county commis- Had Bradwood been built,
sion, in Richard Lee’s recall for instance, it would now
from the commission and in likely be a white elephant.
Whatever
Leucadia
the election of Scott Lee and
National Corp. executives
Peter Huhtala.
It was former Port of want to believe or say, this
Astoria Executive Director was an enormous victory for
Peter Gearin who brought Clatsop County citizens who
the LNG juggernaut to were smart enough and cou-
Clatsop County by sign- rageous enough to stand up
ing a lease on the Skipanon against a lot of money.
By CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER
Washington Post Writers Group
W
ASHINGTON — How
far they’ve come. And
I’m not talking about the GOP,
whose front-runner representing
37 percent of the Republican
electorate
has
repudiated
post-Reagan orthodoxy on trade,
entitlement reform, limited gov-
ernment and Pax Americana
(and possibly abortion, but who
knows?).
I’m talking about the Democrats.
The center-left, triangulating,
New Demo-
crat (Bill) Clin-
tonism of the
1990s is dead.
It
expired
of
unnatural
causes, buried
² GH¿QLWLYHO\
if unceremoni-
ously — by its
very creator.
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Charles
c h a p t e r
Krauthammer
occurred last
week
when,
responding to Black Lives Mat-
ter hecklers denouncing his 1994
crime bill, Bill Clinton unleashed an
impassioned defense. He accused the
protesters of discounting the thou-
sands of lives, mostly black, that
were saved amid the crack epidemic
of the time because gang leaders and
other bad guys got locked up.
Yet the next day, the big dog
came out, tail between his legs, say-
ing he regretted the incident and
almost wanted to apologize. It was
a humiliating, Soviet-style recanta-
tion obviously meant to protect his
wife’s campaign, which depends on
the African-American vote to fend
off Bernie Sanders.
You know Bill Clinton still
EHOLHYHVKLVFULPHELOOZDVMXVWL¿HG
2QH FDQQRW GH¿QLWLYHO\ SURYH FDX-
sality, but it certainly contributed to
one of the most radical declines in
crime ever recorded in this country.
Moreover, the Black Lives Mat-
ter charge that the 1994 law was an
inherently racist engine for the mass
incarceration of young black men
is belied by the fact that it was sup-
ported by two-thirds of the Con-
gressional Black Caucus (including
civil rights pioneer James Clyburn,
D-S.C.), justly panicked at the time
by the carnage wrought by the crack
epidemic ravaging the inner cities.
It’s one thing to argue that the
law overshot and is due for revi-
AP Photo/Steven Senne
Former President Bill Clinton poses for a photograph with people from
the audience after speaking in support of his wife, Democratic presi-
dential candidate Hillary Clinton, Thursday, at the Community College
of Rhode Island in Warwick, R.I.
sion with, for example, a relaxation idency, often with her active collab-
of its mandatory-sentence provi- oration. At the core of Bill Clinton’s
sions. It’s quite another to claim, as foreign policy lay the notion of
does Black Lives Matter, that it was America as the “indispensable
a vehicle by which a racist criminal nation.” It is today quite dispensable,
justice system destroyed the lives of indeed a nation in retreat — from
young black men. Hillary Clinton, (Hillary’s) reset with Russia to the
catching up to Sanders, has essen- Iranian nuclear negotiations (which
tially endorsed that view, demanding Hillary initiated with secret meetings
an end to “the era of mass incarcer- in Oman in 2012) to the disastrous
ation” and the underlying maltreat- evacuation of Iraq in 2011.
ment of blacks by police and the
As has happened with another of
courts.
Bill’s major achievements: welfare
For the man who
reform. President Obama
changed the image of
essentially disman-
There has
the Democratic Party 25
tled its work requirements
years ago by daring to
(with Bill Clinton’s acqui-
are
challenge the reverse rac-
escence, a sign of things to
ism of Sister Souljah to only so come). No need for Hillary
have to bow to this new
to repudiate her husband’s
many legacy. It’s been done for
— false — orthodoxy,
symbolizes perfectly how
times her.How far has the party
far the Democratic Party
has traveled since the you can moved left? Under Bill
Clinton era.
Clinton, it gave up on
flip-
But the 2016 undo-
gun control after sting-
ing of classic Clintonism
ing defeats in the 1994
flop.
hardly stops there. Take
midterms. Today, Hillary
trade. It was Bill who pro-
Clinton delights in attack-
moted and passed NAFTA. Although ing Sanders for being soft on gun
Hillary criticized NAFTA when she control. Malleable she is. And she
ran in 2007-2008, as secretary of sure knows her party.
state she returned to her traditional
It is nothing like her husband’s
free-trade stance, promoting and party. Which is why she campaigns
H[WROOLQJ WKH 7UDQV3DFL¿F 3DUWQHU- as Bernie lite — they share the same
ship as trade’s “gold standard.”
goals, she says, but she can get things
Now dross, apparently. She came done. Hence the greatest irony of all:
out against the TPP, once again For the last decade and a half, the main
stampeded by Sanders and the par- propellant for the Hillary-for-pres-
ty’s left, i.e., its base. She may not ident movement has been the rosy
have sincerely changed her view, but afterglow of Bill’s 1990s, the end-of-
there are only so many times you can history era of peace, prosperity and
ÀLSÀRS6KH¶VER[HGLQWRWKHSDUW\¶V balanced budgets.
new anti-trade consensus.
Want it back? Vote Hillary. That’s
Other pillars of her husband’s the tease. Yet a Hillary victory would
internationalism were already top- yield a Clinton Redux animated not
pled, pre-2016, by the Obama pres- by Bill but by Bernie.
The Pastrami Principle of real Americans
ton didn’t win big in the
tion of about 20 million.
South on the strength of
Meanwhile, Florida alone
also has about 20 mil-
conservative voters; she
won by getting an over-
couple of months ago, Jeb lion people — and Clin-
ton
won
it
by
a
30-point
whelming majority of
Bush (remember him?)
margin.
black voters. This puts a
posted a photo of his mono-
To overtake her, Sand-
different spin on things,
grammed handgun to Twitter, ers would have to win the
doesn’t it?
remaining
contests
by
an
Is it possible that
with the caption “America.”
average
13-point
margin,
Sanders
doesn’t know
Bill de Blasio, New York’s
a number that will almost
this,
that
he
imagines that
Paul
mayor, responded with a picture surely go up after the
Clinton is riding a wave
Krugman
of an immense pastrami sandwich, New York primary, even
of support from old-fash-
also captioned “America.”
if he does much better than current ioned
Confederate-flag-waving
Advantage de Blasio, if you ask polls suggest. That’s not impossi- Dixiecrats, as opposed to, let’s be
ble, but it’s highly unlikely.
blunt, the descendants of slaves?
me.
So the Sanders campaign is Maybe. He is not, as you may have
Let me now somewhat ruin
the joke by talking about the sub- arguing that superdelegates — the noticed, a details guy.
It’s more likely, however, that
text. Bush’s post was an awkward people, mainly party insiders, not
attempt to tap into the common selected through primaries and he’s being deliberately misleading
Republican theme that only certain caucuses who get to serve as del- — and that his effort to delegiti-
people — white, gun-owning, rural egates under Democratic nomina- mize a big part of the Democratic
or small-town citizens — embody tion rules — should give him the electorate is a cynical ploy.
the true spirit of the nation. It’s a nomination even if he loses the
Who’s the target of this ploy?
Clippings from the press of the
theme most famously espoused by popular vote. In case you’re rub- Not the superdelegates, surely.
3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWDQGWKHQDWLRQ
Sarah Palin, who told small-town bing your eyes: Yes, not long ago Think about it: Can you imagine
Southerners that they represented many Sanders supporters were ful- Democratic Party insiders decid-
the “real America.” You see the minating about how Hillary was ing to deny the nomination to the
same thing when Ted Cruz sneers going to steal the nomination by candidate who won the most votes,
having superdelegates put her on the grounds that African-Amer-
arl Warren once said that he read SRLQWVLQKLV¿QDOJDPHLQFOXGLQJ at “New York values.”
over the top despite los- ican voters don’t count as much as
De Blasio’s riposte,
the sports section of his newspa- the game-winning shot. ...
the primaries. Now whites?
On the baseball diamond, 42-year- celebrating a character-
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Who’s ing
the Sanders strategy is
No, claims that Clinton wins in
accomplishments, whereas the front olds Bartolo Colon of the New York istically New York del-
to
win
by
doing
exactly
the
South should be discounted are
page reported only failures. That was Mets and Ichiro Suzuki of the Miami icacy, was a declaration
the
that.
really aimed at misleading Sanders
certainly true during his tenure as Marlins are still productive players that we’re also Amer-
But how can the cam- supporters, giving them an unre-
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, DQG ¿HUFH FRPSHWLWRUV $QG 3H\WRQ icans — that everyone
target
paign make the case that alistic view of the chances that
and it’s true in the Obama-Trump Manning of the Denver Broncos won counts. And that, surely,
of this the party should defy their favorite can still win — and
era of polarized politics. Fortunately, a second Super Bowl in February. He is the vision of America
apparent will of its thereby keeping the flow of money
Americans can turn their eyes to an retired last month only weeks before that should prevail.
ploy? the
voters? By insisting and volunteers coming.
Which is why it’s dis-
inspiring group of aging professional turning 40.
that many of those vot-
Not since last year’s mania over turbing to see Palinesque
athletes.
Just to be clear, I’m not saying
This week, Kobe Bryant of the the dad bod have middle-aged guys attempts to delegitimize large ers shouldn’t count. Over the past that Sanders should drop out. He
Los Angeles Lakers retired after 20 had such reason for simple, nonpolit- groups of voters surfacing among week, Sanders has declared that has the right to keep campaigning,
Clinton leads only because she has in the hope either of pulling off
some Democrats.
seasons in the National Basketball ical optimism.
Quite a few people seem con- won in the “Deep South,” which is huge upsets in the remaining pri-
— The Wall Street Journal
Association, but not before scoring
fused about the current state of a “pretty conservative part of the maries or of having influence at the
the Democratic nomination race. country.” The tally so far, he says, convention. But trying to keep his
But the essentials are simple: Hil- “distorts reality” because it con- campaign going by misleading his
lary Clinton has a large lead in both tains so many Southern states.
supporters is not OK. And sneer-
As it happens, this isn’t true — ing at millions of voters is truly
avid Ben-Gurion, Israel’s found- “There comes a time,” said Bernie pledged delegates and the popular
ing father, said, “Peace is more Sanders, “when if we pursue justice vote. (In Democratic primaries, the calendar, which front-loaded beyond the pale, especially for a
important than real estate.” Yitzhak and peace, we are going to have to say delegate allocation is roughly pro- some states very favorable to progressive.
portional to votes.) If you ask how Sanders, hasn’t been a big factor
Rabin came to the same conclu- that Netanyahu” makes mistakes.
Remember the pastrami princi-
A growing number of Americans that’s possible — Bernie Sanders in the race. Also, swing-state Flor- ple: We’re all real Americans. And
sion and, derided by Netanyahu, was
just won seven states in a row! — ida isn’t the Deep South. But never African-Americans are very defi-
assassinated by a messianic Israeli believe that time is now.
— Roger Cohen in The New York you need to realize that those seven mind. The big problem with this nitely real Democrats, deserving
fanatic. Netanyahu’s government is
Times states have a combined popula- argument should be obvious. Clin- respect.
a don’t-give-an-inch government.
FYI:
Veterans Days
E
Bernie’s Israel Heresy
D
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times News Service
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