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Hugh Rodham: defending the family |
It’s
been 13 years since Hugh Rodham got in his Cadillac and
campaigned across Florida in his bid to be a U.S. Senator, only
to be “clubbed like a baby seal” by Republican Connie Mack.
During that span, he helped take on Big Tobacco (though Congress
didn’t approve the $365 billion settlement), tried growing and
exporting hazelnuts from the former Soviet republic of Georgia
with a foe of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze (a key U.S.
ally), and found himself on the bad end of a couple last-minute
presidential pardons issued by his brother-in-law (he had to
return his $400,000 fee). He’s been summarily raked over the
presses for his weight, tarred at the heels for his
indiscretions and, basically, all but forgotten except for a
couple of wiseass pundits who’d rather pick on someone who’s
oversize.
So what’s
he doing at a Sunny Isles Denny’s stumping for his sister
Hillary Clinton?
Why, saving
America, of course—probably from people who look just like him.
To be sure,
Rodham’s got a lot to look at, even if he seems to have shed a
few pounds since his heyday of hitting the links with Bill. But
looks aside, Rodham’s on the right side of what’s become a very
wrong path in American politics, a crooked path that’s seen this
country’s standing fall to the wayside. “We’ve lost our moral
authority,” Rodham said, “and we’ve lost our way.” Patriotic
(Old Glory wasn’t hanging behind him by accident) and impolitic
(it’s about time a Dem truly talked trash), Hugh made a very
compelling case.
But what
most pissed off Rodham was the way his family’s been treated by
the ultra-right, a mad that stretches back to when Rush Limbaugh
first picked on a then 12-year-old Chelsea. We won’t honor the
mouthy Fox furor monger with a repeat (it was typical Rush
slow-witticism), but we will say it was bad enough to make Hugh
wanna go back and “kick his ass.” Unfortunately, he didn’t, and
it remains one of Rodham’s “deepest regrets.”
Regrets, it
seems, Rodham has no intention of repeating. At the Arnold Klein
Democratic Club, he mussed, he fussed and he cussed, and for
more than a few good minutes, he exhibited the same traits that
enabled him to quarterback the Penn State Nittany Lions, drove
him to volunteer for the Peace Corps in Colombia and led him to
spearhead Janet Reno’s revolutionary drug court. Yep, Hugh was
mad as hell and was not gonna take it anymore, and the Old Guard
Dems ate it up — and then they ate dinner.
Comments?
E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com. |
