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Hillary Challenger John Spencer Blasts Clinton Terror Record
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/3/94950.shtml
The Republican frontrunner in the race to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate is vowing to take the gloves off and make both her and her husband's "weakness" in war on terror a central focus of his campaign.
In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, former Yonkers Mayor and Vietnam combat veteran John Spencer blasted Mrs. Clinton's performance both as Senator and as the second most influential policy maker in the Clinton administration, saying: "I will take on the Clinton presidency."
"Sept. 11 didn't happen overnight," Spencer told NewsMax. "There was a build-up to that day throughout the 1990s."
It was a track record, he said, that showed the Clinton White House had no intention of dealing with the terrorist threat head on.
"The list is there," Spencer explained. "The first World Trade Center attack, the embassy bombings, the U.S.S. Cole. There was no strong leader going after the enemies of our country and that happened on her husband's watch."
Only a few weeks ago, the Yonkers conservative was a mere blip on the political radar screen. But when former frontrunner, Jeanine Pirro, decided to withdraw her own challenge to Mrs. Clinton last month, it left Spencer as the only announced candidate who's ready to give Mrs. Clinton a run for her money.
And unlike Mrs. Pirro - who, during her four month campaign, seldom criticized Mrs. Clinton for anything beyond her presidential ambitions - Spencer made it clear he doesn't intend to pull any punches, especially when it comes to the former first couple's failures in the war on terror.
Spencer told NewsMax that "distractions out of the Clinton White House" kept the nation preoccupied with scandal while Osama bin Laden and company plotted history's most deadly terrorist attack.
He singled out for criticism Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who erected the notorious "wall of separation" that prevented intelligence agencies from sharing information with law enforcement.
"By putting up that kind of a barrier," Spencer told NewsMax, "it shows they were trying to apply that silly, appeasing, liberal mentality that also made our intelligence agents abroad check back with the pinheads in Washington before they could take any action."
"All of that led up to the fact that we were a weak nation," he added. "And our enemies knew it."
But is it fair to blame the former first lady for the sins of her husband? Spencer answered unequivocally, yes.
He noted that Mrs. Clinton isn't shy about taking credit for her husband's economic successes, before adding, "So who gets the blame for the failures of the intelligence community during the 1990s?"
What about Mrs. Clinton's performance after the 9/11 attacks?
Even there, Spencer said, Hillary has let her constituents down - by sabotaging her own demands that New Yorkers receive their "fair share" of homeland security funding.
"She claims to be this influential senator from New York," he told NewsMax - the kind of leader that should have been able to deliver for her state in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 attacks, when the nation was united in sympathy for New York.
But since the day she set foot in the Senate, Spencer contended, Clinton has been firing verbal salvos at the Bush administration and the Republican Congress on a regular basis.
"And then you wonder why these same Republicans aren't sympathetic when she claims she's not getting her fair share?" the Yonkers conservative said.
Spencer charged that Mrs. Clinton has allowed her slash and burn style of partisanship to get in the way of the best interests of the people of New York, explaining that her conduct has been "divisive and it weakens our nation."
"She didn't rise to the occasion of being a U.S. Senator," he added.
Spencer also questioned Mrs. Clinton's newfound status as defense hawk, telling NewsMax that in reality, she has engaged "in a very insidious campaign to undercut our commander-in-chief and our military."
"That's not good for our nation. And I'm going to point that out during the campaign," he vowed.
Spencer maintained that Hillary exposed herself as an "appeaser" when she voted in late December to kill the Patriot Act. She "immediately sided with the weak, appeasing side that quite frankly, in my humble opinion, caused us to have the problems we had on Sept. 11."
"I believe that displays weakness," he added. "And I believe these liberal Democrats, like Hillary, are harmful to our nation."
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/3/94950.shtml
The Republican frontrunner in the race to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate is vowing to take the gloves off and make both her and her husband's "weakness" in war on terror a central focus of his campaign.
In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, former Yonkers Mayor and Vietnam combat veteran John Spencer blasted Mrs. Clinton's performance both as Senator and as the second most influential policy maker in the Clinton administration, saying: "I will take on the Clinton presidency."
"Sept. 11 didn't happen overnight," Spencer told NewsMax. "There was a build-up to that day throughout the 1990s."
It was a track record, he said, that showed the Clinton White House had no intention of dealing with the terrorist threat head on.
"The list is there," Spencer explained. "The first World Trade Center attack, the embassy bombings, the U.S.S. Cole. There was no strong leader going after the enemies of our country and that happened on her husband's watch."
Only a few weeks ago, the Yonkers conservative was a mere blip on the political radar screen. But when former frontrunner, Jeanine Pirro, decided to withdraw her own challenge to Mrs. Clinton last month, it left Spencer as the only announced candidate who's ready to give Mrs. Clinton a run for her money.
And unlike Mrs. Pirro - who, during her four month campaign, seldom criticized Mrs. Clinton for anything beyond her presidential ambitions - Spencer made it clear he doesn't intend to pull any punches, especially when it comes to the former first couple's failures in the war on terror.
Spencer told NewsMax that "distractions out of the Clinton White House" kept the nation preoccupied with scandal while Osama bin Laden and company plotted history's most deadly terrorist attack.
He singled out for criticism Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who erected the notorious "wall of separation" that prevented intelligence agencies from sharing information with law enforcement.
"By putting up that kind of a barrier," Spencer told NewsMax, "it shows they were trying to apply that silly, appeasing, liberal mentality that also made our intelligence agents abroad check back with the pinheads in Washington before they could take any action."
"All of that led up to the fact that we were a weak nation," he added. "And our enemies knew it."
But is it fair to blame the former first lady for the sins of her husband? Spencer answered unequivocally, yes.
He noted that Mrs. Clinton isn't shy about taking credit for her husband's economic successes, before adding, "So who gets the blame for the failures of the intelligence community during the 1990s?"
What about Mrs. Clinton's performance after the 9/11 attacks?
Even there, Spencer said, Hillary has let her constituents down - by sabotaging her own demands that New Yorkers receive their "fair share" of homeland security funding.
"She claims to be this influential senator from New York," he told NewsMax - the kind of leader that should have been able to deliver for her state in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 attacks, when the nation was united in sympathy for New York.
But since the day she set foot in the Senate, Spencer contended, Clinton has been firing verbal salvos at the Bush administration and the Republican Congress on a regular basis.
"And then you wonder why these same Republicans aren't sympathetic when she claims she's not getting her fair share?" the Yonkers conservative said.
Spencer charged that Mrs. Clinton has allowed her slash and burn style of partisanship to get in the way of the best interests of the people of New York, explaining that her conduct has been "divisive and it weakens our nation."
"She didn't rise to the occasion of being a U.S. Senator," he added.
Spencer also questioned Mrs. Clinton's newfound status as defense hawk, telling NewsMax that in reality, she has engaged "in a very insidious campaign to undercut our commander-in-chief and our military."
"That's not good for our nation. And I'm going to point that out during the campaign," he vowed.
Spencer maintained that Hillary exposed herself as an "appeaser" when she voted in late December to kill the Patriot Act. She "immediately sided with the weak, appeasing side that quite frankly, in my humble opinion, caused us to have the problems we had on Sept. 11."
"I believe that displays weakness," he added. "And I believe these liberal Democrats, like Hillary, are harmful to our nation."
