RUTHFULLY YOURS

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has her own obsession with supposed right-wing conspiracies, going back to the days of her husband’s administration. But her continued attempt to attribute the insane actions of the mentally deranged alleged shooter Jared Loughner to political extremism and mentioning his actions in the same breath as al Qaeda is beyond the pale.

Clinton should recant at once. Otherwise, if President Obama really meant what he said in his Tuscon speech about moving beyond the finger-pointing rhetoric of the last few days, he must ask for his Secretary of State’s resignation.

Clinton’s disgraceful rhetoric started at the beginning of this week in the Middle East, when she equated “extremism” in this country, as supposedly demonstrated by the Arizona shooter, with extremism in the Arab world.

Unbowed, Clinton elaborated later in the week during an interview with CNN. Asked to explain the comments she had made about extremists and Jared Loughner, she continued to characterize what happened in Tuscon – without a shred of evidence – as criminal activity connected to extremist political views.

Here is an excerpt from her interview with CNN‘s Jill Dougherty:

QUESTION: On this trip, you’ve had some very interesting comments about extremists when you made that comparison between extremists in this region and extremists in the United States. You mentioned the man who unfortunately shot Congresswoman Giffords. Were you rushing to judgment on his motivations (inaudible) shooting people? And also, could you explain a little bit about what you meant by it?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I think from what we know – and of course, I’m reading the newspapers and watching TV like everyone else who was deeply affected by this tragedy. I knew that people all over the world would be expressing their sympathy, as they have been, on my trip… Based on what I know, this is a criminal defendant who was in some ways motivated by his own political views, who had a particular animus toward the congresswoman. And I think when you cross the line from expressing opinions that are of conflicting differences in our political environment into taking action that’s violent action, that’s a hallmark of extremism, whether it comes from the right, the left, from al-Qaida, from anarchists, whoever it is. That is a form of extremism. So yes, I think that when you’re a criminal who is in some way pursuing criminal activity connected to – however bizarre and poorly thought through – your political views, that’s a form of extremism.

If our Secretary of State had read the newspapers and watched TV in English, she might have gotten a better understanding into Loughner’s thinking, which was madness without any political label or attachment to a political cause. Several of his bizarre statements have been quoted in the press.

For example:

“Being alone for a very long time will inevitably lead you to rape” (Actually, now that I think of it, there are some similarities here with the sexual abuse of women that is permitted under Islamic sharia law).

“Would you hit a Handy Cap Child?” (Maybe he was confusing this with the right under sharia law to hit one’s wife – a right upheld by the supreme court of the  United Arab Emirates, the country where Hillary had started providing her observations equating American and Islamic extremists).

I guess that Hillary also missed the report quoting a friend of Loughner’s:

He disliked the news. He didn’t listen to political radio. He didn’t take sides. He wasn’t on the left. He wasn’t on the right.

In fact, it turns out that Loughner had a crazy obsession with Congresswoman Giffords for no apparent political reason, which predated the Tea Party or the prominence of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. It looks like the attempt on Giffords’ life was pre-meditated. But a political statement? No.

Now there are crazy people in every society. And would-be  John Wilkes Booths and Lee Harvey Oswalds may well be lurking in our midst, who must be stopped before they try to commit a politically-motivated act of violence. However, Hillary Clinton is  disingenuous or perhaps still obsessed herself with her right-wing conspiracy theories in asserting either that this particular shooting was politically motivated or that political extremism in this country can in any way be equated with global Islamic radicalism.

Hillary must either recant and quit spouting, or just simply quit her job.

Joseph Klein is the author of a recent book entitled Lethal Engagement: Barack Hussein Obama, the United Nations and Radical Islam.