I’ve been pretty busy lately, but I wanted to share a trio of excerpts from my political reading of the last 24 hours:

From The New Republic (subscription may be needed):

Clinton’s justification for this strategy is that she needs to toughen up Obama for the general election-if he can’t handle her attacks, he’ll never stand up to the vast right-wing conspiracy. Without her hazing, warns the Clinton memo, “Democrats may have a nominee who will be a lightening rod of controversy.” So Clinton’s offensive against the likely nominee is really an act of selflessness. And here I was thinking she was maniacally pursuing her slim thread of a chance, not caring–or possibly even hoping, with an eye toward 2012-that she would destroy Obama’s chances of defeating McCain in the process. I feel ashamed for having suspected her motives.

From the same TNR column, emphasis mine:

Clinton’s path to the nomination, then, involves the following steps: kneecap an eloquent, inspiring, reform-minded young leader who happens to be the first serious African American presidential candidate (meanwhile cementing her own reputation for Nixonian ruthlessness) and then win a contested convention by persuading party elites to override the results at the polls. The plan may also involve trying to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations, after having explicitly agreed that the results would not count toward delegate totals. Oh, and her campaign has periodically hinted that some of Obama’s elected delegates might break off and support her. I don’t think she’d be in a position to defeat Hitler’s dog in November, let alone a popular war hero.

And finally, some thoughts from Steve Novick who is running in the Democratic primary for Oregon’s Senate seat:

Candidate Steve Novick noted that Richard Nixon was impeached for warrantless wiretapping and lying to the American People. “If only out of his historical fairness to Richard Nixon, we have to launch impeachment proceedings against the president,” he said.

This post is tagged Election 2008, Hilary Clinton, Steve Novick