The Two Faces of Hillary

I've been saying ever since the 2004 election that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president of the United States. And I still believe that, even though the suicidal direction of her party would seem to make that outcome a dicier prospect than it once appeared. But there's plenty of time - two years at least, given the ex-first lady's instant front-runner status - for Howard Dean and the Sorosian/Moore-on/Koss-hack fringies to be purged and some semblance of sanity - of the outward variety, anyway - restored to Donk ranks. Never underestimate the Clinton machine was the one and only lesson of the 1990s, and until I see definitive proof to the contrary, I'm sticking with it.

But can Natasha survive dalliances like this?:

The New York Observer is reporting that Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) will appear Thursday at a luncheon with Calypso singer turned Bush-bashing liberal activist Harry Belafonte.

The luncheon is an awards ceremony given by the Children’s Defense Fund, a liberal interest group.

Belafonte gained recent attention by calling President Bush the "world’s greatest terrorist” while visiting Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez....

It will not be the first time that Hillary Clinton has appeared with Belafonte after the 78-year-old singer has made controversial remarks. In September, Belafonte told the Congressional Black Caucus that the Bush foreign policy "has made a wreck of this planet.”

"I’m always in Africa,” Belafonte ranted, "and when I go to these places I see American policy written on the walls of oppression everywhere.”

Senator Clinton was the next speaker at the event. Following up, she noted, "What Harry said is so important.”

Yeah, sure, Mrs. Clinton is every bit the panderer her hubby is. She tailors her rhetoric to the audience she's addressing, and the Extreme Media will never call her on it. That's the essence of Clintonoid "triangulation."

But what the Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson aptly described as Belefonte's treason is not something that can be, as it were, played off against the middle. That's trying to burn the candle on both ends with a lit match on one end and a nuclear warhead on the other. And you know what they say: once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, thrice is a trend. And Senator Upside-Down-Legs seems to almost be courting the ilk Belefonte fronts.

There's still plenty of time for her own "Sister Souljah" moment. But if Hillary keeps up this kind of association, she may need it a lot sooner than she thinks.