Republicans sure love Bill Clinton nowadays
Mitt Romney began invoking Bill Clinton last month on the campaign trail, lamenting that, it's too bad Barack Obama is just nothing like the former president.
Yes, the same Bill Clinton congressional Republicans pushed to impeach in the 1990s.
After Clinton's on-again, off-again messaging for President Obama, Republicans in Congress are now feeling the love, too.
Just today, NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports that Sens. John Thune, a potential vice-president pick for Romney, and Orrin Hatch took to the Senate floor to sing Bubba's praises.
Hatch went all out, invoking the 42nd president's name 10 times.
THUNE (R-SD):
"and with regard to the tax increases, I would make the same argument. the same argument actually that former president Bill Clinton has been making and that is we need to extend these tax rates; we create too much economic uncertainty out there by having this cloud out there on the horizon and that that is a real warning sign..."Not to mention, of course, that Clinton doesn't support permanently extending the Bush tax cuts and that every Republican voted against Clinton's 1993 tax increases.
HATCH (R-UT):
"Well, it was no surprise therefore that when former President Clinton stated yesterday that we were still in a recession. Economists might say that is not technically accurate, but it is certainly how most Americans feel. What did come as a surprise, however, were President Clinton's remarks on tax-mageddon, the fiscal cliff that the nation faces at the end of this year. At least yesterday it sounded like his view was that we should do a complete 180 and race away from this cliff extending in full the tax relief extended, or enacted by President Bush and extended by President Obama in 2010." ...A reminder:
"There should be no higher priority for the president and the congress than addressing these tax increases. Yesterday President Clinton seemed to agree, arguing that we should act now, not after the elections, to avoid the fiscal cliff. at a minimum, he concluded that a temporary extension of current tax relief was in order. quote -- to quote former President Clinton -- "They will probably have to put everything off until early next year. that's probably the best thing to do right now," unquote." ...
"Now, President Clinton further argued, quote, "What i think we need to do is to find some way to avoid the fiscal cliff. to avoid doing anything that would contract the economy now and then deal with what's necessary in the long-term debt-reduction plan as soon as they they can, which presumably will be after the election." Unquote." ...
"Now, channeling Gilda Radner, President Clinton tells us, never mind. President Clinton knew what he was saying. One thing I can say, knowing him as well as I do, he's a very smart man. He was making an elementary point, one that the president, President Obama, seemed to agree with when he was -- seemed to agree with when he was not running for election on a platform. President Clinton, not wanting to further undermine our economy, recommended a short-term extension of all the tax relief." ...
"This is just me now," this is President Clinton. "This is just me now. I am not speaking for the White House. You could tax me at 100%, and you wouldn't balance the budget. We are all going to have to contribute to this. If middle-class people's wages were going up again, I don't think they would object to going back to tax rates from when he was president." With due respect to our former president, I do think that he was speaking for the White House, and I do think that most Americans would object to a tax hike. That is why President Obama has decided to lay low." ...
"And if the president and his campaign team think that they can punt this issue until the fall, they are sorely mistaken. The American people will voice their displeasure with his failure to lead in November. President Clinton got it right the first time yesterday. The fiscal cliff must be addressed now. We cannot wait until later in the year."
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