Time's Joe Klein Compares Walker Recall to Clinton Impeachment
Time magazine's Joe Klein on Wednesday compared Tuesday's recall election in Wisconsin to former President Bill Clinton's impeachment proceeding in the late '90s.
Not surprisingly, appearing on CNN's Starting Point, Klein got most of the facts wrong (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Host Soledad O’Brien asked her guest if Republican Governor Scott Walker’s victory would have an impact beyond Wisconsin.
“No,” Klein replied, “the exit polls yesterday said that Obama led Romney 51 to 45 in Wisconsin.”
They also said when the polls closed the recall race was a 50-50 dead heat.
It’s amazing how many media members seem to be ignoring that if the exit polls were wrong about that, they likely were wrong about how Wisconsinites currently view the presidential race.
Beyond which, it’s preposterous to claim last night’s results have no national implications. As Klein himself said moments later, this was a devastating loss for Democrats and unions.
“I think that what this election says is this: people don’t like gimmicks,” Klein continued. “Scott Walker was elected two years ago. He tried to govern according to the way he saw fit. He did nothing illegal, and the public employees’ were used to getting their way, didn’t like it, and they tried to unseat him.”
Next came a really silly analogy.
“It’s kind of like when the Republicans tried to impeach Bill Clinton in the late 1990s.”
Actually, the Republicans didn’t try to impeach Clinton. He was indeed impeached, but survived the process.
Fascinating that someone in the business so long who prides himself in how many elections he’s covered wouldn’t understand what impeachment means.
“The public saw it as just a tremendous waste of time and money,” Klein continued. “And Bill Clinton’s popularity remained, you know, what it was from the beginning of that process till the end of the process, but the Republicans’ popularity plummeted.”
First off, this analogy is absurd because Clinton broke the law. He committed and suborned perjury, both serious enough that the very day he left the White House in January 2001, the Arkansas Bar Association disbarred him. By contrast, as Klein previously said, Walker “did nothing illegal.”
As such, comparing the two issues is a joke.
What Klein also neglected is the reason Clinton’s popularity stayed steady during impeachment and the Republicans’ declined was because media members like him took Clinton’s side while dishonestly telling the public impeachment was about sex when in reality it was indeed about perjury and suborning perjury.
But Klein wasn’t done, for after largely speaking Democrat talking points, he spoke some truth that undermined his claim Tuesday’s result had no national implications.
“I think that the unions and the Democrats got their comeuppance for interfering in the national process of electoral politics.”
Indeed they did, and this will have national implications in November as well as likely years to come.
- Noel Sheppard's blog
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Comments
Wisconsin in Play
Submitted by libBuster on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 10:57am.
Hoffa and the union elites have just put Wisconsin in play through their blunder. It could well be a "red" State in 2012.
The other great take away is that a determined conservative can trump hordes of bused in activists.
yeah, just like clinton....
Submitted by notinstl on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 11:09am.
only this time the public sector unions screwed Wisconsin
Exit polls say: exit polls;
Submitted by ThisnThat on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 11:21am.
Exit polls say: exit polls; exit polls. Every 5 minutes today, MSNBC is saying that o'bama's doing just fine, and WI will not be in play in November because "the exit polls say:". I suspect this is the dim talking point for the next month or so, because they have nothing else to hang their hat on, now. This defeat was intense, and the shock wave has just begun. The meltdown has just begun, and the panic is real. I love it!
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court
This is actually good
Submitted by c5then on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 11:36am.
It will lull the WI democrats into thinking that they are fine and don't need to work that hard.
Then on the night of November 6th, 2012...they will be agast and horrified that WI seems to have gone to Romney and become a red State.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Recalls vrs Impeachments
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 11:39am.
"It’s kind of like when the Republicans tried to impeach Bill Clinton in the late 1990s."
That's funny, I don't remember filling out a ballot for whether Clinton should be impeached or not. But I bet everyone who voted in the Wisconsin recall remembers doing it.
Come on, guy, you know the two situations are completely different! In case you're too stupid to understand it: one is a legislative action, the other is a civil process. See if you can figure out which is which.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Walker would not have survived in Clinton's era
Submitted by MidAmerica on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 11:47am.
Clinton skated because there was no New Media to balance the equation against the Old Media's support of Bill.
It would be different today. No longer do a few media moguls in NYC get to decide what is the news and who's voices will be heard.
LOL
Submitted by c5then on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 11:49am.
Yeah, Joe...The Walker recall is "kind of like" the Clinton impeachment..
And you are sometimes kind of like a journalist (not this time).
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Excellent analysis, Noel
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 11:55am.
I watched CNN after the Wisconsin polls closed and listened to John King try to explain how their exit polling model -- which predicted a close outcome -- could be so far off, yet they still relied on it to assure the audience that Obama was still safe in Wisconsin.
Howard Dean took it a step further on Morning Joe today. With one of the state senate recalls too close to call at that point, he proclaimed that a Democratic victory would give the Dems control of the state senate, and that would make the recall and undeniable success.
I'm glad the Dems and the MSM are still in semi-denial. That got it wrong -- drastically wrong -- and it's shaken their confidence. The unions look weaker than ever; the exit poll data suggest that one-third of union households voted for Walker! The talking heads in the DP and MSM are all attributing it to being outspent by the GOP, but that raises the issue: If both parties are governed by the same fundraising rules, how come the Wisconsin Dems couldn't get enough $$$?
They may try to dismiss the results here, but they're scared.
Comparing the recall to the impeachment is beyond a joke
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 11:57am.
So lying to congress under oath is the same as doing as you were elected which angered some union thugs. What universe are these morons from?
Yeah, it was "kind of like"
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 12:31pm.
Clinton's impeachment. Just like Clinton, Walker used a subordinate to intimidate another subordinate to commit perjury. Then Walker lied about it to a Grand Jury....oh yeah. This was NOTHING like Clinton's impeachment.
Not only
Submitted by chiefpayne on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 12:37pm.
is the comparison between the failed Walker recall and the successful impeachment of Bill Clinton a fallacy due to the idea that the recall of Walker failed while the impeachment of Clinton was successful....
BUT as Klein said Walker did NOTHING illegal...while Bill Clinton was guilty of purjury which IS illegal.
Not only
Submitted by chiefpayne on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 12:37pm.
is the comparison between the failed Walker recall and the successful impeachment of Bill Clinton a fallacy due to the idea that the recall of Walker failed while the impeachment of Clinton was successful....
BUT as Klein said Walker did NOTHING illegal...while Bill Clinton was guilty of purjury which IS illegal.
kryptonite
Submitted by Lamdog on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 1:15pm.
Larry Elder: Facts to a liberal is like kryptonite to Superman.
You really want to see liberal spin their heads? Tell them Richard Nixon was never impeached or disbarred. Drive them over the edge everytime.
If you are feeling really giddy.Tell them the vote by Al Gore to not convict probably cost him his home state of Tennessee, which if he won would been elected president, regardless how the state of Florida was decided. Thus Bill Clinton is probably the most responsible for G.W. being elected, start running...
kryptonite
Submitted by Lamdog on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 1:15pm.
Larry Elder: Facts to a liberal is like kryptonite to Superman.
You really want to see liberal spin their heads? Tell them Richard Nixon was never impeached or disbarred. Drive them over the edge everytime.
If you are feeling really giddy.Tell them the vote by Al Gore to not convict probably cost him his home state of Tennessee, which if he won would been elected president, regardless how the state of Florida was decided. Thus Bill Clinton is probably the most responsible for G.W. being elected, start running...
kryptonite
Submitted by Lamdog on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 1:17pm.
Larry Elder: Facts to a liberal is like kryptonite to Superman.
You really want to see liberal spin their heads? Tell them Richard Nixon was never impeached or disbarred. Drive them over the edge everytime.
If you are feeling really giddy.Tell them the vote by Al Gore to not convict probably cost him his home state of Tennessee, which if he won would been elected president, regardless how the state of Florida was decided. Thus Bill Clinton is probably the most responsible for G.W. being elected, start running...