Pajamas Media

Hillary’s True Lies

The embarrassing Bosnia saga reminds us that both Clintons possess a spectacular ability to lie without batting an eyelash or show remorse when the lie is exposed.

March 26, 2008 - by Rick Moran

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The image would be iconic – if it were true.

On a 1996 visit to Bosnia, Hillary Clinton alighting from her plane and running across the tarmac, her head down, legs churning, heart pounding while snipers in the hills above the airport took deadly aim, drawing a bead on the First Lady, failing only because she was too quick for them.

“I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia,” she said last week. “There was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn’t go, so send the First Lady.

“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

Ah, memory. The more science looks at how we create and store memories, the more the mystery deepens as to why we sometimes remember things that never happened. And in Hillary Clinton’s case, her fairy tale about her “insertion” into Bosnia under sniper fire was exposed as untrue thanks to the memory of a washed up comic and the viral spread of a video of what actually occurred upon her arrival in Tuzla.

One of Hillary Clinton’s traveling companions was that famous diplomatic troubleshooter, the comic Sinbad. Do not ask what he was doing traveling with the First Lady of the United States to Bosnia. Evidently, he was brought along for comic relief although the other entertainer on the trip with Clinton, Sheryl Crow, can be just as amusing when she puts her mind to it.

You may recall that Crow declared something of a war on toilet paper about a year ago, hectoring the rest of us on our outrageous, wastrel ways in using the Charmin and recommending we use “only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three could be required.”

It is unknown how many “pesky occasions” Crow was forced to use her private jet to get around thus forcing the rest of us to reduce our reliance on TP and return to the good old days when prairie grass was a dual use commodity.

At any rate, Sinbad told the Washington Post that the “scariest part” of the trip was deciding where to eat. The comic asked a question that one might wonder why such a query was never asked by like, you know, a real reporter or something:

Sinbad questioned the premise behind the Clinton version of events. “What kind of president would say ‘Hey man, I can’t go ‘cause I might get shot so I’m going to send my wife. Oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.”

With that kind of wit, I sense a comeback in the offing. The reason why we might indeed inquire about a lack of curiosity about the story from the press is because this is not the first time that Hillary Clinton or her surrogates have told the story of the First Lady parachuting into Bosnia … er, that is, coming under sniper fire.

According to the Obama campaign, Clinton made the exact same claim on December 29th in Iowa and again on February 29th in Waco, Texas with retired General Wesley Clark. Not a peep from our vaunted press corps who apparently don’t have as much curiosity as a stand up comedian about the incident. They just swallowed this fish story hook, line, and sinker. Maybe Hillary should have really gone to town in recalling the incident. She could have told the press that she rappelled down a line dangling from a hovering Huey with an M-16 slung across her chest, a knife in her teeth and Chelsea on her back. Such a story told to our incurious press corps and dutifully printed as the truth would have been worth 100,000 votes at least. If this was all there was to this story, we could chalk it up to press laziness and Hillary’s cloudy memory. Ah, but what would a Clinton prevarication be without a perfectly illogical, outrageous, and breathtaking Clintonian “explanation” for the fib?

Hillary, it seems, “misspoke”:

Speaking to KDKA radio in Pittsburgh, the Democratic presidential candidate said it’s been a long campaign and this is the first time she has said the wrong thing.

“I have written about this and described in many different settings and I did misspeak the other day,” Clinton said during a live 10-minute interview. “This has been a very long campaign. … Last week for the first time in 12 years or so, I misspoke.”

Is this a great country, or what? One can “misspeak” when you call out the name of an ex-girlfriend while in the midst of achieving marital bliss with your wife. One can “misspeak” when being asked the date of your wedding anniversary and being six months off. But only a Clinton could “misspeak” while telling a whopper of a tall tale to demonstrate superiority over a rival and then have the unmitigated chutzpah to add that such “mistakes” in not telling the truth are as rare as hen’s teeth. What this little morality tale will do to the campaign is remind Democratic voters of just what it is about the Clinton’s that everybody marveled at during their 8 years in office; their spectacular ability to lie without batting an eyelash or showing any remorse when the lie was exposed.

Senator Bob Kerrey once said that Bill Clinton was “an unusually good liar.” Hillary appears ready and eager to follow in his footsteps.

Rick Moran blogs at Right Wing Nut House.

49 Comments

Sandra Arnoult:

You have to admit. Her ability to spin a yarn and tell a tall tale is impressive. wouldn’t be fun to have her as commander in chief? We would know what the hell was really going on in the world.

Mar 26, 2008 - 6:04 am Linda Frank:

More accurately she is an “unusually bad liar.”

Mar 26, 2008 - 6:17 am Hotpatch 6:

You have to remember that it all depends on what the meaning of “sniper” is.

Mar 26, 2008 - 6:36 am Mike Hoxie:

Never were truer words written! What I wonder is, when with the MSM ever call them on their lies?

Mar 26, 2008 - 7:04 am Adirondack Patriot:

This is the woman who was named after Sir Edmund Hillary (even though she was born before he ascended Mt. Everest), and whose husband remembers black churches being burned (even though there is no record of any black church being burned in Arkansas when Bubba was a child). They are pathological liars. The rest of us know it. It just took the media 35 years to discover it.

Mar 26, 2008 - 8:13 am Anonymous:

For the rest of us common folks to ‘mis-speak’ is called lying. She fabricated the whole scenario and then blew it off as a slight recall deficit. That would be called deception…

Mar 26, 2008 - 8:15 am Danube of Thought:

I’ve been paying close attention to this strange pair for sixteen years now, and many earlier disclosures about their readiness to lie are rattling around in my mind. Some that I recall are “not just hostile to the truth, but indifferent to it”; “they lie even when there’s no reason to lie”; and “they tell big lies when little lies would do, and little lies when the truth would be just fine.” Nowadays I often wonder whether either of them is even aware when they are reciting a whopper.

Mar 26, 2008 - 8:19 am tanstaafl:

She not only said she “misspoke” but claimed she was sleep deprived when she delivered last week’s account of landing in Bosnia in 1996.

I guess she was also sleep deprived the 2 previous times she told the same fish story.

(if she were to answer the White House phone at 3 a.m. I hope she wouldn’t be groggy)

How the Clintons (both of them) lie with such (seemingly unabashed) aplomb is truly a marvel of modern science.

Mar 26, 2008 - 8:25 am Robyn:

Why do the Clintons think Americans owe them anything? If anything, they owe it to the Democratic party and Americans to get out the race! We dealt with all their shinanigans, scandals, secrets, trials, hearings, etc…while they were in the White House. What did WE get? The Democrats lost seats in Congress under Bill C., we missed a chance at catching bin Laden, Al Gore had his election stoeln away, Kerry lost his election (or had it stolen away in OH) and now we have to watch Clinton lie and drag this election out when it is clear she cannot win by actually winning!!

Unbelievable.

Mar 26, 2008 - 8:46 am Jakester:

I was under the impression that Pajama Media was some real great alternative to the bad old media but all you seem to do is recycle the same old crap that all the other right wing bigmouths are blapping about. Wow, on the scale of 1 to 10 of importance this is .5, it’s here to pander to the blog-type right wingers whose penchant for dishonesty and pettiness is unmatched

Mar 26, 2008 - 9:13 am Duh:

Poor Robyn is having a hard year. Granted, the Clintons are slimy. But it wasn’t the Clintons alone that lost all of these things. Typical Democrat playing the victim. “Algore and John Francois Kerry had their elections stolen!” Really? Do tell. Even the NYT ran articles showing that Algore didn’t have the election stolen. And Kerry? Funny, the only folks who disenfranchised voters were Democrats. Unfortunately, Robyn is a follower of the Obama cult, and has a lot of white liberal guilt. Her dreams of reconciliation are about to be dashed. Believe it! Change is coming!

Mar 26, 2008 - 9:17 am Kim Zigfeld:

HOTPATCH: LOL! Great!

Mar 26, 2008 - 9:25 am Jakester's an idiot:

Oh, the Jakester. He’s willing to cover up for the multiple lies of the Clintons. He’s most likely a liar himself, and needs to feel some moral justification, so who better than a Clinton? Apparently little Jakey only wants truth from those mean Republicans.

Isn’t it news when Hillary (named after Sir Edmund, don’t you know) is caught in yet another brazen lie? How can you trust anything she says? Or do you just blindly believe anything she says? So much for that vaunted left-wing open-mindedness and fairness. Oh yeah, and the need for justice, social or otherwise.

Jakester, you’re a hypocrite.

Mar 26, 2008 - 9:25 am Rick Moran:

Jake:

I agree.

Outright lying by politicians should be ignored. In fact, we should encourage it. That way, anything they say we just believe the opposite.

A perfect reverse barometer! Brilliant!

Mar 26, 2008 - 9:52 am Jakester:

To my esteemed critics, I am not sticking up for the Clintons, but just pointing out the pettiness and hypocricsy that people like you exude. This little snippet has been floating around for weeks and yet to the non-news people at PM this is a red hot story. I realize that to your petty, shallow little mind trivial campaign hype like Hillary’s story is your number one obsession, so insulting your obsession must mean that I am demeaning your whole little univesres filled with Limbaugh cliche people. Crap like this is not sending anyone down the river.

Mar 26, 2008 - 10:22 am Jakester:

hey Rick,
I’m sure you don’t hold your con heroes to the same standards. The War in Iraq was built on lies that petty little warmongers like you swallowed then rationalized. Key up the good fight, keyboard warrior!

Mar 26, 2008 - 10:25 am glenn:

I’m shocked I tell you, shocked, to discover that a Lawyer, Politician, and Baby Boomer would actually lie. You just don’t see that every day.

Mar 26, 2008 - 10:30 am Jakester:

Here is my point, incase you are too hurried to understand:
This is the lead story of the PJ Media: a little hit piece about some BS campaign story of Hillary’s that is at least a month old. And you think the PJ Media is so much better than the bad old MSM? I’m sorry, this is not news, even if you are just another partisan hack who’s been educated by Limbaugh.

Mar 26, 2008 - 10:39 am Deborah:

I want to know what kind of vitamins Mrs. Bill Clinton is taking. Back in the 90s when she testified, she couldn’t remember anything. She must be getting a better blood flow to the cranium now.

Mar 26, 2008 - 10:54 am tanstaafl:

“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

The air force pilot who flew Hillary into Tuzla/Bosnia in 1996 is interviewed.

http://www.breitbart.tv/html/68124.html

He describes the landing as “steep” the way they customarily land on that airstrip.

snipergate

Mar 26, 2008 - 11:08 am Silas Crumberbocke:

“Jerry, just remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it.” George Costanza

Mar 26, 2008 - 12:07 pm Maggie45:

OMG, Deborah, that was hilarious! If you find out, let me know please. LOL

Mar 26, 2008 - 2:45 pm Dave S.:

>>when with the MSM ever call them on their lies?

Hate to say it but CBS exposed her. This whole episode reminds me of the time she was in New Zealand telling a crowd how she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt. Everest. Turns out Sir Edmund didn’t climb the mountain until 2 or 3 years after she was born. MSM didn’t call her on that at the time.

Mar 26, 2008 - 2:48 pm Dave S.:

>>Jakester:

>>Here is my point, incase you are too hurried to understand:
This is the lead story of the PJ Media: a little hit piece about some BS campaign story of Hillary’s that is at least a month old. And you think the PJ Media is so much better than the bad old MSM? I’m sorry, this is not news, even if you are just another partisan hack who’s been educated by Limbaugh.

Here’s the deal Jakester, Senator Clinton’s baldface lying speaks to her character and reliability as potential leader of the free world. It’s that simple and it is news.

Mar 26, 2008 - 2:51 pm Dave S.:

>>I’m sorry, this is not news

Sorry, Jakester, but catching the potential leader of the free world in a baldfaced lie speaks volumes to her character.

Mar 26, 2008 - 2:53 pm tanstaafl:

To so many individuals out there, the President of the United States lying under oath was no big deal, either.

hey, it was “just” about sex

Well, it could have been about doggy doo and it still would have been the single most important individual sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws of the land lying under oath.

Mar 26, 2008 - 3:34 pm heyharvey:

gee, i will send my wife and daughter into the lurch.
yeah, right.

so hilly rodham lied to us a.h.’s. she was sure she would get away with this fantastic story.

the sad part is that chelsea was there and knows what happened.

i would really be bummed out if my mom stood before a crowd and told a whopping lie like this.
has this woman no shame?
adios
Harvey
Lancaster, Mexifornia
dial 1 for english

Mar 26, 2008 - 5:17 pm Paul D:

I am grateful for the Bosnia Clinton thing because, curiously, it has sparked a debate in the UK about the meaning of the word ‘mispoke’. Now we know exactly what it means.

It means ‘I lied’. Check out the video footage!

Mar 26, 2008 - 5:21 pm heyharvey:

president clinton bombed belgrad so that the interview with juanita broderick that was to air on t.v. would be preempted for the war in Yugoslavia.

how many innocents died for this war of nielsen ratings.
adios,
Harvey
Lancaster, Taxifornia
dial 1 for english

Mar 26, 2008 - 5:24 pm heyharvey:

but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” with my daughter in tow.
what a liar.
Jarvey
Lancaster, Mexifornia

Mar 26, 2008 - 5:25 pm david lawrence:

You know I could understand this ‘misspeak’ if she were ever even once under sniper fire. I have never been shot at myself, but if once I ever was, I surely would have remembered that no matter how tired. If I would lay such a line on barflies in a pub they would laugh my pathological rear end out onto the street. Kind of reminds me of stories about guys who make up military combat experience - a little bit creepy, and a bit pathetic. Maybe I feel sorry for them. I think some water district in California is trying to toss some board member over his phony “medal of honor’. In any event, McCain would just going roll over this, so if there is any self respect left in the Democratic party would someone please show her the door. I know there are some pretty honorable people in there.

Mar 26, 2008 - 6:31 pm maria:

Hilary is the biggest liar in this universe. She cannot remember was real or fiction. guess she had a good teacher “I did not have sex with that woman” knowing very well it was a big lie so why wouldn’t Hilary try the same thing. After all Billy did it also.

Mar 26, 2008 - 10:38 pm CasualObserver:

What I don’t understand is how running for cover under sniper fire is a qualifier for head of state and making critical foreign policy decisions. If this is the standard than any private in a war zone is fully qualified to be Secretary of State!

Mar 27, 2008 - 5:30 am tanstaafl:

I think d. lawrence hit the nail on the head. A(nother) stab at grandiosity, specialness.

She must be feeling a bit (personally) beleaguered to be making such stuff up in order to advance her own “experience” credentials.

On the otter heiny (OTOH) she has had an excellent teacher and role model in the not so grand art of self puffery and dissembling. And I’m not talking about Hillary’s Sr. Thesis subject at Wellesley, Saul Alinsky. Altho’ ole Saul undoubtedly had his influence on her strategies as well.

Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals

(see esp. Rules 1 & 12)

Mar 27, 2008 - 7:52 am Ryan:

This week Senator Hillary Clinton spoke on multiple occasions responded to questions regarding Barack Obama’s former minister. She said, “You cannot choose your family members but you can your minister, pastor or rabbi. If the decision was left to me I have made it clear what I would do. I would have left the church.” It is apparent she believes that a person should be judged solely on a few unfortunate comments or actions. And if you vehemently disagree with those actions a person should reject, denounce, and disown that person from your life indefinitely. To my understanding a person still does choose their spouse. By not leaving her husband Bill Clinton for having an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky and others, lying under oath to the Supreme Court and the American people, and being impeached by the House of Representatives, suggests that she endorses that type of behavior by grounds of her own statement by not leaving Bill. What sort of precedent is she setting? She can’t have your cake and eat it too!

Mar 27, 2008 - 10:42 am Kabloona:

So, there I was, surrounded by hostile forces…sniper fire nipping at my purse, my main concern was for my daughter, why oh why did I allow Bill to comvince me to take our lovely child into harms way.We ran for our lves, I was nearly out of amo..my m-16 jammed from thte heat of return rapid fire….I was nearly ready to draw my pearl handled colt and have my way with them. Luckily, the brave comic , Sinbad, was along and calmed me befor I went on a killing spree that surely would have resulted in an end to all hostile activity . I remember thinking, if only Monica was here, I could send her out to take the heat while the rest of us found cover. It worked for Bill….hmmm better planning next time…

Mar 27, 2008 - 1:43 pm Kabloona:

Sorry, I was delirious. I am thinking that we should be “all forgivng” where campaigners are concerned.If we were to apply Hillary’s techniques to president Bush..we could say..he misspoke about Iraq, misspoke about weaponss of mass distrution, misspoke about everyhting..hmm yes..and the world would say, thats ok..he just misspoke. Its ok for leaders and potential leaders to misspeak, I mean..what importance could we possibly put on telling the truth ?.I believe we should remember, the truth is one of the most precious things we have and we should use it sparingly. This is a time of conservation and thinking about waste. Lets have a greener world and not waste the precious truth if a perfectly good lie will suffice.The Clintons seem to be ahead of their time and simply missunderstood by us common folk.

Mar 27, 2008 - 1:57 pm ismael R. San Francisco CA:

Did anyone ever think that Senator Clintrruption could be trusted??? Come on guys, we are just beginning to see the height, width, and the depth of the deception of Senator Clintrruption. Has anyone heard of the suppression that the Clintons did about the story of Hillary’s Pastor being convicted of the molestation of a 7 yr old girl March 25th? If you did not, please listen to Air America Radio tonite. While Hillary was trying to deflect the fact that she was caught in a lie, which she called, “I misspoke..” Her Pastor was being sentenced to Prison for molesting a 7 year old baby girl? She had the nerve to say what she would’ve done if Wright was her Pastor. Camp Clintrruption….

Mar 27, 2008 - 7:33 pm Sinbad:

She/they/he are evil personified. How were they allowed to happen? The worst part is, she doesn’t care or/and care to think what you think.

Mar 28, 2008 - 5:21 am Double-standards:

Clinton did misspeak/lie whatever you need to call it because she was warned of potential danger when they landed in Bosnia in the 1990’s.

This might be a lie but its Soooo MILD compared to Obama’s backyard trash incident. He CHOSE to sit in the pews of his church with his children (no doubt) listening Rev Wright (whom he calls his Spiritual leader) give racist, anti-American hate sermons in his church.

Obama and his supporters ought to loose to pseudo superiority complex and not pass judgement.

Mar 29, 2008 - 6:41 am gnubi:

No sniper fire? That pretty much kills the potential post-traumatic stress disorder story she may have been planning for the military sympathy vote.

Personally, as a conservative, I’d just like to see ALL politicians treated fairly. If they’re telling something they know to be an untruth, lambaste them. Make them fess up. I don’t care whether their name is followed by (D) or (R). In my local rag, when a pol gets nailed for some shenanigan, the only way you can tell it’s a democrat is that they don’t identify party affiliation until way deep into the article. Recently, we had a corrupt democrat identified as (Rep) after his name. They meant Representative……yeah, sure. ‘Sorry if you misunderstood.’

When some politician goes into the archives and stuffs his pants with secret documents and walks out the door, that’s not ‘a simple mistake’, it’s a felony.

When someone accesses a politician’s passport record, (who really cares?) it’s a huge Republican conspiracy until they discover that the employees belong to a Obama supporter. Then silence. Why isn’t that investigated as an attempt to frame Republicans? If the parties were reversed, this would still be a major story. I still can’t get over how LITTLE press the 500 FBI files Hillary had in the white house received. Come on.

Anyone who claims that democrats don’t get a fair shake in the media isn’t paying attention. The liberal news media is a co-conspirator and openly partisan.

Mar 29, 2008 - 6:59 am Christy:

What else did she and her husband lie about?

Painted into a corner Billary finally admitted she was economical with the truth when she spoke about her voyage to Bosnia.

Great to have people eviscerating her for it. Now, how about digging up some more Clinton lies, like those about the war in the Balkans itself?

Mar 30, 2008 - 9:56 am Peggy McGilligan:

“Why do I have to keep proving to people that I am not a liar?!”
-Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2000

Truth is, Hillary Clinton lies. Although Hillary will continue to lie, thank goodness for that. She’s going to get caught; just you wait and see: http://theseedsof9-11.com

Mar 30, 2008 - 12:57 pm Angry African:

Oh - it just shows Hillary has all the experience she needs to be President. She learned from the best. “I did not have a sexual relationship with that women” Clinton. Of course, Candy the Groupie doesn’t win the Grammy. Sorry Hillary - your “experience” just doesn’t count. http://angryafrican.net/2008/03/29/and-the-grammy-winner-is-candy-the-groupie/

Mar 30, 2008 - 2:27 pm druidmary:

Obama also said he wasn;t there when the pastor said those things about America and then when he gave that “eloquent” speech, and bam-boozled the media, he said he was there.
flip-flop, flip-flop

Mar 31, 2008 - 6:38 pm Dan C:

Hillary wins first lady highest award of dishonor.
She can lie and lie and lie and lie and lie So vote for her. yea sure I will…

See I can lie too. so vote for meeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Apr 9, 2008 - 1:57 pm Dan C:

Dan C: Apr 9, 1:57 pm

Your comment is awaiting moderation

OK so moderate it. Or do you mean I chould change what a said?
Lost in cyberspace
Dan C.

Apr 9, 2008 - 2:02 pm