Why She Frightens Me...
The tabula rasa which is supposed to be my brain kinda kicked into gear this afternoon after reading an article in the NY Daily News (suitable for wrapping fish) concerning Her Heinous, Mrs. Hillary Clinton.

Now it's been obvious to anyone born more than 5 minutes ago that the woman has had her eyes on re-occupying the White House (the Executive Suite this time) since she was evicted by that nasty little tradition we have of only allowing sitting Presidents to hold power for two terms. Depending on your point of view, she wants back in because she lusts after power, left some Rose Law Firm billing records in the kitchen junk drawer or perhaps to just have the opportunity to stroll down Memory Lane. It makes no difference why she wants to be there, the fact is that she's plotted her return with all the precision of a military operation.

This, of course, ties many people's intestines into knots. These people fall into two categories; a) Republicans, and for those not terribly politcal-minded, b) sentient (P.S. I consider myself both).

I do not fear a second Clinton presidency, per se. What I do fear is a second Clinton Presidency armed with the Patriot Act and an actual shooting war to exploit. I fear the first because we already know how the Clinton Machine deals with it's enemies --- it smears them, exposes them, ruins their lives. It used to do this with private detectives and Executive Orders to various arms of federal law enforcement.

Armed with a Patriot Act (which just about every democrat worth his/her/it's salt opposes solely because they don't control the apparatus or application thereof) a Clinton White House would be free to try and work in the dark on tearing their opponents apart. I say try because the Patriot Act still has limits (probable cause, court orders, etc), and our Constitutional protections haven't been revoked (yet), but we're talking about people for whom little things like legal pleasantries are mere incoveniences.

When you stop to consider that the Clintons used various organs (no pun intended) of the Fed'ral Gubmint to tarnish Linda Tripp, Paula Jones, Henry Hyde, and a host of others by siccing the IRS on them, having their FBI files turned over to a bar bouncer in White House employ, you begin to see what I mean. When you stop to consider this is the same administration that once burned 80 people to death after a 51 day seige to "stop the child abuse taking place in that compound" or the same bunch that battered down a door in Florida on a holiday weekend morning, machine guns drawn, to forcibly "repatriate" a 6 year old boy, you begin to see what I mean.

The spectre of President Clinton (Mrs.) doesn't frighten me so long as the courts continue to work they way they're supposed to or Republicans maintain control of Congress. Preferably both. If both courts and congress stay the same, then Mrs. Clinton is merely a mouthpiece. She will yack her head off and accomplish nothing (much like her husband). Should Republican control start slipping in 2006, we're possibly looking at a potential disaster.

I'm cleaning my guns just in case.