Bill Clinton is the most shameless politician who is the least embarrassed at looking us square in the face and contradicting what is known on record to be his previous position on an issue.

He now claims he was always against the Iraq war. Always, since when?

Former president Bill Clinton said on Tuesday that he “opposed Iraq from the beginning,” apparently glossing over the more nuanced views of the war he has expressed over time. Clinton made the remarks while campaigning for his wife in Iowa - a largely anti-war state for Democrats — as he expressed bitterness over getting a tax cut with money that could have been spent on the military.

“Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers,” Clinton said. He said he “should not have gotten” the tax cuts he received as a wealthy earner.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton voted to authorize the war in Iraq, and has never apologized for her vote, even as the Democratic nominating process has reached fever pitch and she has been drawn into a three-way tie with more ardent Iraq war foes, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards.

Sen. Clinton has, at times, even cited the experience her husband had dealing with the Iraqi regime in the 1990s as one reason she gave Pres. Bush the benefit of the doubt when she voted for the war in 2002….

…But past remarks made by the former president do leave open a question about how fervently Clinton opposed the war in real time and before it grew widely unpopular. In immediate hindsight, Clinton did not sound like a fierce critic. “I supported the president when he asked for authority to stand up against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” Clinton said on May 18, 2003, during a commencement speech at Tougaloo College in Mississippi.

Sometimes in a presidency it is necessary for a president to lie to us as when President Kennedy excused himself from an event in Chicago saying he had a cold when he was really dealing with the Cuban missile crisis in Washington.

That’s excusable, but for a former president to tell us a bald faced lie in order to make his presidential candidate wife look more favorable to the voters is inexcusable.

It’s all about power with this tag team. Remember the actual audio recording of Bill Clinton saying he was offered Osama bin Laden on a silver plate but refused because he hadn’t committed any crimes? He obviously knew he was behind the first World Trade Center bombing and other terrorist activities but he chose not to pursue him.

And who can ever forget watching that long, wagging finger as he told us he never had sex with that woman—Monica Lewinski when he knew he was telling a lie?

Who can forget he lied to a grand jury about his sexual harassment of women during the Paula Jones hearing and got a fine and loss of law license over that lie?

His wife, the aspiring president, is just as bad if not worse. Remember the cattle futures in which she invested a mere $1,000 and got a huge return in a short time? Blame it on beginner’s luck.

How about the Rose law firm billing records that couldn’t be found during the Whitewater investigation, but suddenly showed up on a table in the residence of the White House with no explanation and with her finger prints on them?

Now we have this coming from the Washington Post, not exactly a right-wing publication.

When Americans step into the voting booths next November we all need to ask ourselves if this is what we want for another four to eight years if she is the Democratic nominee as expected.

Now is the time for a gut check for all of us. Let’s pray we have the guts to check it and reject it.

Update: If ~J~ will indulge me, I’d like to add a link to this piece by Cassy Fiano which expounds on the thoughts in this post with further quotes from the former President. Among my favorites…

……Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers.”

Resent away Mr. Clinton..I can think of no reason you would except your own regrets for what you did not accomplish while in office.

Sue

Usama bin Laden is reported to be releasing another of his speeches, perhaps in a few days.

The announcement of the upcoming message came as Al Qaeda released a new video in which bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts. Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan’s Darfur region.

The messages are part of a stepped-up propaganda campaign by Al Qaeda around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, bin Laden released two messages — including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.

A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.

“Soon, God willing: [Ed note: Allah---not the real God'] Come to Jihad (holy war)’, from sheik Usama bin Laden, God protect him” the banner read. [Ed: The Devil protects his own.]

“Urgent, Al Qaeda declares war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Usama bin Laden,” it read.

What a coward to hide out and declare all these things while not participating in them himself.

In the meantime, his chief sandal-licker Aymen Al-Zawahiri put out an 80 minute video that shows him in a room with books. Maybe they’ve made a studio in their cave, or maybe they’ve escaped the mountainous region of Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Al-Zawahiri began by condemning the Pakistani military’s July assault on Islamic militants who took over the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and he paid tribute to one of the militants’ leaders, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the fighting.

The siege “revealed the extent of the despicableness, lowliness and treason of Musharraf and his forces, who don’t deserve the honor of defending Pakistan, because Pakistan is a Muslim land, whereas the forces of Musharraf are hunting dogs under (U.S. President George W.) Bush’s crucifix,” al-Zawahiri said.

“Let the Pakistani army know that the killing of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his male and female students … has soaked the history of the Pakistan army in shame and despicableness which can only washed away by retaliation,” he said.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are thought to be hiding in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, where many analysts believe they have rebuilt Al Qaeda’s core leadership.

The tone of Thursday’s video was triumphalist, with al-Zawahiri calling for attacks on French and Spanish interests in North Africa and on U.N. and African peacekeepers expected to deploy in Sudan’s wartorn Darfur region.

The French and the Spanish? Gosh, I thought the French didn’t fight them and the Spaniards switched governments to get out of Iraq when one of their trains got blown up by Al Qaeda.

Folks, I truly believe this is a war between the forces of good versus the forces of evil.

Remember we didn’t do anything to them to provoke the 9/11 attacks either, no matter what people who want to appease them say.

They want the entire world to do one of two things: convert to Islam or die. Period. The only reason they are fighting is to convert the world to Islam, which they feel is their duty.

If we were to walk out of Iraq today we could count on them coming to get us again and again until they have achieved their goal. Convert or die.

Heck, we can’t even convince some people God is real and Christ died for their sins so they can have eternal life in heaven, but I’ll bet a lot of the appeasers would be more than happy to convert to Islam before dying.

We no longer have any Nathan Hales in our Congress to declare, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Some in Congress would lead the conversion effort if they thought it meant more power for them. Unfortunately, there would be no women in power and the rest of us would be in burkas if bin Laden were to get his way.