Thursday, May 03, 2007

Pardon me Hillary, but are your pants on fire?

Could this be yet another "Sir Edmund" moment?

The woman who wants your vote for President of the United States appears to be perpetrating yet another whopper:


In her speech, Clinton talked about her childhood in Park Ridge, using it to focus on issues such as immigration reform -- a concern paramount to the huge Hispanic community in California.


She recalled Park Ridge was surrounded by farms that relied on migrant labor and that she used to baby-sit the workers' children, an experience that awakened her to the complexities of the immigrant experience.


Mrs. Bill Clinton's biography concurs:

As a youth, Clinton was influenced by her religious education, especially from the Reverend Don Jones, who introduced Rodham to some of the issues, causes, and movements of the time. It was under Jones's guidance that she read religious philosophers and helped the needy by babysitting the children of migrant farm workers.

One problem with that: Mrs. Bill Clinton grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois. Park Ridge, Illinois is not only a suburb of Chicago--Park Ridge borders the Chicago city limits!


While Mrs. Bill Clinton may have had the opportunity to babysit the children of area migrant workers (my uncle, who lived in the area during the time, informs me that migrant workers picked tomatoes for Heinz, northwest of Park Ridge), in light of "Sir Edmund's" past proclamations that she's "...always been a Yankee fan," along with more recent attempts to strive to be all things to all people, color me skeptical.


Okay, let's just entertain for a moment the possibility that Hillary's story, in this instance, is true.


"Sir Edmund" was said to be active at the First United Methodist Church in Park Ridge.


Kinda begs the question: Why would migrant workers from Mexico, a nation that is 95 percent Roman Catholic, be hanging out at a Methodist church? (for you Methodists out there--no offense intended--just an observation).


My money's on the notion that unless "Sir Edmund" babysat migrants' kids while they worked at the nearby Park Ridge Country Club, Hillary's tale, like so many others, is just so much Barbra Streisand.


One wonders how long it will take before Mrs. Bill Clinton will finally admit to this whopper.


Taking pages from her husband's playbook, she has and continues to display an arguably pathological need to portray herself much like a maudlin heroine in a Hallmark Channel chick flick; and anything other than what she truly is.


While many people may have been caught in the act of spinning a tall tale now and then, Mrs. Bill Clinton's incessant patterns make it clear that she has taken this practice to pathological extremes.


Even if this story were true (and I'll lay odds that it isn't), her long history of spinning tall tales must necessarily lead one to take pause before believing anything that leaves her cake hole.


Question: If "Sir Edmund" Hillary holds no compunction regarding telling bald-faced lies on so many seemingly trivial issues, what would make anyone think her word could be trusted regarding the big issues?