NEWS AND OPINION:
The Republican National Committee is fretting about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s absence from the public arena at the moment. “We’ve noticed it. You’ve noticed it: Hillary Clinton is hiding,” the committee notes in a public memo. “Potential Republican presidential candidates are out in public, speaking to voters, and sharing their ideas. But Hillary Clinton is nowhere to be found.” Their point has resonated. Others parse the who, what, when and where of it all. “Come out, come out wherever you are,” writes the Weekly Standard’s Daniel Halper. “Where in the world is Hillary Clinton? Over the past several weeks, she has been behaving like a reclusive third-world dictator,” declares Washington Free Beacon editor Andrew Stiles.
Journalist and author Sharyl Attkisson wonders why Mrs. Clinton — who once erroneously claimed she was shot at in a Bosnian war zone — isn’t scrutinized as closely as NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who falsely claimed he encountered enemy fire in the skies over Iraq. It’s ironic, Ms. Attkisson told NewsMax TV, that he could lose his career, “yet we didn’t care enough to have it matter with someone who became our Secretary of State.” The point was also brought home by Washington Times columnist Joseph Curl.
The GOP, meanwhile, points out that it has been 202 days since Mrs. Clinton held a press conference, and 184 days since offering a major interview. She has been spotted around Manhattan, enjoying a Broadway show, and appearing at a fundraiser also attended by Mitt and Ann Romney, speaking of irony. Mrs. Clinton had two public speaking engagements in Canada in late January, notable for a moment when she imitated Russia President Vladimir Putin. She is now said to be hard at work on a “modern, aggressive campaign,” according to the Washington Post.
The GOP is not buying any of it.
“Why would a would-be presidential candidate behave this way? Because she’s made a strategic decision that the only way to ensure she is the Democratic nominee is to make everyone think she’s inevitable. The last time she had to face voters and actually compete for the nomination, she lost to a newcomer. She doesn’t want to make the same mistake twice,” the organization continues. “As her poll numbers show, when Hillary is campaigning, she’s much less popular. What’s the only way not to seem like she’s campaigning? Go into hiding.”
FOR THE LEXICON
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“Infotainment confusion syndrome.”
— A condition developed by NBC anchor Brian Williams, according to Comedy Central’s fake newsman Jon Stewart, who told a recent audience, “It occurs when the celebrity cortex gets its wires crossed with the medulla anchor-dala.” Mr. Stewart noted that “celeb-rellum” is then activated, adding, “That’s known as the brain’s applause center. Once that engages, there’s no going back.”
And what timing. Late Tuesday, NBC announced that Mr. Williams had been suspended from his newscast for six months minus pay, for his aforementioned fib - in the same hour that Mr. Stewart went public with news he would leave his own show later this year. And as the sages say, hmmm.
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’
Fire up Air Force One, it’s California fundraising time. In 48 hours, President Obama will travel to Palo Alto to address the Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University. Well that’s nice. Then it’s on to San Francisco proper for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser — specifically an “intimate dinner” with 60 other fans in the private home of an investment guru, priced at $10,000 a person for dinner and a photo with Mr. Obama, and $32,400 for dinner, a photo and a “co-chair” title.
And just to review, the president attended 71 fundraising events in 2014, this according to an excruciating count by the Sunlight Foundation. But we also must mention that the group also says that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie went to 109 fundraisers last year in his role as chairman of the Republican Governors Assoc.
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Meanwhile, there is some more traveling to come, though. On Valentine’s day, “the President will depart San Francisco and travel to Palm Springs, California where he will remain overnight. Further details about the President’s travel to California will be made available in the coming days,” the White House advised earlier this week.
MCCAUL GETS BUSY
The mission does not end. A House Committee on Homeland Security hearing titled “Countering violent Islamist extremism: The urgent threat of foreign fighters and homegrown terror” has drawn some very helpful witnesses, including Nicholas Rasmussen, director of he National Counterterrorism Center; Francis X. Taylor, undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security and Michael B. Steinbach, the FBI’s assistant director for counterterrorism.
“Islamist terror groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are surging, and every day we witness their brutality and senseless violence. The threat they pose to the homeland has reached its highest level since 9/11,” says Rep. Michael McCaul, Texas Republican and committee chairman. “I want to make sure we are doing everything possible to keep that terror from reaching our shores.”
And on the death of Kayla Mueller, an American aid worker who was held hostage by the Islamic State group, Mr. McCaul says, “While Kayla selflessly devoted herself to the cause of helping those in need, violent Islamist extremists like ISIS have devoted themselves to death and destruction. Her death will only strengthen our resolve to destroy these depraved barbarians.”
The hearing is at 10 a.m. ET, and will be carried live by C-SPAN.
ONE FOR A HISTORIC FEBRUARY
Allen West, Ben Carson and Kenneth Blackwell are among the sizable host committee for a Republican gathering of significance on Wednesday. The Republican National Committee hosts the 3rd Annual Black Republican Trailblazer Awards in the nation’s capital, meant to celebrate Black History Month and honor those with “historic victories,” says committee chairman Reince Priebus.
Awards and kudos will go to Sen. Tim Scott, Reps. Will Hurd and Mia Love, plus the late Ed Brooke — who is honored posthumously. The event is at the splendidly restored Howard Theater; onstage with Mr. Priebus and co-chairman Sharon Day: New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, TVOne host and editor Roland Martin, and CNN political analyst Tara Setmayer Love.
VOTE OR ELSE
“More than 100 Hamilton County poll workers got fired for failing to do the one thing that matters most on Election Day. They didn’t vote. The board of elections said goodbye to the 104 workers after learning they had not voted in either the 2013 or 2014 elections, despite spending most of those Election Days in a polling place, surrounded by voters and ballots,” reports the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“I’m frankly kind of shocked by the number of people on that list,” said Tim Burke, chairman of the board and leader of Hamilton County’s Democratic Party. “We want everyone to vote. If we have poll workers who don’t vote, we’re not encouraging that.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 74 percent of Americans say the federal government does not have the right rules and regulations in place to prevent another recession from occurring.
• 55 percent say the U.S. government did a “good” job helping the nation recover from the recession that began in 2007.
• 55 percent say “big business” has recovered from that recession; 52 percent say the stock market has recovered.
• 35 percent say their own family has recovered from the recession; 30 percent say their local real estate market has recovered.
• 27 percent say the same of local job markets have recovered, 18 percent say the same for small businesses.
Source: An AP/GFK poll of 1,045 U.S. adults conducted Jan. 29 — Feb. 2.
• Indignant squawks, murmurs of disapproval to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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