[Mb-civic] Article from The Nation

[Michael]

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http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=65143
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03/02/2006 @ 01:20am

Guess Who Was Advising the Emirates?
by The Nation

   Guess who just bobbed to the surface smack dab in the middle of the
   Dubai ports deal? Why, none other than Slick Willie. That’s right, we
   now learn that Big Bill Clinton was on the phone a couple of weeks
   ago offering the monarchs of Dubai some free advice on how to slip
   their ports management deal by a rather skeptical, if not
   dumbfounded, American public.

   Clinton was offering his sage counsel in private at the time that his
   wife, in public, was denouncing the deal. American politics hasn’t
   seen such a cynical duo since the advent of the Carville-Matalin
   spectacle.

   The former president’s paid flacks are now trying give this all an
   innocuous spin: “President Clinton is the former president of the US
   and as such receives many calls from world leaders and leading
   figures every week,” said his official spokesman. And, we’re further
   told, Clinton was a good Boy Scout and earnestly advised the Emirs to
   submit to any and all reviews that might be asked of them. (There’s
   no report he was biting his lip or crossing his fingers behind his
   back as he chatted up our royal buddies).

   What Clinton didn’t say, obviously, is that the whole thing stinks
   and that the Emirates should simply withdraw the deal.

   How will any of this play out politically? Guess it depends on what
   your definition of a schmo is.