Eye On The Left: Friends of Bill, American Indians and Republicans

Mascot no friend of Bill

When Bill Clinton was president, his best acquaintances were known as Friends of Bill, but apparently sports mascots weren't on the list. A former New York Mets mascot has written in a new book, "Yes, It's Hot in Here," that a Secret Service agent threatened to shoot and kill him in 1997 at Shea Stadium if he got too close to Clinton. In the book, A.J. Mass relates that the agent began watching him after his Mr. Met's giant head wouldn't go through the on-field metal detector. Eventually, the agent approached him, stared into his mouth (where he could see out) and made his threat: "We have snipers all around the stadium, just in case something were to happen," he said, according to the Huffington Post. "Like I said, do whatever it is you normally do. ... But approach the president, and we go for the kill shot. Are we clear?" He paused a moment for effect, then repeated: "Approach the president, and we go for the kill shot. Are ... we ... clear?" It wasn't clear, though, what the instructions would have been had the mascot been Ms. Met.

Warren extends lies

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., exposed by Breitbart News during her 2012 campaign for the Senate to have lied about her American Indian background, incredibly has repeated her claims in a soon-to-be-released book, "A Fighting Chance." Warren claims to have Cherokee heritage but confessed she "never questioned my family's stories or asked my parents for proof or documentation." During the campaign, she finally offered two pieces of evidence, but both were debunked. One piece, which consisted of two "family" recipes she contributed to the Pow Wow Chow Cookbook, turned out to be copied from a 1979 New York Times News Service article. The other, a purported 1894 marriage license application, was demonstrated not to exist. Sloughing off the exposure in her book, she wrote, "Knowing who you are is one thing, and proving who you are is another." Although Warren wrote that "I never asked for special treatment when I applied to college, to law school, or for jobs," the 2012 Breitbart investigation revealed Warren "[f]or 25 years since 1986, and without a shred of credible evidence ... claimed to have Native American ancestry," making the claim to the University of Texas Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Harvard Law School. None apparently asked for proof, nor did she offer it. And this is the woman many on the far left want on the 2016 Democratic ticket more than Hillary Clinton.

Dems campaign carefully

Since 2014 is not looking like a good year for Democrat candidates, incumbents have to tread carefully, especially where they're not popular or where their words are watched carefully. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., recently attempted to display his bipartisanship before a largely Republican crowd in an event sponsored by the Wakefield Rotary Club, according to the Virginian-Pilot, and despite a few hecklers, got along well but did ignore a question about why he voted for President Obama's agenda 97 percent of the time and sidestepped a reporter's question about whether or not he would campaign with the president. Meanwhile, according to Politico, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., recently admitted he was supporting Democrat Natalie Tennant in her bid to replace the retiring Sen. Jay Rockefeller as the state's other senator. But he questioned whether it is "morally right" to "beat up" popular Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito in that race and said the state has "two good candidates."

Run, Kathleen, run

Republicans are salivating over a recent New York Times report that Kansas Democrats are trying to get former two-term Kansas governor and recent Obamacare roll-out scapegoat Kathleen Sibelius to run against incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts this fall, according to the National Journal. Popular, moderate and pragmatic as governor, her stock plummeted when, under her watch as Health and Human Services secretary, the Affordable Care Act wobbled out of the gate and remains immensely unpopular across the country. She has a 55 percent unfavorable and 38 percent favorable rating, according to Stuart Rothenberg of Roll Call, and a Public Policy Polling survey has Roberts or his tea party challenger, Milton Wolf, easily beating her in the very red Sunflower State. Sebelius has until June 2 to decide whether to enter the race, but her friends say they doubt she'll be a candidate.

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