By Restless

I’ve been visiting Arianna Huffington’s blog, The Huffington Post, for most of the year now. The site is such a repository of great writing from columnists, celebrities and everyday people and I’ve used parts of and linked to the site several times in my postings here.

Arianna has her own column on her site and I’ve heard her a few times on tv, but yesterday, 2 interviews with her appeared, the Playboy interview and a piece in the New York Press.

Below are some excerpts from these interviews.

On Democrats: They are fools and enablers. Their spineless leaders went along with the war [in Iraq] purely for political reasons: reelect ability. They let their decision making be driven by fear.

Plus, the Democratic consultants, who continue to run things in Washington while they lose election after election, still think: It’s the economy, stupid. That’s completely untrue. That’s 1990s thinking.

I’ve said again and again since September 11 you cannot be a majority party without addressing the fundamental issue of whether you can keep us safe.

On the real reasons for invading Iraq: It was part of a long-term strategy born in Republican think tanks to take on Saddam and establish a permanent military presence in Iraq. Otherwise why, despite recent talk of troop reductions, are we building more than a dozen permanent military bases there? This should be a major issue in Congress, and it is not. We’re there to stay.

On Bush: I think George Bush is a dry drunk. He deserves to be impeached. He has committed many impeachable offenses. If the past is any indication, he will keep doing harm, no question about it.

On Hillary: She should not be the Democratic nominee. Period. The end. She does not deserve it. She has failed to speak out when it matters. She has failed to show leadership on Iraq, and she has kowtowed to an obsolete view of how you win elections, which is that you triangulate, you split the difference. She supported an anti-flag-burning bill. What was that about? She’s had photo ops with Bill Frist and Newt Gingrich. Why? To convince people she is not a liberal? That’s not leadership.

You can almost see every word that comes out of her mouth first being marched through the different compartments of her brain—analyzed, evaluated and vetted by each of them. What will the consultants think of this? How will it poll? Will working women between 25-35 in eastern Ohio think it’s OK? Her fear has caused a complete disconnect from who she really is and what she really thinks (that is, if she even knows anymore).

On McCain: Unfortunately, McCain has now betrayed McCain. He’s made a Faustian bargain by embracing George Bush and the religious right. At least when Faust made it, he got his part of the deal.

On Rumsfeld: As for the fact that he hasn’t been fired, that’s just Exhibit A of the fanaticism that pervades this administration—where no new facts or new evidence is allowed to revise preconceived notions no matter how high the body count and how outrageous the revelations of incompetence.

The full text in NY Press is here; the Playboy interview here.