More Political Cowardice From Hillary Clinton

I've long believed that Hillary Clinton's vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq was an act of political cowardice. Well, her political yellow streak is once again on display:

Hillary Clinton is calling for a holiday on the 18.4-cent gasoline tax, and she says she'd make up the funding from that (which funds transportation infrastructure) by taxing oil company's "windfall" profits.

Forget the fact that, as the above-linked article points out, Hillary actually "OPPOSED efforts to cut or repeal gas taxes during her 2000 Senate contest against Rick Lazio." Senator Clinton doesn't care about stuff like that. Forget the fact that this gas tax holiday will only save the average American family about $28 over the course of the summer driving season. That pesky fact doesn't matter to her.

What matters is that this gas tax issue is something she can use against Obama. She's even running an anti-Obama ad which criticizes Obama for not supporting this proposal. Thankfully, many pundits are calling bullshit on this whole scheme:

[A]mong pundits, her proposal (and McCain's similar plan) is getting laughed out of the room. The normally sympathetic Paul Krugman calls Clinton's plan "pointless" and McCain's "evil," while his colleague Thomas Friedman denounces the plan as "money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks." Still, it's the kind of pander that could work, no matter how transparent or absurd. If voters associate Clinton with cheap gas, mission accomplished.

I think that what is driving Hillary to do this is the same thing that drove her to vote for Bush's Iraq Debacle, namely, it was the politically expedient thing to do. But I think it is the cowardly thing to do.

Thanks, Senator Clinton, for once again living up to all my expectations.