Clinton Campaign Aide Insults Northern Ireland Leader

Jamie Rubin, who is a aide to Clinton's campaign and a former assistant secretary of state under Bill Clinton's administration, does not appear to have any diplomatic skills at all:

Extraordinary tirade today from Jamie Rubin, State Department assistant secretary in Bill Clinton’s administration and now a Hillary Clinton advisor, who branded Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, formerly David Trimble, as a “crankpot” (presumably a cross between a crank and a crackpot) - and anti-woman to boot - for daring to call into question the former First Lady’s Northern Ireland role.

Rubin also came dangerously close to suggesting that it is only Irish Catholics who matter, saying he was “pretty much the only one” questioning Hillary’s Irish credentials. “He’s a Protestant, they traditionally go with the Conservatives.” Well, it’s not true that Trimble (now a Conservative member of the House of Lords) is the only one scratching his head about Hillary’s self-proclaimed Irish peace credentials. There have been many others, Protestant and Catholic. And I’m not sure that trashing a Nobel Prize winner or brushing aside what Protestants, the majority in Northern Ireland, think is really the way to go for the Clinton campaign on this issue.

You can watch the video here. The relevant part starts about 5 minutes and 30 seconds in. Andrea Mitchell is asking him why Hillary Clinton appears to be exaggerating her role, which the former First Lady recently described as “instrumental”. He pulls out a piece of paper and reads a quotation from the late Mo Mowlam, former Northern Ireland Secretary, about Hillary helping to bring about an economic boom.
Mitchell: “As you know, there are others, like David Trimble, who disagree.”
Rubin: “I’ve met David Trimble. And he’s pretty much the only one. He’s a Protestant, they traditionally go with the Conservatives. I think we have a John Hume, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, who said…”
Mitchell: “It was David Trimble who shared in that prize, Jamie.”
Rubin: “Right, and I know these people. I’ve been living over there. David Trimble is a crankpot and what he said about her was demeaning. He said, ‘Oh well, maybe she accompanied her husband on a couple of trips’. As a woman, Andrea, I would think you would recognise when somebody is trying to demean the activities of a woman. She was an important First Lady in foreign policy. I know. I was in that administration and we understood she was not serving tea and cookies, she played a significant role.”

We are always hearing the Oinkubus claim that she is going to have to repair US relations with our allies that Bush supposedly fouled up by invading Iraq. That is not true because most of the leaders of the European countries endorsed Bush's decision to topple Saddam Hussein, as Danish Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen reiterated recently.

It is one thing for a president or one of his or her aides to insult the likes of Hugo Chavez or Robert Mugabe. But the UK is a democracy and one of our closest allies. Is this what our allies will expect to hear if one of their leaders disagrees with something that Hillary says? Will they be insulted like this and make disparaging comments about their religion?

It is clear that Hillary had no influence on the peace process in Northern Ireland and her anti-Protestant stance has only served to aggravate the problems there.