Excuse me? Hillary Clinton pretends to float above excessive partisanship

April 3, 2014: Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks as she delivers the keynote address at the launch of the U.S. Global Development Lab, an initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in New York. (AP)

Let’s assume that Hillary Clinton was serious the other day when she said that excessive partisanship was taking America “backwards.” That means she’s on the phone right now reading the riot act to fellow Democrats Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.

Yeah, right.

[pullquote]

Clinton’s pose of rising above the political scrum made for a good headline just as her party is plumbing new depths of mud and smears. Reid and Schumer are tarring David and Charles Koch in ways that smack of McCarthyism, though Tail Gunner Joe at least found a few real Communists.

Reid, a nasty little man who demeans the office of Senate majority leader, called the Koch brothers “un-American” because they dare to spend their own money advancing causes he doesn’t like. Reid, of course, spends public money advancing causes the public doesn’t like.

Schumer, hoping to succeed Reid, obviously thinks the way to success is to ape his mentor’s worst instincts. In the process, he proves the adage that sometimes, party asks too much, though it’s hard to know where party ends and personal ambition begins.

To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post, click here.