THE THREE WORST MOST MENTIONED PICKS FOR DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENT

!. Hillary Clinton

2.Wesley Clark

3. Chuck Hagel

Hillary Clinton is a congenital liar who almost got criminally indicted, about whom you may have read in these pages.

Chuck Hagel is an extreme conservative Republican who: was rated 0% by NARAL. . . rated 11% by NAACP. . . rated 0% by Human Rights Coalition. . . rated 100% by Christian Coalition. . . rated 12% by American Public Health Association. . . rated 22% by Alliance for Retired Americans. . . rated 36% by the National Education Association. . . rated 0% by League of Conservation Voters. . . rated 8% by AFL-CIO. . . He is strongly anti-abortion. . .voted for anti-flag desecration amendment. . .voted to increase penalties for drug violations. . . favors privatizing Social Security

Wesley Clark is a bit more complex a problem, so we offer a few past gleanings from our Wesley Clark archives:

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD, PROGRESSIVE As Supreme Commander of NATO during the Kosovo war, Clark was ultimately responsible for targeting the bridges and electrical grids of Yugoslavia and for using cluster bombs and depleted uranium. (I asked him at a press conference in Madison, Wisconsin, this fall about depleted uranium. He said: "There is no indication it causes any trouble," except perhaps if you put something in your mouth that is covered with it. . .

During the war, Clark also fobbed off the problems facing the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Kosovo whom the Serbs predictably forced out after NATO started the bombing. Refusing to drop relief supplies to the refugees, Clark said, "Our view on this is that, frankly, this is a problem that's caused by President Milosevic. He needs to address this problem."

Second, there is Clark's support for the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, which has trained some of the most notorious human rights abusers in the hemisphere. On the campaign trail, as Joanna Weiss of the Boston Globe noted on January 17, Clark "vigorously defends" the School of the Americas, which now goes by the name of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Weiss also found a quote from Clark's 1997 testimony before the Senate Armed Services on the School of the Americas: "This school is the best means available to ensure that the armed forces in Latin America and the armies in Latin America understand U.S. values and adopt those values as their own."

WESLEY CLARK, CNN, FEBRUARY 2003 - The credibility of the United States is on the line, and Saddam Hussein has these weapons and so, you know, we're going to go ahead and do this and the rest of the world's got to get with us. . . The U.N. has got to come in and belly up to the bar on this. But the president of the United States has put his credibility on the line, too. And so this is the time that these nations around the world, and the United Nations, are going to have to look at this evidence and decide who they line up with.

JIM RIDGEWAY, VILLAGE VOICE - Clark's role as a lobbyist for a company seeking a War on Terror contract with the Department of Homeland Security continues to raise questions. Records show that Acxiom, a company that was seeking homeland security contracts, agreed to pay Clark hundreds of thousands of dollars for his help in persuading the government to buy the company's wares. Clark was a registered lobbyist while he served as a military analyst on CNN, and was still a lobbyist when he declared his candidacy on September 17, 2003. . . The Washington Post reported in January 2002 that Clark attended a meeting at the Department of Transportation, at which he described "a system that would combine personal data from Acxiom with information about the reservations and seating records of every U.S. airline passenger" to detect "subtle signs of terrorist intentions."

GREG PIERCE, WASHINGTON TIMES - White House hopeful Wesley Clark yesterday broke with most of his Democratic rivals, saying he favors amending the Constitution to ban flag burning, the Associated Press reports. In June, the Republican-controlled House approved a one-line change to the Constitution - "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." - for the fifth time in eight years. The Senate never has passed the proposed amendment.

WASHINGTON POST - [Wesley Clark] became the first allied commander to run and win a war -- and still lose his command. Cohen, the secretary of defense, selected Clark for the post over the objections of the Army, yet the two became locked in a conflict over the direction of the war. It was planned as a strategic air campaign against the Serbs, but Clark pushed a more aggressive strategy - a ground invasion and the use of low-flying Apache helicopters. Cohen adamantly resisted.

The tension, sources familiar with it said, was not over their differences on strategy, but over Clark's single-minded pursuit of his strategy. "It got to be an almost daily comic scenario," a former Pentagon official said. "We'd all make a decision. . . . And within eight hours, eight different versions of the story would come from eight different people. It was clear he was working the Hill, the White House. . . . We'd have to spend the whole day dealing with his back-channeling."

At one point, when Clark appeared to be trying to advance his agenda through the news media, then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry H. "Hugh" Shelton delivered Clark a message from Cohen: "Get your [expletive] face off the TV."

Even though Clark held the 19-nation coalition together through 78 days of bombing, some Pentagon officials and subordinates came to view him as a headstrong leader, unable to work collegially. In July 1999, a month after the campaign had driven the Serbs from Kosovo, Cohen relieved Clark of his duties several months early, a public humiliation for a man whose service was his life.

KELLY PATRICIA O'MEARA, INSIGHT MAGAZINE - Although Clark never publicly has discussed his role in the attack on the Branch Davidians and did not respond to Insight's requests for an interview to discuss his role at Waco, there are indisputable facts that confirm he had knowledge of the grim plans to bring the standoff to an end. Between August 1992 and April 1994, Clark was commander of the 1st Cavalry Division of the Army's III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas. According to a report by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the list of military personnel and equipment used at Waco included: 15 active-duty military personnel, 13 Texas National Guard personnel, nine Bradley fighting vehicles, five combat-engineer vehicles, one tank-retrieval vehicle and two M1A1 Abrams tanks. Additionally, Fort Hood reportedly was used for much of the training for the bloody attack on the Davidians and their children.

Based on the fact that military equipment from Fort Hood was used in the siege and that training was provided there, say critics, it is clear the commanding officer of the 1st Cavalry had direct knowledge of the attack and, more likely than not, was involved in the tactical planning. . .

Michael McNulty, an investigative journalist and Oscar nominee for his documentary, Waco: The Rules of Engagement, tells Insight that, "From the standpoint of what went on that operation had military fingerprints all over it. The chain of command being what it is, Clark had some responsibility, but to what degree we really don't know."

THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB, SUN TIMES - The NATO commander's headquarters rapidly became an echo of the "five o'clock follies" of press misinformation at Army headquarters in Saigon two decades earlier.

Here are a few examples: There were supposed to be 100,000 prisoners detained by the Serbs in a soccer stadium in Pristina. An Agence France Presse reporter dropped by the stadium a few days later and admired its green grass and empty seats with the single caretaker on the site.

NATO headquarters passed along Albanian allegations that Serbian victims were being incinerated at a Trpca mine smelter. But when interviewed by reporter Ben Works, NATO officers admitted they had monitored the site during the entire war and the smelter had never been fired up.

Even the NATO bomb-damage assessment team Clark sent in after the truce found that instead of the several hundred Serbian tanks Clark had claimed were destroyed by his air war, there were only 12 and about as many personnel carriers. As for atrocities, according to Works, Clark's team found "no credible indications of large scale atrocities or any other pattern of smaller scale crimes against humanity."

If Clark was singularly unsuccessful in his high-altitude air war on the Serb forces, which he had predicted would bring victory in a few days, it caused a lot of civilian casualties. Besides blowing up the Chinese Embassy, some civilian convoys, a lot of radio and TV facilities, and an amazing number of chicken coops, one incident stands out. A train loaded with civilians was crossing a bridge near Grdelica when it was attacked by NATO F-15s. A dozen were killed and many wounded. In briefing the press Clark termed it "unfortunate." Clark ran gun camera photo footage. "You can see if you are focusing on your job as a pilot how suddenly that train appeared." NATO was claiming their target was the bridge and the train was moving so fast they couldn't reinstruct the missile in time to avoid the train. . .

Mistakes happen. Subordinates send up bad or intentionally skewed information. The fog of war makes any headquarters press communications difficult at best. But if Shelton and Defense Secretary Bill Cohen were receiving reports as misleading as the ones furnished to the press by Clark's headquarters it couldn't have made their task any easier.

NANCY BENAC, ASSOCIATED PRESS - Several other retired officers, while crediting Clark for tremendous intellect and determination, also raise questions about trustworthiness and whether his personal ambition and drive to succeed caused him to overstep his bounds and go outside the established chain of command.

Ret. Army Brig. Gen. David Grange, the U.S. commander in Bosnia at that time, says Clark was so focused on succeeding that "he would maybe not be cognizant of some of the feelings or concerns of some of the people around him. "There's no question that General Clark is for General Clark," said Grange, who added nonetheless that Clark had always treated him well personally.

POLITICS US - In the new issue of Newsweek, former General Wesley Clark is quoted telling Colorado's GOP Governor Bill Owen and GOP activist Marc Holtzman that "I would have been a Republican if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls." But according to White House phone logs, there is no record of Clark ever having called Rove.

JOAN GARVIN, LOS ALTOS TOWN CRIER, CA - Retired General H. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9/11, shared his recollection of that day and his views of the war against terrorism with the Foothill College Celebrity Forum audience at Flint Center, Sept. 11 and 12. His review of that historic event and his 38 years in the military kept the audience's rapt attention throughout. But it was his answer to a question from the audience at the end that shocked his listeners.

"What do you think of General Wesley Clark and would you support him as a presidential candidate," was the question put to him by moderator Dick Henning, assuming that all military men stood in support of each other. General Shelton took a drink of water and Henning said, "I noticed you took a drink on that one!"

"That question makes me wish it were vodka," said Shelton. "I've known Wes for a long time. I will tell you the reason he came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and character issues, things that are very near and dear to my heart. I'm not going to say whether I'm a Republican or a Democrat. I'll just say Wes won't get my vote."

ROBERT NOVAK - The important Democrats eager to run retired Gen. Wesley Clark for president might exercise due diligence about a military career that was nearly terminated before he got his fourth star and then came to a premature end. The trouble with the general is pointed out by a bizarre incident in Bosnia nearly a decade ago.

Clark was a three-star (lieutenant general) who directed strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington. On Aug. 26, 1994, in the northern Bosnian city of Banja Luka, he met and exchanged gifts with the notorious Bosnian Serb commander and indicted war criminal, Gen. Ratko Mladic. The meeting took place against the State Department's wishes and may have contributed to Clark's failure to be promoted until political pressure intervened. The shocking photo of Mladic and Clark wearing each other's military caps was distributed throughout Europe. . .

U.S. diplomats warned Clark not to go to Bosnian Serb military headquarters to meet Mladic, considered by U.S. intelligence as the mastermind of the Srebrenica massacre of Muslim civilians (and still at large, sought by NATO peacekeeping forces). Besides the exchange of hats, they drank wine together, and Mladic gave Clark a bottle of brandy and a pistol.

This was what U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's team seeking peace in Yugoslavia tried to avoid by instituting the "Clark Rule": whenever the general is found talking alone to a Serb, Croat or Muslim, make sure an American civilian official rushes to his side. It produced some comic opera dashes by diplomats.

MITCHEL COHEN, GLOBAL RESEARCH - Gen. Wesley Clark was in charge of refugee camps in the 1980s and 1990s where Haitian refugees who were fleeing first Baby Doc Duvalier (and later the new regime installed by the US following the overthrow of the elected Aristide government in the early 1990s), were packed, under appalling conditions. . . In the 1980s, many Haitian male refugees incarcerated at Krome (in Miami), and Fort Allen (in Puerto Rico) reported a strange condition called gyneacomastia, a situation in which they developed full female breasts.

Ira Kurzban, attorney for the Haitian Refugee Center, managed to pry free government documents via a lawsuit on behalf of the refugees. These contained the startling information that prison officials had ordered the refugees sprayed repeatedly with highly toxic chemicals never designed for such generic use. The officer in charge of the refugee camp? None other than Gen. Wesley Clark, chief of operations at the US Navy internment camp at Guantanamo, and later head of NATO forces bombing Yugoslavia. The documents go on to say that lengthy exposure to the particular chemicals can cause hormonal changes that induce development of female breasts.

GUARDIAN, AUG 3, 1999 - If Nato's supreme commander, the American General Wesley Clark, had had his way, British paratroopers would have stormed Pristina [Kosovo's capital] airport threatening to unleash the most frightening crisis with Moscow since the end of the cold war. "I'm not going to start the third world war for you," General Sir Mike Jackson, commander of the international K-For peacekeeping force, is reported to have told Gen Clark when he refused to accept an order to send assault troops to prevent Russian troops from taking over the airfield of Kosovo's provincial capital.

NY POST PAGE SIX - The last thing the Clintons want is for a Democrat from Arkansas to defeat Bush next year," says our spy about the ex-general who is expected to announce his candidacy next month. . . Our source adds, "The Clinton master plan is for a Hillary candidacy in 2008 and they will subtly sabotage the Democratic candidate in 2004.That's why they insist on keeping their personal operative, Terry McAuliffe, in charge of the Democratic committee."

VERNON LOEB, WASHINGTON POST - "The guy is brilliant," said the general, who agreed to speak candidly about Clark only if his name were not used. "He's very articulate, he's extremely charming, he has the best strategic sense of anybody I have ever met. But the simple fact is, a lot of people just don't trust his ability" as a commander. While his strategic analysis is "almost infallible," his command solutions tended to be problematic, even "goofy," the general said, "and he pushed them even when they weren't going to work." The general said Clark "needs to win, right down to the core of his fiber," which tends to make him "highly manipulative."

"There are an awful lot of people," added another retired four-star, who also requested anonymity, "who believe Wes will tell anybody what they want to hear and tell somebody the exact opposite five minutes later. The people who have worked closely with him are the least complimentary, because he can be very abrasive, very domineering. And part of what you saw when he was relieved of command was all of the broken glass and broken china within the European alliance and the [U.S.] European Command."

ROBERT NOVAK, 1999: Members of Congress who, during their spring recess, met in Brussels with Gen. Wesley Clark, the NATO supreme commander, were startled by his bellicosity. According to the lawmakers, Clark suggested the best way to handle Russia's supply of oil to Yugoslavia would be aerial bombardment of the pipeline that runs through Hungary. He also proposed bombing Russian warships that enter the battle zone. The American general was described by the members of the congressional delegation as waging a personal vendetta against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "I think the general might need a little sleep," commented one House member.

COUNTERPUNCH, 2000: With the end of hostilities it has become clear even to Clark that most people, apart from some fanatical members of the war party in the White House and State Department, consider the general, as one Pentagon official puts it, "a horse's ass." Defense Secretary William Cohen is known to loathe him, and has seen to it that the Hammer of the Serbs will be relieved of the NATO command two months early.

COUNTERPUNCH - "The poster child for everything that is wrong with the GO (general officer) corps," exclaims one colonel, who has had occasion to observe Clark in action, citing, among other examples, his command of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood from 1992 to 1994. While Clark's official Pentagon biography proclaims his triumph in "transitioning the Division into a rapidly deployable force" this officer describes the "1st Horse Division" as "easily the worst division I have ever seen in 25 years of doing this stuff."

Such strong reactions are common. A major in the 3rd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado when Clark was in command there in the early 1980s described him as a man who "regards each and every one of his subordinates as a potential threat to his career".

While he regards his junior officers with watchful suspicion, he customarily accords the lower ranks little more than arrogant contempt. A veteran of Clark's tenure at Fort Hood recalls the general's "massive tantrum because the privates and sergeants and wives in the crowded (canteen) checkout lines didn't jump out of the way fast enough to let him through". . .

Observers agree that Clark has always displayed an obsessive concern with the perquisites and appurtenances of rank. Ever since he acceded to the Nato command post, the entourage with which he travels has accordingly grown to gargantuan proportions to the point where even civilians are beginning to comment. A Senate aide recalls his appearances to testify, prior to which aides scurry about the room adjusting lights, polishing his chair, testing the microphone etc prior to the precisely timed and choreographed moment when the Supreme Allied Commander Europe makes his entrance.

"We are state of the art pomposity and arrogance up here," remarks the aide. "So when a witness displays those traits so egregiously that even the senators notice, you know we're in trouble." His NATO subordinates call him, not with affection, "the Supreme Being".