Just as she was accused of "driving without a license" diplomatically many years ago when she allowed Suha Arafat to speak at a women's conference in the middle east where she accused Israel of actively engaging in Palestinian infanticide, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is once again showing she should be home watching over Bill rather than trying to make her mark as U.S. Secretary of State.

On her first trip abroad, she "gets in bed" with the Palestinians much to the chagrin of Israel by supporting the Hamas-led infitada, and then makes a gaffe at the European parliament by stating that American democracy has a longer history than European democracy. I guess the Greeks don't count.

The article doesn't mention her gaffe with the Russian Foreign Minister when she gave him a gift of a red "reset" button with a Russian printed on it which means "overcharge" or "overload."

I'm tending to believe these days that Pres. Barack Obama brought on Hillary Clinton not because of her White House and Democratic party ties, but rather to keep his sworn enemies closer.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's.

Clinton has set herself a grueling pace on visits to Egypt, Israel and Brussels soon after touring the Far East, attending dozens of meetings and giving speech after speech, with little time worked into her schedule for sleep.

Tiredness appeared to show Friday when she answered questions in front of 500 young Europeans at the European Parliament, where she was the highest-ranking U.S. visitor since the late President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

A veteran politician, Clinton compared the complex European political environment to that of the two-party U.S. system, before adding:

"I have never understood multiparty democracy.

"It is hard enough with two parties to come to any resolution, and I say this very respectfully, because I feel the same way about our own democracy, which has been around a lot longer than European democracy."

The remark provoked much headshaking in the parliament of a bloc that likes to trace back its democratic tradition thousands of years to the days of classical Greece.

One working lunch later with EU leaders, Clinton raised more eyebrows when she referred to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who stood beside her, as "High Representative Solano."

She also dubbed European Commission External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner as "Benito."

Still, Clinton has been well received in Brussels, where the Obama administration has been viewed as a breath of fresh air after the unpopular leadership of George W. Bush. His secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, often drew protests on her travels.

Fellow foreign ministers stood and applauded Clinton's presentation at a meeting with NATO counterparts Thursday and extra space had to be set aside for a spillover audience of 800 at the European Parliament.

Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering was effusive in his praise, saying that with the new administration, the United States and Europe once again "share the same values."

"What you said mostly could have been said by a European," he told Clinton after she fielded questions ranging from climate change to energy security and aid to Africa and one on gay rights from a participant wearing an "I love Hillary" t-shirt.