Posted on 03/02/2005 7:56:04 AM PST by areafiftyone
Last fall, Democratic insiders were whispering that Roger Altman would be John Kerry’s Treasury Secretary.
Of course, Mr. Altman’s prospects were dampened somewhat when Mr. Kerry failed to live up to his end of the bargain in November. But gossip springs eternal, and now those in the know (or who think of themselves as such) have reason to speculate about Mr. Altman’s ambitions again.
The onetime Clinton administration official—he was Bill Clinton’s deputy Treasury Secretary—is being mentioned again as a possible Treasury Secretary in the next Clinton administration. That would be the one headed by presumed 2008 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. A few weeks before Mr. Kerry’s defeat, Mr. Altman made the maximum $4,000 contribution to the New York Senator’s 2006 re-election campaign.
It’s hardly a secret that Presidential campaigns begin a lot earlier than they used to—can we talk about 2012 yet?—and that’s especially the case when a famous woman who represents New York is considered a likely candidate. Never mind that George W. Bush’s second term is but a few months old. Speculation about 2008 already has begun everywhere from the salons of the Upper East Side to the trenches of blogs like DailyKos.
Mrs. Clinton, who began raising money in earnest for her re-election only after Mr. Kerry’s defeat in November, is drawing support from a decidedly national combination of celebrities, ordinary citizens and favor seekers. Most of her closest supporters have already contributed the legal maximum to her campaign, so the latest campaign-finance report—which shows that she raised just over $1 million in the final months of 2004—offers the first glimpse of what her status as the country’s pre-eminent Democrat will mean.
And many contributors are looking well beyond Mrs. Clinton’s 2006 re-election campaign.
"I’m a supporter of her, not only for the Senate …. I’m supporting her for President," said former Mayor Ed Koch. "Whatever she wants to do with [the money], I’m helping her build her treasury for either of those."
Mrs. Clinton is a New York Senator with a seat on the powerful Armed Services Committee, and so New Yorkers as well as officials from defense contractors like Lockheed Martin made their expected appearance on the rolls of contributors. But Mrs. Clinton is not an ordinary Senator, and so money flowed in from around the country, and from everyone from an Air Force colonel in Maryland to former talk-show host Phil Donahue to the chairman of Sony USA, Howard Stringer. Two weeks after the election, a top fund-raiser and close friend of Senator Kerry, Alan Solomont, and his wife each gave $2,000 to Mrs. Clinton. In December, a check came in from former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein, a near-miss for the Attorney General’s job under President Clinton (er, that would be the Senator’s husband). And Richard Holbrooke, the perpetual Democratic Secretary of State hopeful, gave the maximum to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign months earlier.
"I’m supporting her for re-election to the Senate, and that’s what she’s asked me to do—nothing more and nothing less," Mr. Solomont said, adding that Mr. Kerry would be present at a fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton in Boston this spring.
"Senator Clinton is grateful for the generous support she receives and continues to wake up everyday doing the best job she can for the people of New York," said Patti Solis Doyle, a Clinton advisor.
The tone of the Senator’s fund-raising appeals, however, has been a bit starker. For Republicans, Hillary-hating has been a financial gold mine, and in an unusual act of political jujitsu, Mrs. Clinton’s fund-raising appeals are all about fighting back against the Hillary haters.
"Have you picked up the paper lately or clicked on a cable channel to find someone saying the most outrageous things about Hillary Rodham Clinton? We have! It really steams us that some people would twist the truth or use such hateful language to attack a Senator who is working hard to make life better for the people of New York and the nation," reads one appeal on the section of her Web site that exhorts her followers to become "Hillraisers" by raising money from their friends. "By becoming a HILLRAISER, you can fight back against the politics of personal destruction."
All this organizing is nominally directed toward Mrs. Clinton’s coming re-election campaign, which could prove formidable if the Republicans find a challenger. The party seems to have fixed its hopes on Edward Cox, a Manhattan lawyer who is Richard Nixon’s son-in-law.
But for the wealthy donors and political operatives who make up New York’s political class—and who will gather at a large-scale fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton at the Hudson Theater on March 21—2006 is a convenient way to support Mrs. Clinton without the kind of commitment that organizing for a Presidential campaign would demand.
"People can support that re-election effort without making a judgment about what either she or they will do later," said a prominent New York Democratic fund-raiser.
Bill’s Role
But it’s hard to approach Mrs. Clinton without considering the question of "later." Her husband—whose role in Mrs. Clinton’s political life sometimes seems to be the trial-balloon-floater in chief—recently put her Presidential prospects back in the headlines.
"I don’t know if she’ll run or not," Mr. Clinton told a Japanese television network, according to the Associated Press. "She would make an excellent President, and I would always try to help her."
In fact, at least one employee of his Harlem-based William J. Clinton Foundation already has. On Oct. 17, while Mr. Kerry was stumbling his way toward the Election Day finish line, the foundation’s domestic-policy advisor, Clyde Williams, dropped $500 into Mrs. Clinton’s war chest.
Between her star power, her husband’s—"If you say no to Hillary, you’re saying no to Bill, and that’s not easy," said a prominent city Democrat—and her place atop the national polls, Mrs. Clinton is among the easiest sells for political fund-raisers.
"It’s pretty easy, because I don’t think there’s another candidate," said Toni Goodale, a Democratic fund-raiser.
Other names on Mrs. Clinton’s filing include Mary Meeker, the Morgan Stanley technologies analyst; Barnes and Noble chief executive Leonard Riggio; the designer Donna Karan; and Richard Roth, who produced the 1986 cult classic Blue Velvet.
This first round of post-election fund-raising, according to Clinton aides, is just the beginning of a massive push for a campaign that is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, and in which a strong Republican candidate could raise untold sums on the Internet.
Mrs. Clinton’s potential rivals don’t seem to mind her front-runner status, which has often turned out to be a liability. Delaware Senator Joseph Biden, considering his own Presidential run, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, happy to share his position that "she is likely to be the nominee" and would be "incredibly hard to beat."
But neither media buzz nor national polls necessarily translate into votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, as Howard Dean learned last year, and Democrats both pro- and anti-Clinton are watching the party’s new dynamic with curiosity over what it will mean for Mrs. Clinton, should she seek the nomination.
On one hand, the traditional bases of support—from the donors in Manhattan and Hollywood to the older liberal advocacy groups—have longstanding ties to Mrs. Clinton.
But the Clintons have lost the last two major fights they picked: stopping Mr. Kerry and stopping Dr. Dean. Last winter, their apparent tacit blessing got Gen. Wesley Clark’s bid for the Presidency off the ground, but he soon fell back to earth. And this year, their longtime aide Harold Ickes was first floated as the Democratic National Committee chairman, then floated as a deputy and finally withdrew, to emerge in a kingmaker’s role only after Dr. Dean had sewn up the job on his own.
All this has produced a growing unease among some of the party’s traditional power brokers, particularly the big-dollar donors accustomed to a quiet hand early in the selection process. One prominent city Democrat speculated gloomily that his cadre might be losing their influence.
"All the traditional players are going to line up for Hillary, and the conventional power structure will line up for Hillary," he said. "Who cares?"
Ummm I live in New York and I have yet to see her do anything for this state. What about all those jobs that she promised for upstate huh Hillary? (((crickets chirping!)))
Man, she's starting so early.....just hope we are too.....
"All the traditional players are going to line up for Hillary, and the conventional power structure will line up for Hillary," he said. "Who cares?"
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The Dem mentality -- "our useful idiots will support ANYTHING WE PUT UP FOR A CANDIDATE"...these idiot socialists can only produce UNQUALIFIED, SLOBBERING MARXISTS... never a real American, with an agenda truly for America and its people. It is all about power and control, not America. They care about nothing else.
I will go out on a limb and flatly state that I doubt she'll get the nomination. First, it's way too early to say what the mood of the nation will be 3 1/2 years from now and, second, if news consumers are saturated with Hillary'08 all the time, it will have an 'overkill' type effect that will make people think she's entitled to the nomination. I think that's a sentiment that most will reject. Nobody is entitled to the presidency because of who they are.
While I'm not convinced a Hillary presidency is inevitable, I believe her nomination is. She's all they've got.
I'm in NY, too.
You are right. She hasn't done a thing.
And I'll never forget how after 9/11, she was booed by the crowd at that fundraising concert. That was great.
After GW and his accomplishments. The Dums seem so mediocre. i mean really why would anyone want to go back to the hedionistic sleezy Dums and their tired old policies. They remind me of Europe. The world is passing them by (freedom breaking out, War of Terror really is a WAR), and they are desperatly trying to hang on to the past.
She may be all they have now, but 3 years ago who was thinking about Howard Dean, John Kerry, and John Edwards? And months before the convention, Dean looked like a sure thing for them. So, while Hillary could get their nomination, who knows what could happen in 3 plus years?
I'm reminded of the wedding scene in "Goodfellas" when everyone is lining up with the envelopes stuffed with cash.
The Clintomafia springs into action............
Regards
Chucky S. is a more visible presence than her heinous.
LOL
Silly New Yorkers, they live in a world of their own.
Hillary will not be President.
Jeesh!
She definitely is starting early and we need to regardless of Bush just starting his second term. We have to worry about 2008 - it will be here sooner than we think.
So early that she just might wear her welcome out before election time!!!!!!!
The thing that differes us from them is that they are now the institutional centrally controlled party while we are the grass root fighters. That's OK. Think about it, we're business people, church goers, people of conscience, and the military.
That's a mighty tough team to beat. I'm optimistic. The greatest glory goes to the man who fights the most dangerous enemy.
"Victory goes to the man that is willing to prepare for it and willing to fight hardest and longest."
-Lewis Burwell (Chesty) Puller Lt. Gen. USMC
So does Bill. Then he turns to the lump on the mattress next to him and asks "Honey, what did you say your name was again?"
All the traditional player--like Bob Shrum. The Rats are really on a roll--as losers.
Leave it to the Clintons to woo Altman for a top spot. Let us not forget that Altman left the last Clinton administration in disgrace when he was caught playing fast and loose with the truth. Wasn't he also the boss of Josh Steiner, the pathetic little twit who testified that he lied to his own personal diary?
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