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Posted on 01/31/2006 4:03:14 PM PST by presidio9
Former president Bill Clinton has been buddying up to both presidents Bush in what strategists right and left view as a bid to salvage his political legacy and boost the ambitions of his senator wife.
"My new brother" is what Republican President George W. Bush called Clinton, a Democrat, in a weekend interview.
At the president's request, Clinton has lined up with Bush's father, the Republican he ousted from the presidency 13 years ago, to help victims of the 2004 tsunami in Asia and the 2005 hurricane in the southern United States.
"Clinton beat a Bush, then was replaced by a Bush who may be replaced by a Clinton," said pollster Lee Miringoff. "The whole thing has gotten very complicated."
While making peace with rivals is a post-presidential tradition along with good deeds, Clinton stands to help himself and his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, say experts on both sides of the political aisle.
The former first lady, 58, is considered a strong contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
"It's definitely to help his wife, and it's certainly to rebuild his legacy which was basically left in shambles by the time he left the White House," said Alexandra Preate of Republican political strategists Political Capital LLC.
"Her becoming president helps his rebuilding of his own name and reputation, it increases his value financially and it continues their power base inside the Democratic Party."
EX-PRESIDENTS' CLUB
Speaking to "Face the Nation" on CBS, Bush, 59, commented on the time his father, 81, was spending with Clinton, also 59. He called Clinton "my new brother" and spoke of the "kinship" of the "ex-presidents' club."
That four-member club, including former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, is so exclusive that it cannot help but bring together former political combatants.
"Ex-presidents need to hang around with one another," said Douglas Muzzio, professor of public affairs at Baruch College, part of The City University of New York. "Who are their peers? Nobody's experienced what they've experienced."
Asked for comment on being called the president's brother, Clinton answered through a spokesman with the moniker "42" as he was the nation's 42nd president.
" President Clinton -- or for the sake of clarity '42' -- believes that issues like the tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and his AIDS work transcend party and politics, and he has appreciated the opportunity to work closely with his good friend and partner 41," the spokesman said. "And he's appreciated 43 reaching out to them on these issues."
But plenty of what Clinton has been up to has to do with a tattered legacy, Muzzio said.
Clinton was plagued by a sex scandal with a White House intern which led to his impeachment. His controversial list of presidential pardons at the end of his eight years in office caused further political uproar.
"There's got to be a little bit of redemption there. He knows he screwed up," Muzzio said.
Bush's conciliatory tone may be hard for some conservatives to take, said conservative strategist Nelson Warfield.
"In a time of war and in the interest of national unity, maybe President Bush feels compelled to make nice with his perjurist predecessor," he said, adding: "Most Republicans made up their minds about Bill Clinton a long time ago."
Clinton still draws a crowd, and there's little doubt his popularity won't harm the New York senator's political future.
"He will do nothing that will harm his wife's political prospects and will do much to enhance and foster them," Muzzio said. "But does that mean that we have to look at every one of his acts through the prism of his wife's election? Let's not take it to be the only reality."
But Warfield warned against reading too much into the Bush-Clinton relationship, adding: "Remember, the royalty of Old Europe were blood relatives and that didn't stop them from trying to kill each other."
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Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Don Corleone
Intolerable. Things like this make me wonder if Bush was really such a good idea...
I personally think Bush is trying to make trouble for Hillary. How is she suppose to explain away to her wackado base that her husband's new best friend is their mortal enemy?
IIRC, this comment was clearly tongue-in-cheek.
Some of you people need to get your meters calibrated.
This phrase is popularly attributed to this scene from The Godfather Part II.
Michael Corleone talking to Frankie Pentangeli to arrange a meeting with the Rosato brothers right after Michael was almost assassinated:
Michael: It was Hyman Roth that tried to have me killed. I know it was him.
Frankie: Jesus Christ, Mike, Jesus Christ, look, let's get them all. Let's hit them all. Now while we got the muscle...
Michael: ...My father taught me many things here - he taught me in this room. He taught me - keep your friends close but your enemies closer. Now if Hyman Roth sees that I interceded in this thing, in the Rosato Brothers' favor, he's going to think his relationship with me is still good...That's what I want him to think. I want him completely relaxed and confident in our friendship. Then I'll be able to find out who the traitor in my family was.
However I've seen it other places - Sun Tzu wrote this in The Art of War: To know your enemy, you must become your enemy... Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=134222
On the other hand....we'll always have Mena
I cannot believe that all you people are too stupid to realize that he said this as a JOKE.
Do you all REALLY hate him so much you'll take something this dumb and make a big deal out of it.
Don't you all EVER complain about how dumb the liberals are to be lead around by the nose by the press; you people are just as gullible.
Isn't that the damn truth?
yoa, there...I'm 85% with him.
I dislike Clinton soooo much.
And I'm very unhappy with the border situation.
Peace.
The ex-presidents club: 5 right upon Lincoln's inauguration then not 5 again until Clinton, then 5 again upon G.W. Bush's inauguration -- presently 4 members.
Understand this story hurts Hillary with the left....
I'm not happy about the border situation either, but why can't you see this for what it is, Bush being a better person than the rest of us, and Clinton, showing that he can treat Clinton better than Clinton treats him.
If Willy is doing this to help Hilly, then he needs to tell her to knock off the vitriol she's been spewing about W. One day after he graciously commented at Bill's offical portrait ceremony, she started in on him by calling him a liar, dishonest, etc. (you would have thought she was finally coming clean on her own husband!) She has done nothing since then but criticize EVERYTHING he has done.
Start trying a little honesty yourself, Hilly.
I would have trashed Clinton using the same agencies that Clinton has used to abuse the GOP. I would have dumped all of the files from the EPA, Commerce, Interior, etc requested in the many suits by Judicial Watch and I would have set the IG upon the IRS to determine once and for all how every right wing publication and think thank got audited in a 5 year period. I would have debriefed all of the Secret Service and leaked it to the Washington Post. And I would have dumped every single person in the Federal government appointed by the Clintons who couldn't prove that they had voted for me. And I would have immediately put out a list of all of the last minute expenditures, executive orders, personnel appointments and anything else done in the middle of Clintons last night to the public right before I reversed all of them.
But, like I said, Bush is a better person than I am.
reality check.
Per my hubby, General Bob: This buddying up to the Bushes isn't going to work in Hillary's favor. Hillary doesn't have a chance in hell in getting the presidency. The polls in New York show the Dems are not that much in favor of Hillary, she could POSSIBLY win reelection to the senate, but
No presidential bid.
I'll breathe now.
THank you HOwlin and MOrgoth.
I agree with you, sincerely, that Bush is a better person than Clinton. No doubt about that. I'm still proud of our president, Howlin.
And there's not a Freeper among us who could hold the job of President of the United States so well.
My dislike for the Clintons muddies my thinking, is all.
OK?
I agree.
Like I have always said, you can't buy class!
Yes, I remember it well. Have seen all three parts. Excellent. Loved it. The food, the culture, the ways of the family and all of it (except the violence of course) Felt like I was right there and back home in New Jersey at my familie's table eating spaghetti and meat balls, drinking wine and eating hard cheese, Calamatta, Italian bread, cookies, and all the wonderful goodies my mother and grandmother used to make back in the old days. It was right on!!! Congratulations Justice Samuel (my uncle's name) Alito! :)
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