Posted on 11/19/2002 6:22:11 PM PST by blam
Hillary drafted to tackle the Right
By Toby Harnden in Washington
(Filed: 20/11/2002)
Hillary Clinton, who famously blamed her husband's woes as on a "vast, Right-wing conspiracy" is poised to become a Democratic leader charged with countering Republican attacks.
Mrs Clinton is expected to head the US Senate's steering and coordination committee, a promotion that would put her in control of the Democratic "message" for the 2004 elections.
The move could tilt the party, which is in disarray after its stunning defeats in this month's mid-term elections, further to the Left. Democratic centrists reacted with dismay while Republicans said they would welcome her as an opponent.
Although Mrs Clinton has maintained a low profile during her first two years as a senator for New York state, she is renowned for her skill as a political operative and is known to be considering a run for the White House in 2008.
"Nobody better understands the resources that the Right has mustered to clobber Democrats," a Democratic source told the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. "From the money to the media manipulation, she gets it."
But Senator John Breaux of Louisiana, a Right-wing Democrat, said Mrs Clinton's appointment would shift the party too far too the Left, particularly after the appointment as House minority leader of Representative Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco liberal.
"It would be a serious mistake, because the base of our party, as is the base of the Republican Party, is not enough to constitute a majority. It would make it more difficult to attract centrists, and that is the key to elections."
There has already been chatter in the drawing rooms of Georgetown about a possible all-women presidential race in 2008 in which Mrs Clinton would be pitted against Condoleezza Rice, President George W Bush's national security adviser.
Mrs Clinton is a hate figure on the Republican Right. At the annual Fourth of July conservative barbecue in Virginia, the plastic cups handed out had several cruel caricatures of her on them and the message: "Reasons for no Cloning."
As First Lady during Bill Clinton's presidency, she was vilified by Republicans almost as much as her husband.
Commenting on the Roll Call story, Tucker Carlson, a conservative commentator on CNN, said: "Days after installing San Francisco congresswoman and latte drinker Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader, Democrats have decided their party can, in fact, go even further Left."
Democrats are arguing publicly about the reasons for their election defeat, with some saying their "message" was drowned out by Mr Bush and others saying they had no message in the first place and need to be less supportive of the president.
Al Gore, the defeated presidential candidate in 2000, has stepped back into the limelight with a host of media interviews and two new books co-written with his wife, Tipper, called Joined at the Heart and The Spirit of Family.
Mr Gore, who has a difficult relationship with Mrs Clinton, has shed much of his old image as a centrist by criticising Mr Bush on Iraq, Afghanistan and the economy.
Mrs Clinton declined to confirm that she would be taking on a new leadership role.
The real concern on both sides was that the Senate could have changes hands a total of 3 times from Election Day to next January. Consider the following scenario: 1) Talent takes Carnahan's seat immediately, and gives control to the Republicans; 2) Jesse Ventura appoints a Democrat to fill Wellstone's seat; and 3) Republicans win control of the Senate on Election Day, but this doesn't take effect until January. Beyond that, it was possible that the final control of the Senate in January would not be decided until the December run-off in Louisiana.
That agreement between Lott and Daschle wasn't because of a lack of backbone on either side -- it was to avoid the potential chaos that would have resulted if the Senate changed hands multiple times between Election Day and January 1st.
Please have her call the Cowboys!
Anybody think she was really praying to God at the Wailing Wall?
SSHHHHH!!!! Do NOT look a gift "horse" (filly) in the mouth.
Hitlery-Bore, 2004!
I think it's simpler than that. They watched 3000 of their countrymen killed on 9/11/01, and then watched as the left recoiled from the patriotic outpouring. They saw who sided with our country, and who sided with Saddam, the detainees, Johnny bin Walker, and alQueda.
They heard W. say you're either with us or against us, and they saw who was against us...
Off the practice squad, I see. I dunno 'bout Right Tackle though. I thought she was better suited as a Tight End . . .
She's got control of the DNC by being their biggest money raiser.....that's what she uses the DC house for.....raising money for other RATs so they are indebted to her.
She's building a group that owes her and who will support her presidential bid in 2008. Most media outlets except FNC are liberals & will only give her 'soft ball' questions. She'll never agree to an interview with Hume, O'Reilly or anyone she cannot control.
She's always a danger because there are women who will vote for her to be prez just because she's a woman. I would never underestimate her ability to get herself elected. She's focused, ruthless and craves power.....God help America if she ever becomes prez!
...more like, further toward the sewer...
No, it wouldn't. She's smarter than that. Don't underestimate this woman. She wants to be President.
Don't worry about sales, Buddhist monks will buy them all if they have to.
those meanies
People moving toward the right? Evita Eleanor H. Clinton be movin right on over with them.
If you can swallow that (excuse the refrence), doesn't that make them (Nancy and Hill) prostitutes...?
Oops...I think that was Hooker hate speach.... ;-0
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