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.
She might be able to take out 20-30 Senators with one of those things.
Could that be because slick pushed her on the American public? He was elected. She just happened to be the (latest) woman he was cheating on.
As a political operative, yes. As a politician, no.
She is a great planner behind the scenes. It was her idea to steal the FBI files, and she was behind many of clinton's most successful and corrupt ploys.
But she can only work from behind the scenes. As soon as she gets out in front of the cameras and opens her mouth, she is doomed. She only got elected to the Senate because the NY media agreed to let her get away with no public exposure, no interviews, and no debates. It's pretty hard to see how she can present herself to the public as a future presidential candidate, which is presumably why she has arranged to be given this job, without destroying herself.
HILLARY!!!!! HILLAREEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Those two words should NEVER be used in the same sentence.
I revel in watching the demise of the left wing. It's happening much more quickly than I could have imagined even six months ago.
Thank you, Lord!
She "gets it" because she does it.
My Lord, who would buy something by Algore called "The Spirit of Family"??? The country may be sicker than I ever thought.
Its sealed Wellesley thesis was a paean to Saul Alinsky, radical counselling, "Tell any lie for power."
Gennifer Flowers, Passion & Betrayal, Emery Dalton, 1995, page 41:
The time Bill and I had together was too precious to waste talking about his wife, but when I heard some rumors floating around Little Rock, I had to speak up. He was with me at home one evening, and I cautiously told him, "There's something you need to know. I've been hearing tales around town that Hillary is having a thing with another woman." I watched his face to see his reaction, and couldn't believe it when he burst out laughing. I was stunned! I asked him what was so funny. "Honey," he said, "she's probably eaten more ----- than I have."
A Secret Service agent on the presidential detail was on guard, watching for any threat when Hillary! told him to be her personal porter:
If you want to stay on this f---ing detail, get your a-- over there and pick up my bags!
A Marxist, a murderer, a traitor, a WINO--the Dem's secret weapon is a multitasking tyrant Nuremberg-ready.
Too many people remember her health care fiasco, and her paranoid accusations of a vast right wing conspiracy. Bring her on....
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