Posted on 01/03/2003 8:21:07 AM PST by arj
While public polls show New York Senator Hillary Clinton the current front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, the former First Lady is telling friends and advisors that her biggest obstacle to going back to the White House is not George W. Bush but her womanizing husband.
So concerned are Mrs. Clinton’s campaign strategists, they have conducted a number of polls and focus groups to test public reaction to a divorce.
Early indications are the freshman New York Senator would run stronger without her husband’s baggage.
“The bottom line is that she’s popular. He’s not,” says Democratic strategist Holly Clarkson. “She has more appeal to the voters and she doesn’t need him to win an election.”
Clearly, divorce is one of the decisions Clinton must make if she decides to run for President in 2004. Her husband’s womanizing continues and tabloids have linked him to a long string of new lovers, including actress Demi Moore.
“Clinton is more of a whorehound now than when he was in the Oval Office,” says a New York City police officer who has worked guard detail on the former President. “The guy must be taking Viagra with all the tail he’s getting.”
Even some of the city’s high-priced call girls have told New York vice cops they have been servicing the former President.
“Some of them are just bragging and blowing smoke,” one vice officer told Capitol Hill Blue, “but I’ve known some of these girls a long time and I believe one or two of them. From all the stories I’ve been hearing, it’s possible.”
Capitol Hill Blue has also learned that Clinton’s Secret Service team has a higher-than-normal turnover rate as agents asked to be transferred away from the former President, even if the transfer means a lower-profile post.
“The agents don’t respect him,” says one retired Secret Service agent. “Can you blame them?”
Sources within the Democratic Party say Clinton’s ever-increasing philandering is worrying top party brass who now view the ex-President as a liability for fundraising and other uses.
“It’s difficult to arrange to have the former President appear at a high-dollar event and then find out he hit on the wife of the event organizer,” says one DNC staffer. “He is out of control.”
The former President’s very public love life is not the only affairs of the heart that concern Democratic strategists who are planning Hillary’s 2004 run for the Presidency. The worry about continued rumors on the Senator’s after hours activities.
“Don’t think that Hillary is sitting around waiting for Bill to come home and change shirts,” admits one Democratic consultant. “She’s done her share of bed-hopping. She just knows how to be discreet.”
After presidential aide Vince Foster’s mysterious death in 1993, rumors swirled around Washington about an affair between Hillary and the longtime Clinton confidant. Others suggested the First Lady preferred female companionship.
“She never talks about her private life,” says one former Clinton White House staffer. “She has one but it is exactly that – private.”
But campaign consultants worry that Hillary’s private life or sexual preferences will have a hard time staying private under the intense glare of a political campaign.
Political scientist George Harleigh, who has watched the Clintons since their days in Arkansas, say Bill and Hillary have “one of the most complex and confusing relationships that we’ve ever seen in political circles.”
“The general impression has always been that their marriage is one of convenience,” Harleigh says. “I think it goes deeper in that. They seem to feed off each other, in both good times and bad. The question that will have to be answered if Hillary runs for President will be ‘is the feeding frenzy over?’”
Spokesmen for both the Senator and the former President did not return phone calls seeking comment on this report.
I loved this paragraph in the article -- "sexual preference" -- looks like all is not private! LOL!!!!!!
What's that about?
"It’s difficult to arrange to have the former President appear at a high-dollar event and then find out he hit on the wife of the event organizer,” says one DNC staffer. “He is out of control.”
Loose Lips ...
HOHOUND? HOHOPPER? Or one I actually saw with my own eyes: RU4BJ2...
The dim polls do say she's the most popular of the litter though.
I think she won't run in 2004 but would accept the VP slot. She still is in the senate til 2006.
It's a freebee for her.
By a hooker...
No, I wouldn't call you naive. I agree that this tactic is becoming less and less sucessful in the political arena. Its still probably somewhat sucessful with the 16-25 year old crowd.
Wrong on both counts.
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