The Clinton Factor how much can it help?

Jarred Opatz Published:

WASHINGTON Like the cavalry of Wild West days, the Clintons Bill and Hillary rode to the rescue of their version of the Democratic Party on separate fronts the other day. The former president went to Waterbury, Conn., in an effort to pull Sen. Joseph Liebermans chestnuts from the fire in his now-uphill effort to hold his seat against the bid of anti-war businessman Ned Lamont to replace him in Connecticuts Aug. 8 primary. At the same time, his wife and the senator from New York was in Denver presenting the formula of the middle-road Democratic Leadership Council for a takeover of Congress this fall by their party a formula that bears a striking resemblance to her husbands agenda during his eight years in the White House. Bill Clintons challenge was to urge Connecticut Democrats to give Lieberman a pass on his embrace of President Bushs war of choice in Iraq and instead support him for his 36 years of service to the party and 18 years in the Senate, including mostly strong backing of Clinton himself. The let-bygones-be-bygones picture of Clinton and Lieberman grinning for the cameras was a tribute to the power of party loyalty, inasmuch as Lieberman once raked the rakish Clinton over the coals for his mischief with Monica Lewinsky. But the matter of Liebermans own party loyalty hovered unmentioned over the cameo, in light of his plan to run as an independent in the general election in November if he loses the Democratic primary to Lamont. That decision has rankled many Democrats almost as much as Liebermans support of the war. While the former president was thus occupied in trying to save the political skin of an old Clintonite, his wife was busy preaching to the choir of the DLC, which even before 1992 provided a platform for her husbands rise in party ranks and still embraces his gospel of a focus on the middle class. In presenting the DLCs new domestic agenda, labeled the American Dream Initiative, the former first lady argued for a return to the pay-as-you-go policies of her husband that helped leave a large budget surplus, soon wiped out under Bush. Those policies were, she said, abandoned for one that racked up debt and was replaced by one that helped the strong get stronger and the rich get richer. Hillary Clintons call for the sort of middle-class emphasis that worked for her husband is an old DLC pitch, notably made after the 2000 election by Lieberman, who at a meeting the Council blatantly blamed his running mate, Al Gore, for their loss to the Bush-Cheney ticket. He said then that Gores campaign slogan, Theyre for the powerful, were for the people, amounted to class warfare and undid the Democratic team. With her own re-election to a second Senate term in New York all but certain, and with a whopping $22 million campaign chest that could be applied afterward to a 2008 presidential bid, Hillary Clinton clearly sees for herself the same middle-road course that put her husband in the Oval Office. But getting the party back on that path has been complicated by the heated Democratic opposition, particularly among activists of the left, to President Bush and his war, who see the man and the war as their best targets for retaking Congress in the fall. Hillary Clintons own resistance to a timetable for a withdrawal or redeployment of American forces in Iraq is widely shared among DLC members, and it is not surprising that both she and her husband are backing Lieberman in the Democratic primary. At the same time, however, both say they will support the winner of that primary, demonstrating that loyalty to an old Clintonite goes only so far when the issue is party loyalty. In dealing with Lieberman, they are splitting the difference, which after all is no more than a trademark of the centrist DLC. In the end, they both see defense of the middle class as a wiser and safer political course than letting the November outcome rise or fall on a referendum on Bush and the war.

Want to leave your comments?

Sign in or Register to comment.