Clinton's campaign continues
Diana West
newsandopinion.com -- AS they filed into the Harlem
office building last week, riding the elevator to the 14th-
floor headquarters of former President Bill Clinton, they must
have looked like something out of a Hercule Poirot episode, or
maybe even a Thin Man movie: the inevitable round-up of the
usual suspects, coming together at the appointed time at the
behest of Mr. Big -- or, in this case, Mr. Big He.
There they were -- not all, but many of the familiar faces and
voices (some participated via telephone) of the Clinton years:
Maggie Williams, then Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, and now
Bill's; confidante Bruce Lindsay; former national security
advisor Sandy Berger; former energy secretary Bill Richardson;
former deputy White House counsel Cheryl Mills; former Chief of
Staff John D. Podesta and more.
Had they come together to solve, once and for all, the Case of
the Lost Legacy? Hardly.
That is, this was no time for a post mortem. On the contrary,
these once and future Clinton aides were gathered together not
to move on, as they all used to say, but to dig in for a new
kind of Clinton campaign -- not for another office, but for
another image.
As The New York Times put it, Clinton is "frustrated" that his
reputation has been "battered" since leaving office, most
recently with all the talk of his failure to protect Americans
from both Osama bin Laden and the current recession. As a
result, he has decided to mount a "well-organized and
aggressive" effort to save, not the nation, of course, but
something nearer and dearer -- his face. Hence, the gathering
of the Clinton clans (sans the wife and veep), which one
anonymous participant described as a meeting of top lieutenants
of a political campaign.
And why not? Amid a war on global terrorism and a worldwide
recession, what could possibly be of greater urgency than
burnishing Bill Clinton's tarnished reputation? Far be it for
this former prez to waste his office space simply writing a
book, or his time building a habitat. Accordingly, Clinton, who
"dominated" the nearly two-hour strategy session, mobilized his
faithful followers to 1) Compile a list of his achievements for
supporters to keep "handy"; 2) Build a staff to coordinate the
appearances of "Clinton surrogates" on TV talk shows; and 3)
Plan to "raise Mr. Clinton's profile on the lecture circuit."
Before he gets started, Clinton might want to put the brain
trust to work rebutting those pesky news stories coming out
that document his personal inattention to terrorism while in
office. Just last week, for example, former Clinton aide Dick
Morris added to the pile with a revealing column in JWR about
the "weekly strategy sessions at the White House throughout
1995 and 1996" at which the president was advised "to crack
down on terrorism." Mr. Clinton "failed to act," Mr. Morris
writes, "always finding a reason why some other concern was
more important."
Reading the Times story, you get the feeling that Clinton is
going to adopt a sort of better-late-than-never strategy on
terrorism -- and that in his mind it's not even too late.
That is, the former president doesn't seem to realize he's no
longer in office. At this "campaign" meeting, Clinton expressed
his concern "that Democratic leaders had not sufficiently
spoken up for his administration," the newspaper reported.
"Participants said that while some nice things were said about
the Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Tom Daschle and Rep.
Richard A. Gephardt, there was a view that they would do only
so much to press the Clinton agenda."
The Clinton agenda -- what Clinton agenda? Last time anyone
checked the Oval Office, George W. Bush was behind the desk.
Even so, as one participant told The New York Times, "The view
was that House and Senate Democrats were too preoccupied with
their own re-elections and their own deals."
This is truly bizarre. Naturally, the House and Senate
Democrats are "too preoccupied" with their own "deals" to
continue pressing the "Clinton agenda": The Clinton
administration is over. Or is it? Clinton went on to express
his desire to "play a central role in setting an issue agenda"
for the Democratic Party, including its congressional and
presidential candidates. (No reply as yet from Messrs. Gephardt
and Daschle.)
My, what Napoleonic complexities are contained within this here
"post-presidency." Little wonder some participants declined to
discuss the meeting publicly. Others even acknowledged the
possibility that Clinton could "be portrayed as preoccupied
with his reputation and not conducting himself appropriately
for a former president."
Now why would anyone do a thing like that? |
