Saturday, February 24, 2007
Hillary: Bill's Impeachment 'Taboo'
President Clinton was never impeached. At least that's what his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, wants voters to believe in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
Hillary has proclaimed a new commandment for her rivals for the nomination: "Thou shalt not mention anything related to the impeachment of her husband."
According to the Washington Post, her advisers advocated a strategy of declaring the former president's "impeachment in 1998 -- or, more accurately, the embarrassing personal behavior that led to it -- taboo, putting her rivals on notice and all but daring other Democrats to mention the ordeal again."
"In the end, voters will decide what's off-limits, but I can't imagine that the public will reward the politics of personal destruction," senior Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson, told the Post, when asked whether the impeachment is fair game for Hillary's opponents. Earlier in the week, the Post recalled, Wolfson dismissed references to Bill Clinton's conduct as "under the belt."
The whole matter of Bill Clinton's White House behavior came up last week when Hollywood multibillionaire David Geffen, formerly an avid supporter of the Clintons and now a backer of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., brought up the subject of the ex-president's unseemly personal behavior. His remarks, the Post opined, suggested that the whole impeachment scandal "remains something of a tripwire for [Mrs.] Clinton.
"Although she has spent the past seven years establishing her own identity as a public servant," the Post wrote, Hillary has been emphasizing more widely the more popular aspects of her husband's White House years, making frequent references to their time together in the executive mansion. But in invoking the good Bill Clinton, several Democratic strategists told the Post, Hillary has also risked invoking the bad.
"She's using him in this campaign, so why can't somebody else use him?" a veteran of Democratic presidential politics currently unaligned with any candidate asked the Post. "She's just made him fair game. He's part of her strategy, so why can't he be part of one of her opponents'?"
One key opponent, Obama has not avoided raising the question of Bill Clinton's shady past, noting that the former president is "trapped by his own biography," according to the Post
Up until now, the subject has been ignored in the public Democratic dialogue about the 1990s, the Post suggested -- particularly in Hillary's resume -- until last week.
Hillary, however, hasn't entirely avoided her husband's misadventures. When speaking at an Iowa forum, she joked that she had experience in dealing with "evil and bad men" without identifying them, but leaving no doubt as to who one of them might be.
It's not that Democrats fear talk about the impeachement and the scandals -- some suggest that bringing them up will hurt any detractors. One told the Post: "Attacking Bill Clinton is a losing strategy," adding that he remains highly popular among Democratic activists. James Carville, a longtime Clinton aide, told the Post that mentioning the impeachment would be tantamount to political suicide for the attacker.
"Nothing is off-limits, but it would be awfully stupid," Carville said. "What do you think attitudes among Democrats are about impeachment and Ken Starr? This is not a Washington dinner party here. This is an election, a nominating process, among Democrats."
President Clinton was never impeached. At least that's what his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, wants voters to believe in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
Hillary has proclaimed a new commandment for her rivals for the nomination: "Thou shalt not mention anything related to the impeachment of her husband."
According to the Washington Post, her advisers advocated a strategy of declaring the former president's "impeachment in 1998 -- or, more accurately, the embarrassing personal behavior that led to it -- taboo, putting her rivals on notice and all but daring other Democrats to mention the ordeal again."
"In the end, voters will decide what's off-limits, but I can't imagine that the public will reward the politics of personal destruction," senior Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson, told the Post, when asked whether the impeachment is fair game for Hillary's opponents. Earlier in the week, the Post recalled, Wolfson dismissed references to Bill Clinton's conduct as "under the belt."
The whole matter of Bill Clinton's White House behavior came up last week when Hollywood multibillionaire David Geffen, formerly an avid supporter of the Clintons and now a backer of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., brought up the subject of the ex-president's unseemly personal behavior. His remarks, the Post opined, suggested that the whole impeachment scandal "remains something of a tripwire for [Mrs.] Clinton.
"Although she has spent the past seven years establishing her own identity as a public servant," the Post wrote, Hillary has been emphasizing more widely the more popular aspects of her husband's White House years, making frequent references to their time together in the executive mansion. But in invoking the good Bill Clinton, several Democratic strategists told the Post, Hillary has also risked invoking the bad.
"She's using him in this campaign, so why can't somebody else use him?" a veteran of Democratic presidential politics currently unaligned with any candidate asked the Post. "She's just made him fair game. He's part of her strategy, so why can't he be part of one of her opponents'?"
One key opponent, Obama has not avoided raising the question of Bill Clinton's shady past, noting that the former president is "trapped by his own biography," according to the Post
Up until now, the subject has been ignored in the public Democratic dialogue about the 1990s, the Post suggested -- particularly in Hillary's resume -- until last week.
Hillary, however, hasn't entirely avoided her husband's misadventures. When speaking at an Iowa forum, she joked that she had experience in dealing with "evil and bad men" without identifying them, but leaving no doubt as to who one of them might be.
It's not that Democrats fear talk about the impeachement and the scandals -- some suggest that bringing them up will hurt any detractors. One told the Post: "Attacking Bill Clinton is a losing strategy," adding that he remains highly popular among Democratic activists. James Carville, a longtime Clinton aide, told the Post that mentioning the impeachment would be tantamount to political suicide for the attacker.
"Nothing is off-limits, but it would be awfully stupid," Carville said. "What do you think attitudes among Democrats are about impeachment and Ken Starr? This is not a Washington dinner party here. This is an election, a nominating process, among Democrats."
