Senator Clinton Makes Her Run While Tiptoeing Around 2008

NY Times ^ | January 18, 2006 | RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

[neverdem]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 - When Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton recently headlined a fund-raiser for the governor of New Hampshire, her aides sought to ensure that the event was held not within that state, but rather in nearby Boston, where a visit would not set off frenzied speculation about her political plans.

The fund-raiser earned her crucial good will with the leading elected official in an important presidential primary state within range of the Boston media market. Yet it also reflected how Mrs. Clinton delicately goes about building a political network around the country while running for re-election in New York, steering clear of presidential stomping grounds like New Hampshire and Iowa.

In the last few months, as her political opposition in New York has crumbled, Mrs. Clinton has traveled the country, trolling for money to stuff into her already stuffed campaign war chest, visiting hurricane-stricken New Orleans and supporting candidates who can, in turn, be helpful to any national ambitions she may have.

And she has sharpened the tone of her attacks on Republicans, causing a stir on Monday, for example, by saying that the House of Representatives was run like a "plantation" - a comment that drew a rebuke from the White House the next day.

While such behavior is to be expected for anyone preparing to seek the presidency in 2008, Mrs. Clinton is in an altogether different situation from other prominent Democrats who have been openly gearing up for national campaigns by establishing exploratory committees and visiting crucial primary states.

With her New York election just 10 months away, neither she nor her advisers want to do anything that might suggest that she has ambitions beyond the state, where Republicans once pilloried her as a carpetbagger intent on using the state as a stepping stone for national...

[tjg]

"And more serious because it could be a felony."

Please. If he could have prosecuted them he would have. If he could have and didn't he's nothing but a political hack and doesn't deserve our attention anyway.

[PhilDragoo]

[potlatch]