One of the most important decisions that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made about her bid for the presidency came late last year when she ended a debate in her camp over whether she should repudiate her 2002 vote authorizing military action in Iraq.Personally haven't been wild about her running for president; not because I don't think she's capable of doing the job or that she doesn't have ideas that I agree with. It's because I don't want to spend four -- or eight -- years fattening up Rush Limbaugh's portfolio, or just plain fattening up Ann Coulter. The right-wing machine gave us a little bit of the previews of coming attractions with their mau-mauing of John Edwards over a couple of bloggers, and if Ms. Clinton is the nominee or the president, brace yourself for nothing but that kind of crap for the duration.
Several advisers, friends and donors said in interviews that they had urged her to call her vote a mistake in order to appease antiwar Democrats, who play a critical role in the nominating process. Yet Mrs. Clinton herself, backed by another faction, never wanted to apologize — even if she viewed the war as a mistake — arguing that an apology would be a gimmick.
In the end, she settled on language that was similar to Senator John Kerry’s when he was the Democratic nominee in 2004: that if she had known in 2002 what she knows now about Iraqi weaponry, she would never have voted for the Senate resolution authorizing force.
Yet antiwar anger has festered, and yesterday morning Mrs. Clinton rolled out a new response to those demanding contrition: She said she was willing to lose support from voters rather than make an apology she did not believe in.
“If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from,” Mrs. Clinton told an audience in Dover, N.H., in a veiled reference to two rivals for the nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
Her decision not to apologize is regarded so seriously within her campaign that some advisers believe it will be remembered as a turning point in the race: either ultimately galvanizing voters against her (if she loses the nomination), or highlighting her resolve and her willingness to buck Democratic conventional wisdom (if she wins).
At the same time, the level of Democratic anger has surprised some of her allies and advisers, and her campaign is worried about how long it will last and how much damage it might cause her.
“Some of her many advisers think she should’ve uttered the three magic words — ‘I was wrong’ — but she believes it’s self-evident that the Senate Iraq resolution was based on false intelligence and never should’ve come to a vote,” said Richard C. Holbrooke, the former United Nations ambassador and an adviser to Mrs. Clinton on foreign policy.
I respect her for sticking to her principles, and -- gulp -- I agree with what David Brooks wrote earlier this week; if Ms. Clinton had caved on this, she would have been nothing more than pandering to get the support of the staunch anti-war voters, including yours truly.
By this refusal to apologize, she has alienated some, including Markos at Daily Kos and John at AMERICAblog. But just as candidates in the GOP have to calculate their positions in how it will play to the hard-core right-wing of their party and not turn off the more moderate voters as well, the Democrats have to play to the wide field of their party. The difference is that while the Republicans are hostage to the evangelicals, the far left hasn't as much power over the Democrats, despite what both the far left and the RNC might tell you. And remember this: can you name one political stumble that Hillary Clinton has made in her career that she hasn't either been able to recover from or turn to her advantage? Say what you will, she's got the right instincts, and she hasn't botched a play yet.
- It's Already Begun: Following up on the point made above, the right wing is waiting and ready for Ms. Clinton. For proof, look no further than this article from the Los Angeles Times:
Old enemies of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are out in force. Just weeks after she joined the Democratic Party's flock of presidential contenders, Clinton is being targeted by conservative and Republican-allied activists intent on derailing her campaign before the start of next year's primaries.Granted, the right wing was planning this regardless of whether the Democratic nominee was Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Richardson, or Teddy the Wonder Lizard. But one of the things that could at least throw them for a loss in the beginning would be to make them toss out all their tired old crap from 1993 and make them start up on someone they hadn't counted on. Of course, they've got oppo research on everyone in the Democratic Party from Clinton to Webb, but let's at least make them get their Weejuns dirty looking for the files.
They have surfaced with a flurry of planned projects: a Michael Moore-style documentary film, book-length exposes, and websites such as StopHerNow.comand StopHillaryPAC.com.
Conservative admirers of the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth media blitz that helped torpedo Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential candidacy in 2004 are now agitating to "Swift-boat" Clinton.
"People are doing what they're doing because they want to defeat her before she has a chance to win. You can't hold off your silver bullet to the end," said veteran Republican operative David N. Bossie, who is involved in the film project with Dick Morris, a former advisor to Bill Clinton.
The emerging moves against the New York senator reflect the accelerated pace of the 2008 race and conservatives' growing conviction that she poses a formidable threat that requires fast and early footwork.
Clinton has been publicly bracing for "Republican machine" attacks from the moment she launched her exploratory committee last month.
Whether she can strike back quickly may prove crucial to winning over Democratic primary voters looking for assurance that she can survive a bruising general election and Swift-boat-style attacks.
"For Democrats, there's a strong sense this time around that they can't allow those same tactics to define Democratic candidates," said Democratic media consultant Jim Margolis.
At a recent Democratic National Committee gathering in Washington, Clinton told party officials, "I know how they think, how they act and how to defeat them" — a battle call echoing her 1998 evocation of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" during the furor over her husband's affair with intern Monica S. Lewinsky.
- The Coroner in Florida Speaks: No, not the one dealing with Anna Nicole Smith; she is so last week. Let's look at one who was really part of a cultural icon.
- Doonesbury: Family Feud.Like any coroner, he has seen some things. But one case stays with him nearly 70 years after the fact, like some old song he can’t get out of his head.
He couldn’t shake this case even if he wanted to, what with all the videotapes, the DVDs, the television broadcasts replaying the gruesome aftermath over and over, in vivid Technicolor. Those striped socks, curling back like a pair of deflating noisemakers. ...
The coroner’s name is Meinhardt Raabe, and he lives in a retirement community tucked between here and there. He can’t see or hear too well, and his short legs need the assistance of a three-wheeled walker with hand brakes. But none of this means that at 91 he has forgotten much, because he hasn’t — especially about that case.
Sitting on his small bed, his coroner’s outfit stored in a closet, Mr. Raabe recalls a rich and varied life but makes clear that he accepts, even embraces, how his obituary will read: Munchkin City coroner, handled case of woman killed by house that fell from the sky.
It’s hard to imagine now, but the freak accident was just one of many wacky events in a wacky, politically charged time, a time when monkeys could fly and trees could talk and life could change on a witch’s whim.
With enchantment — or was it poppies? — infusing the air, a coroner’s role was not so much to determine a cause of death as it was to determine whether death had indeed occurred. The victim’s identity only complicated matters: as luck would have it, she was a witch, a bad one, from the east.
That is why curious residents in curious garb, led by a mayor whose shoes sprouted flowers, surrounded Mr. Raabe as he unfurled his scroll. With cameras rolling, he announced his findings:
“As coroner, I must aver, I thoroughly examined her. And she’s not only merely dead, she’s really, most sincerely dead.”
- Car Show Today: If you're in the neighborhood -- Miracle Mile in Coral Gables between 10 and 3 -- stop by the annual Classic Car Show on the Mile.
