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| The Chair Recognizes the Carpetbagger from The State of New York.... |
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| Hillary Clinton Moves On |
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This is Dark Cloud on Wednesday, July 07, 1999. The apparently inevitable announcement by Hillary Clinton for the New York Senate seat of Patrick Moynihan will come closer today, as the First Lady announces a formal investigation of the possibility. Clinton, who is equal in the polls with her likely opponent, New York Mayor Rudi Guilliani, has been inundated with national press coverage, over 200 national and international correspondents for the announcement today. Some current presidential candidates are lucky to get five. New York is the loose society woman of American politics, combining great wealth and power and apparently nothing to be construed as real life residency requirements. Robert Kennedy ran for the Senate from that state in 1968 and won, although his longest stay there had been a delayed flight at what was then called Idlwild airport before it was rennamed for his brother. Many people find that odd, to say no more, that a state populace would leave themselves open to carbetbagging politicos and that the Federal government would allow a Senator to represent a state about which the individual knows nothing more than what the staff has written on a list of talking points. Further, given that the nation’s mafia families are headquartered there, isn’t this just asking for big trouble, and perhaps the recently late Mario Puzo’s caveat is all too real: someday the family will elect a president and he won’t even know it. Given that it is hypothetically possible for the Senate to have been acquired in that manner, or at least a few Senate seats, it is not a conspiracy nuts lucubration. Well, if it is possible, it hasn’t really happened. The closest thing in recent memory to an actual tool of the mob was home grown Senator D’Amato, a genuine New York idiot that made any debate of which he was a part untouchable by professional satirists, who could not improve upon the stupidity, syntax, and transparent sleazy motivations for laughs. If the fear is outside carpetbaggers, with the exception of Clinton and Kennedy, there have been none. There’s probably a reason for that, which is that the local applicants for the job were viewed less decourously than the alleged political raider. New Yorkers, after all, are rabidly faithful both to their loves and their hates. Further, the Senate is very different from the House of Representatives, where it is absolutely necessary that Congressmen live in their district, which is all they are to represent. The Senate has evolved into something loftier, a supposition, in fact, that each state, even Rhode Island, probably has two wise people in it to share with the nation. Though the system is clearly erroneous in that supposition, and unable to ensure that the most qualified are inspired to run, the system has, for the most part, worked. It turns out that if New York considers its homegrown senatorial contenders dunderheads, they can apparently call upon the intellectual surplus resident in Arkansas. Why not? In our hereditary past in the Parliament of England, members of Parliament defeated in their own district considered essential by their own party appeared as a legitimate members from what is called a ‘safe’ district, ie one so controlled by the party in question that any candidate offered would be elected. Prime Ministers Pitt elder and younger and in this century, Arthur Balfour among many others have had to call upon this to survive. Good enough for Balfour, who invented the institution of the weekend, good enough for us. This is all different, though, because we’re talking about a current First Lady running for office, something so unexpected that there is nothing to be considered precident. As the Republicans are pointing out, Clinton can fly in military planes to what are essentially campaign stops because she has not officially announced yet. This may or may not end today. The other thing about this campaign is that Hillary Clinton, like George Dubya Bush, is a hideously popular candidate with absolutely no history to justify it. She is credited with the Republican Right, who are scared of women – not without reason - with many alleged socialistic horrors, but her background is far more conservative than her husband’s. She was born a Republican daughter in Illinois. In fact, aside from her rather mundane hope that children become the beneficiaries of larger extended families in this country, I doubt any of you can name a single position on a single issue held by Hillary Clinton. Even abortion. I suspect she is pro choice, she has only one child, but she is also extremely religious, and who knows what she thinks in her heart of hearts when not standing by the opinions of her husband? We assume, we do not know, and nothing she has said provides much illumination. So the two most popular candidates this year – Hillary Clinton and George Bush – are also the two with the least track record. I don’t think George Bush can hold his temper through a national campaign, I think Clinton can survive a New York campaign, but I’m glad she’s not running in Colorado, because I have no clue where she stands on much. We’ll see. |
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