Many GOP operatives get down on their knees each night and pray that Democrats will make Hillary Clinton their 2008 nominee. It's an understandable wish. The New York senator is a polarizing figure with her own high negatives in the polls and none of hubby Bill's moonshine magic. But members of Hillary's "vast right-wing conspiracy" should appeal to what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature"—and to Democrats. They should pray a different prayer: Lead us not into temptation, dear Democrats, and deliver us from another round of the Clintons.
Yes, this would require that the vast right-wing conspirators choose their country over their party or careers. In the Clinton years, for example, the living was easy for conservative columnists. Other shoes dropped constantly for eight fat years. Columns virtually wrote themselves, and we're not talking columns about deep, eye-glazing policy or Islamic terrorism. We're talking columns about lies, flip-flops, scandals and girls, girls, girls. Gosh, we had some times together.
How easy? Democrats got a glimpse recently when Hollywood mogul and ex-Clinton pal David Geffen unloaded to The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, and Barack Obama quit walking on water long enough to dip his pinky-toe in the muck. Here was "Dreamgirls" producer Geffen on Hillary and Bill: "[I] don't think that another incredibly polarizing figure no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is—and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton?—can bring the country together. ... [Bill is] a reckless guy [who] gave his enemies a lot of ammunition to hurt him and to distract the country. ... Everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it's troubling."
Beyond Geffen being a big-bucks Democrat, what's telling is that he's saying nothing that's not flat true. It's not like he's casting a few facts in an unflattering light. After all, President Clinton had to give up his law license and pay $25,000 to the Arkansas bar for lying under oath. Indeed, Geffen was a model of understatement. After all, former Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska once called his fellow Democrat an "unusually good liar—unusually good." And New York Times columnist and language maven William Safire once described Hillary as "a congenital liar."
Democrats might think Geffen is an embittered former backer who's just repeating dated "vast right-wing" sound bites that will have no currency in 2008. But consider the Obama camp's response when Clinton's team demanded Obama renounce Geffen's remarks and return his donation. "It is ironic," Robert Gibbs said, "that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom."
Ouch. The Lincoln bedroom—apparently vast right-wing conspirators aren't the only ones who remember the phrase. Or phrases like "cattle futures," Rose Law Firm records or impeachment.
Hillary calls such talk "the politics of personal destruction" and a no-no. The Washington Post reports that her campaign refuses to answer questions about Bill's impeachment. But the Clinton presidency—the good, bad and ugly—will inevitably be part of any campaign she is part of. Not every first lady plays such a key role in an administration. Not every president gets caught after having sex with an intern or lying under oath. Or impeached. Democrats, Republicans and independents have every right to ask if we can afford a rerun of their yuck-stained soap opera.
Can Hillary get away with declaring the less edifying areas of the Clinton years off-limits? It's easier when you're defending a sitting Democratic president against Republicans. It's harder when you're running for the presidency in a contested primary. What happens when other Democrats and former Clinton chums—even overnight guests—are the ones dredging up the old Clinton issues? And will all these issues take on a new heft—and a bipartisan hue—after Democrats spend a year ventilating the Clintons' dirty laundry?
Small wonder Geffen told Dowd: "I think [Republicans] believe she's the easiest to defeat."
Hillary Clinton may well be their dream girl, but this political season many in the vast right-wing conspiracy are putting their country ahead of their party and asking for Democratic help when pleading, "Get thee behind me, Clinton."
