Clinton Could Face Uneasy Return To The Senate

New York Times:

When Hillary Rodham Clinton made a rare stop in the Senate last week, she spoke from a lonely outpost at the end of the Armed Services Committee dais, eight empty chairs emphasizing the gulf between her and real Senate power at the chairman's spot.

It was illustrative of the inflexible senatorial math that will fix Mrs. Clinton's place in Congress should the Democratic nominating fight play out on its present course. While she has received millions of votes, stirred thousands of Americans at rallies, made hundreds of appearances and is just scores of delegates short of her goal, defeat would still return her to the Senate as No. 36 out of 49 Democrats.

But the seniority arithmetic is only the beginning. There is also the personal challenge of returning to a club where more Democratic members, some quite pointedly, favored Senator Barack Obama and spurned her. For Mrs. Clinton, who has spent years cultivating friendships and raising money for colleagues, that had to hurt. Though the Senate is a place where rival lawmakers daily work side-by-side, this family feud was more public and pronounced than usual.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Leslie123]

People don't realize how far back the plan for Hillary's Presidency goes. Why do you think they put more into her campaign for Senator of New York then they did Al Gore's bid for the Presidency. In their minds, Al Gore could never be President. They knew if he became President, her chances in 2008 would be gone. they knew George Dubya was an idiot, it's what they counted on. 2004, everyone thinks it was soley the swiftboating that did Kerry in. It wasn't. It was the Clinton machine at work again. They knew America would be ripe for the picking after TWO terms of Dubya, and Hillary would have had enough time in the Senate to then take the Presidency. They never counted on Senator Obama and the appeal he would have and the well-oiled machine of a campaign he would run. D-squared, Davids Axelrod and Plouffe, are brilliant. The Clintons have been shaken to the core. Bill, with the fact that Obama is a newer, improved version of him, and Hillary, because she never dreamed there was a possibility that she would lose. She TRULY believes she is the saviour for this country and faced with the fact that more than half the democratic party, along with the Supers have not fallen to her feet is devastating. The good part, though, is that the party will welcome the wayward children back to the fold, if they choose to return.....

[Leslie123]

p.s.
don't think that this is unkown to Gore, Kerry, and a lot of other people in Washington!

[Leslie123]

Hillary never wanted to be in the Senate for any extended period of time. She carpet-bagged her way to New York as a means to justify her desired end, POTUS. She thought she was a shoe-in for 2008 elections. She cultivated friendships and thought she had done what she needed to do to secure the Democratic nomination. Guess what, it didn't work out that way and just like the situation she found herself in after the Feb. 5th primaries, SHE HAS NO PLAN B. This is why she is fighting for whatever slim chance she can find to win the nomination. Anything other than POTUS is beneath her, didn't you know? She and Bill have always thought they WERE the Democratic Party, and now they've been shown the Primary door.

[rimofheaven]

Spot on. At this point it is all or nothing because she and Bill have burned too many political bridges to turn back now. Hillary's presidency has been in their plans for years now, kind of like a new addition to the house. Like a game of Chess, they chose one strategy at the start of the game, and when it failed to work they refused to make adjustments. Now, she is nearly out of pieces; only the king, the queen, and a few pawns remain. But, she is one fierce queen, the king holds a lot of clout, and the pawns are dangerously loyal. Anything can still happen.

[Leslie123]

Granted, the King and Queen have a lot of power, however this curve ball they have been thrown, namely Barack Obama, was never expected. It's almost like a computer program with a virus installed. They don't know how to react because they can't compute how this is possible and have no anti-virus program that will get rid of it. Almost like a "Let them eat cake" mentality, as the executioner is coming to chop off their heads....

[rooks]

A while back I was listening to some commentary and they were saying that if Obama becomes
president, he should about HRC to the SCOTUS and Bill to some top level cabinet spot. I can't believe how much they have shot themselves in the foot since them. Mind boggling they would blow it all
for an almost impossible shot at the nominee.

[foreffectivegovernment]

The fact that David Axelrod and his crew have "Organized" Obama into the frontrunner position and has instructed all of the MSM and Obamabots to scream for Hillary Clinton to get out of the race, don't think you have taken over the Democratic Party. All of those superdelegates you brag about are chaff that blows with the current wind. The uncommitted delegates are the ones that control the Democratic Party and will decide who the nominee is when the race is over at the Convention in Denver, CO. Even if enough superdelegates swing to Obama to force Hillary Clinton out, she can still come back when he implodes or the Republicans skewer him like they did Kerry.

[AnnieinOR]

conspiracy theory much? LOL!!!

[foreffectivegovernment]

AnnieinOR: It's not a theory if it's written down as a Plan. Hillary Clinton's destruction was part of the plan and Obamabots helped. Aren't you all proud of yourselves?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01axelrod.t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print April 1, 2007
"When Barack Obama decided in January that he would run for president in 2008 and quietly began calling up his staff members and close supporters to tell them so, the choice had many effects, but one of the most immediate and parochial was that it sent Obama’s chief political and media adviser, a Chicago consultant named David Axelrod, into his editing studio. For four years Axelrod has had camera crews tracking virtually everything Obama has done in public — chatting up World War II vets in southern Illinois, visiting his father’s ancestral village in western Kenya — and there were days when the camera crews have outnumbered the civilians."
"For Obama, because of Senator Hillary Clinton’s far-greater experience and establishment backing, this is a particularly essential project. “If we run a conventional campaign and look like a conventional candidacy, we lose,” Axelrod says.
David Axelrod is now dedicated to derailing this woman’s career."

[rimofheaven]

you wish.

[Tropiholic]

Obama doesn't HAVE to choose Hillary for anything at all. Look at all she's done for him!

[rooks]

Do you think she will be running still after Obama has been in the WH two years?

[foreffectivegovernment]

Things will be totally different when she returns as President of the Senate. That is the office she will hold as Vice-President. Just another reason Obama will have to choose her as VP.

[condew]

Kind of a circular argument: He has to choose her because she'll be president of the senate, but only if he chooses her?

How about :He should not worry about her, because she will be a rather incosequential member of the seanate, surrounded by people who hate her and therefore unlikely to remain in the senate.

[foreffectivegovernment]

condew: "Circular argument", is that like the "Circular firing squad" the Democratic Party has gotten themselves into. Eliminating two major swing states from the process because of "Rules" and allowing the "first viable African-American candidate" and the "first viable Woman candidate" to run in the same race has become the perfect storm for our party. Now we don't have anyone in power with the testicular fortitude to rescue the party from self destruction.
If you think forcing Hillary Clinton out of this race is the answer, you are not very smart. Don't believe the MSM when they tell you that menepausal women are the only supporters Hillary Clinton has. That is not true. Much of her support is coming from the Real Democrats all over the Country. That's why she has won the states with the the largest number of Electoral votes and Obama has won the Red Caucus states where his militant supporters dominated. The general election is by secret ballot and the Obamacans will "go home to roost" along with many Reagan Democrats turned back into McCain Democrats by his Liberal Policies.

[Doofus]

One suspects that the 'President of the Senate' role is how the job got
to be considered 'not worth a bucket of warm spit' (or whatever). The
real job is 'Senate majority leader'. If her colleagues can convince her
that *that* job is hers for the asking, then maybe she'd relent, 'for the
good of the party & stuff'.

I'm talking to you, Biden & Dodd & Kerry & Mikulsi & Feinstein & Reid, et al.

[hugs4u]

Hillary only used the senate seat for a jumping off point to get the presidency. She doesnt want to be in the senate naymore then she wants to be home baking cookies in the kitchen.

[shela88]

Bill Clinton's infidelities, a weak opponent, a huge war chest and name recognition got Hillary Clinton elected to the Senate the first time around. The landscape has changed considerably since then..and unlike Barry Goldwater, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and others who transitioned with ease and grace, Mrs. Clinton is definitely going to feel a chill in the room if and when she returns to the hallowed Senate chamber.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Of course Senator Clinton can return to the Senate and mend fences and do good work. That is up to her.Being the Senator from New York is not a small platform, although she might even be vulnerable to a challenge in her re-election campaign in New York, she can probably overcome it.

I think President Obama should offer Senator Clinton the Department of Education. Senator Clinton has long maintained that education is her passion. This might appeal to her and it would give her a flexible future. It would give her a place to demonstrate executive abilities on her own.

[ThunderclapNewman]

Just what have defenseless children done to you that you would curse them so?

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Good one ClapMan!

[poles]

Of course she will have a hard time. She has alienated many other senators. She has been shown to lie and twist facts. How can the other Senators trust her? The all know where she "says" she stands on issues. She has told so many different stories her veracity has to be in question.

[JRandomPoster]

This begs the question of whether or not NY will return her to the senate.

I also note that it is ironic that had she not run a scorched earth style campaign, the points raised about returning to the Senate would be rather moot because (1) obviously, the scorched earth campaign has made her a lot of enemies, and (2) it is just possible that had she taken the high road, as did Obama, she might have those delegates that have slipped away from her.

Oh, well. She made her own bed.

[JackLivigni]

Truth is the Clintons, Rendell, Ickes, Davis, and the whole Democratic machine is shaking because of the fact that Obama does not need any of their contacts, their networks that they have built over decades to keep them in power. He gets his money from the people. That is a revolution par none in the Democratic party, and many are terrified by it.

This FL and MI fiasco are the last gasps of a dying system of corrupt governance.

[obamagal]

What you say makes total sense.

[olivia]

How much power does she really have in the Senate? I suspect much of her power came from anticipation she might be president one day. With that prospect gone... she's just another Senator.

[Countdown09]

I would suspect much of her status and influence in the Senate has come because of who she is married to. If I where her I would not take any grudges back to the Senate. No one likes a sore loser regardless to who your husband is. Let it go Hillary, you've got a brilliant career ahead of you not worth ruining it being vindictive and trying to settle scores.

[Cyndee1113]

I don't know what they mean by she has a large following because when she loses it is outta sight outta mind with her people. They are scattered, and not in one state. She will lose if she runs in NY again.

[ThunderclapNewman]

She's ranked 36th out of 49---she has no power.

But she could cultivate it, work it, and become a great legislator, which is no small achievement.

We just don't know if that's enough to assuage her colossal ego.

[ObamaEdwards]

After all she has done and said in her Campaign of Shame, she is lucky to have a job to go back to.

[kasinca]

Hillary displays everything I hate about the Bushies. There is not one bit of difference with the lying and blaming she displays. Dirty politics belong to the thugs in the republican party and have no place in the primary election.

[olivia]

I think she started out a victim of dirty politics, and decided to become a player of them. She became everything she despised.

[ErnestineBass]

Stockholm Syndrome?

[sowhatdemos]

olivia See Profile I'm a Fan of olivia
I think she started out a victim of dirty politics, and decided to become a player of them. She became everything she despised.

YEP, sad isn't it?
That is the most accurate assessment I have heard to date.
Plus she came up in the Vietnam era where women's choices were still limited.
We take a lot, but not enough, for granted today. And there is still a resentment in older women that gravitates to Hillary.

But she has to save face by getting out on June 4th. There's a difference between resolve and stubborness.

Still, DAMN!!! She never learned when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.