It Takes A Family To... Triangulate

The Clinton Doctrine I wrote about yesterday clearly runs in the family. In fact, you might say it's becoming the Clinton family business.

Take this quote from today's Times story about the Lieberman campaign "retooling" for an independent run:

According to guests at a fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Hamptons on Saturday, Mrs. Clinton -- who is supporting Mr. Lamont -- said that Mr. Lieberman had more than a 50-50 chance of winning re-election.

Since when is it Hillary's job to go around giving odds on Senate races? Sure, she said she'd abide by the results of the primary and endorse the nominee. But what else could she say? It's great to have her endorsement, but what about also refusing to give quotes that not-so-subtly undermine the candidacy of the guy she supposedly supports? If there's one thing the Lamont race showed, it's that it's no longer good enough with Democratic voters to do the minimal amount possible in supporting the party.

The only appropriate response to the Lieberman/Lamont race for a Democratic leader is to work to help create the conditions necessary for Lamont to win. It's not to offer up meaningless odds, which -- coming from an elected official of her standing -- have a not-so-odd way of becoming self-fulfilling.

Things to put on her to-do list could be: doing everything she can to encourage Lieberman to drop out, and using her list to fundraise for Lamont as John Kerry is doing. Does anyone want to take odds on that?