Waiting for a Wise Man

I try, almost every day, to watch Chris Matthews' Hardball. It is an enormously entertaining and unpredictable hour because Matthews is just so enthusiastic and passionate about politics you never know what he might say. And he makes no attempt to disguise his feelings about the candidates. In 2004 he was so nakedly in the tank for John Kerry that I wrote him an (unanswered) email asking if he was auditioning to be Kerry's press secretary. This time around, after being forced to apologize on air for stating the truth about the role of Bill's philandering in elevating Hillary to the U.S. Senate and to the race for the nomination for president, Matthews is once again letting Hillary have it. Thanks to Hillary, he has plenty of ammunition.

On Tuesday's show, the subject was Hillary's demonstrably (via news video) false claim that in 1996, on a trip to Bosnia, she came under enemy sniper fire. Why has no one thought to wonder aloud if she was so courageous as to agree to this visit to a war zone--if the destination was too dangerous for the president, Hillary likes to say, they sent the first lady-- would she bring along her daughter, Chelsea? Not even Hillary Clinton is so soaked with ambition that she would risk her daughter's safety.

Also on Hardball, Matthews' interview with two labor leaders, one an Obama supporter and one a Clinton supporter, addressed Hillary's claim, while campaigning in Ohio, that she opposed NAFTA from the start. Her recently, but post-Ohio- released first lady schedules, which indicate pro-NAFTA lobbying, give the lie to that claim. David Gergen, advisor to every White House in recent memory, has described the then-first lady as unenthusiastic about NAFTA; a statement often quoted as a means to bolster her anti-NAFTA credentials. Hillary was unenthusiastic about NAFTA, but not because she worried it would cost jobs or cause factories to close, but because she worried it would push aside her efforts to get national health care; she wanted her easily distracted husband to focus on her issue.

Mike Sneed, who writes the gossip column for the Chicago Sun-Times, leads with a question in Tuesday's paper: "Is Bill Clinton being eyed as New York's next governor?"

This in the wake of Eliot Spitzer's exit over his patronizing of a prostitution ring and confessions by his replacement, David Paterson, that he had multiple affairs. Paterson may hang on to his job, but questions over whether he paid for hotel rooms with state or campaign funds and whether he frolicked with a woman on the state payroll, may make him no one's favorite when election time rolls around.

Why Bill Clinton would be on anyone's short list at a time when sex scandals are at the forefront is puzzling. Spitzer and Paterson look like Jimmy Carter compared to Bill Clinton.

This is not the first time Clinton's name has come up for an office much less lofty than president. As his post presidency loomed, Bill Clinton was approached by a New York backer to run for mayor of New York, a position he once called the 2nd most important in the county. He thought about it briefly but then demurred. Later when his friend, then New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli, ran into ethics trouble, the former president was approached about running for his seat. Not surprisingly he resisted the urge.

Bill Clinton, multi-term governor of Arkansas and two term president of the United States, is the one person who definitely does not need executive experience under his belt in the way that Hillary and Obama do

And would Hillary, in defeat, want to give up her Senate seat to run the state of New York? (That short list referenced above also includes Hillary's name.) Before she announced her run for the Democratic nomination, Bill told friends that she would be the next Senate majority leader. On the other hand, might her slash and burn campaign against her colleague from Illinois, hurt her chances for the Senate leadership job?

Lanny Davis, a stalwart defender and supporter of both Clintons -- Bill Clinton's special counsel, 1996-98 -- is not the first to suggest lately that the Democrats need a wise man to sort out this nightmarish battle and keep the prize from going to John McCain. Davis's nominee for that position is former Senate majority leader George Mitchell. The assignment would be to make peace between Obama and Hillary; not all that much more difficult than the peace Mitchell made between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland in 1998 (the Good Friday Agreement, brought power-sharing to Northern Ireland).

Mitchell has an interesting history with the Clintons. Early in his first term, Bill Clinton offered Mitchell a Supreme Court nomination. Mitchell, who had announced his retirement, chose to finish out his term in the Senate because, he told the president, he saw a path to major health care reform. He is a gentleman and in his interview with me for my book on Bill Clinton's post presidency, he did not say so, but his mistake was believing that Hillary might compromise on the portfolio her husband had handed her. Mitchell soon realized that he could not translate Hillary's blunderbuss, partisan--Mitchell planned to work with his friend, Republican John Chafee of Rhode Island who had introduced the Republican bill in the Senate--approach to a health care into a plan that would pass muster with Senators of both parties and the American people.

Later Mitchell accepted the position as envoy to the Northern Ireland imbroglio and took on other tasks for Bill Clinton. After he was impeached by the House, he called George Mitchell and asked him to defend him in the Senate. Mitchell says he was busy with other matters and recommended former Arkansas Senator Dale Bumpers who took the job and effectively defended Clinton.

When I interviewed Mitchell, he mentioned the crucial role that Bill Clinton had played in bringing peace to Northern Ireland. As the negotiations drew to a close, Mitchell recalled the president participating in "round-the-clock sessions" and pulling an all-nighter at the White House, "work[ing] the phones ....to try to get people to reach agreement and we did reach agreement thanks in part to his efforts." Mitchell did not mention Hillary's role, although I didn't ask about her--she hadn't announced her run yet--but he has said lately that she was one of several who played a role in bringing women into process, "not the only one."

My impression of George Mitchell is that he is too wise a man to take on the assignment of wise man. He likely understands that there is no solution to how to apportion delegates from Michigan and Florida -- and that's just for openers.

Comments

[nazgul]

WOW! What a tour de force!

"Spitzer and Paterson look like Jimmy Carter compared to Bill Clinton."

LMAO

[ljmck]

The memory of the Clinton soap opera and all the damage it did to the Democratic party is bad enough. I don't want to recreate it!

However, I'm predicting that if and when Hillary finds herself back in the Senate she will be an obstuctionist to whatever the new president is trying to do. Her financial backers are already threatening the party. Does anyone imagine they do that without the Clinton blessing?

[RobertArend]

I can't even stand Chris Matthews when that guy on "Saturday Night Live" pretends to be him.

__two hats

[biographer]

Chris Matthews can be obnoxious and determined to show off his superior knowledge. He can also be too personal with his guests and he has a habit of playing favorites when he's questioning, say, a three-person panel. On the other hand, there's nothing artificial about him and he's relentless about making his guests answer the question. On February 19, when Matthews asked Texas state senator, Kirk Watson, a Democrat from Austin who supports Obama, to name Obama's legislative accomplishments and Watson could not name a single one, it was vintage Matthews. Another host would have protected the man or would have maneuvered him somehow into coming up with some sort of answer. Matthews just left him hanging there. That Matthews is likely hoping that Obama wins this contest did not cause him to throw Watson a life rope.

Carol Felsenthal