Hillary Addresses Faithful At DC Luncheon

WASHINGTON - Either someone spiked the iced tea with Xanax, or more than a few women were on a duty date with Hillary Clinton at the EMILY's List luncheon here today.

These were Hillary's peeps, no question, yet both the speaker and her audience were more subdued than one would have expected as Senator Clinton made an overtly gender-based appeal.

She received the warmest possible introduction from Ellen Malcolm, president and founder of the organization, which raises money for pro-choice Democratic women and has endorsed Clinton.

Of all the Democrats in the presidential race, Malcolm told the crowd, she was the only one who had already gone toe-to-toe with "the vast Republican machine and come out the winner. Hillary Clinton won't be Swiftboated; she knows how to fight back."

But maybe because she was en famille, Clinton was not in battle mode today.

She began with a bow to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was sworn in eight weeks ago: "I think every one of us can remember where we were when we saw Speaker Pelosi surrounded by all those beautiful children."

Then she spoke about pay equity, mentioned her long years of work for women, children and the poor, and said that it was the encouragement of a New York schoolgirl that tipped the scales in her decision about whether to run for the U.S. Senate.

"There are people who say a woman will never be elected president," she told the crowd. "To all those who say a woman will never be elected president, I say, we'll never know until we try."

But the line that played best did not have the word 'woman' in it: "Shouldn't national security mean building allies instead of alienating people around the world?"

The couple walking out of the event ahead of me offered this review: "She's never really bad," the man said, and the woman with him nodded. "No," she said. "She isn't."