WASHINGTON — Well, it is starting all over again. Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton has only been in the race for the presidency
a few weeks and already she has introduced into the campaign her
characteristic hints of the bizarre. First her lieutenants made
that ferocious lunge at her rival, Senator Barack Obama, after
Hollywood mogul David Geffen expressed perfectly sensible
misgivings about the Clintons. Though Obama had nothing to do with
Geffen’s objurgations, the Clintonistas insisted he disavow them
and return money Geffen had raised for Obama.
The dustup did not redound to Hillary’s favor. It reminded the
citizenry of the heavy-handed politics of Senator Clinton’s past.
An undercurrent of unease seeped into press coverage of the
controversy. Journalists and Democratic politicians seemed to sense
that once again Clintonistas had gone too far.
Of course, the Clintons always do. They predictably overreact
and it gets them into trouble, avoidable trouble. Now the Clinton
team is in a fever about her slippage in the polls and about the
drift of Democrats away from her to other candidates. So desperate
has Hillary become that she is again speaking of the existence of a
Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. When she visited this paranoia on the
country in 1998 she became the butt of ridicule. Yet on the outer
fringes of the Democratic Party there is the moron vote, which
believes in such stuff. Today the moron voters are leery of Senator
Clinton for her attempts at centrism. So she dredges up her bizarre
charge: “If anybody tells you there is no Vast Right-Wing
Conspiracy, tell them that New Hampshire has proven it in court.” I
do not know who this Mr. Hampshire is, but he probably has a large
following among members of the Nudists for Peace crowd.
I myself recently experienced the Clintons’ excitable nature, as
Robert Novak reported in a column early this month. This past
autumn I attended former President Bill Clinton’s 60th birthday
party in Toronto where I enjoyed myself immensely. Bill and I were
actually photographed standing next to each other, smiling and
relaxed. There was not a trace of bad blood between us, despite my
controversial appraisals of him. As our happy faces beamed into the
camera, there was not a hint of stress on either face. We obviously
were enjoying ourselves. It was a reminder that political discord
can be adjourned when “Happy Birthday” is in the air.
I thought this would be a winning picture to print on the jacket
of a book I was just finishing on Clinton’s adventures in
retirement, rather provocatively titled, The Clinton
Crack-Up. Clinton has energetically traveled the world,
speaking, making public appearances, and hauling in mounds of
money. How better to illustrate the universality of his exertions
than to show him partying with me? As my date of publication grew
nigh (the book will be out March 20), I grew apprehensive, for
neither the photographer nor Clinton’s office responded to our
request to use the picture. My publisher was willing to pay a
reasonable fee to brighten up the book’s dust jacket.
Then at the very last minute and at considerable inconvenience
to us came the reply. The photographer wrote that Clinton’s office
was rejecting us. Why on earth would Clinton be so rude? Admittedly
he looked a little pallid in the photograph, but he has looked
pallid through much of his retirement. He is a night owl and rarely
sleeps very well when he does go to bed. But in the photograph he
looked happy. He had a cheerful smile. Perhaps he wants to save the
picture of us for a special place at the Clinton Library, but that
would not preclude allowing the picture to grace my book.
Here is but another example of the Clintons’ making a ham-fisted
response when gallantry would have served them well. We shall see,
I believe, many examples of this boorishness from the Clintons in
the campaign ahead. Mrs. Clinton is famous for it. In fact I would
not be surprised if Hillary herself was responsible for putting the
kibosh on this picture of us two guys together. We were obviously
having a grand old time at her husband’s birthday party, and as one
can see from her recent employment of “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy,”
Hillary tends to bear a grudge.
