Democratic Party strategist Susan Estrich, speaking on Fox News today, said something interesting: Bill and Hillary Clinton are engaged in an active effort to derail any electoral chances for their own party in the 2004 presidential race -- the better to set up Hillary's run in 2008.
Estrich has spoken and written before about the Clintons' unwillingness to reign in their personal egotism:
The Clintons suck up every bit of the available air. Nothing is left for anyone else. They are big, too big. That's the problem.
This was the first time I'd heard someone from the Left discuss the Clintons' recent PR efforts as a conscious political strategy. From the Right, a Google search does lead me to a report of Dick Morris saying the same thing on May 30 to Sean Hannity:
"There is a conscious effort going on by the Clintons to distract attention from the current field of candidates," Morris told nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity. "They do not want a Democrat to win in '04.""They want Bush to be re-elected," the former Clinton adviser explained. "And that way they want Hillary to be able to run for an open seat."
"If Bush lost and a Democrat were elected, then obviously [Hillary] would have to support him in '08," he noted. "She couldn't run until 2012. She'd be 65 years old and would have been out of office for 12 years. It's kind of hard at that point to keep the bloom on the rose and be able to run."
Morris said that Bill Clinton wants to maintain his role as spokesman for the Democratic Party so he can "trivialize and minimize the Democratic candidates" and thereby keep the Oval Office open for Hillary.
via NewsMax
This is entirely consistent with the Clintons' behavior for years. They've used, abused, and discarded Democrats without remorse throughout their sordid career together. What's pathetic is how Democrats cling to them despite years of failure and disgrace -- Bill never won a majority of the popular vote in two presidential elections, and the Democrats routinely lost congressional seats under his leadership. The Dems are like a battered wife who won't leave an abusive husband because "he's a good provider."
Posted by Alan at June 7, 2003 01:25 PM