June 8, 2008
Obama, Clinton Divide Spoils In Secret Meeting
There is reason to be alarmed when the Democrats’ leading candidates for President of the United States sneak off in the dead of night for a private “fire-side chat.”
So it is regarding the tête-à-tête of Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- with connivance of Senator Dianne Feinstein who loaned them her Washington, D.C., home for an hour of horse- trading.
Less delicate observers call it a “quid pro quo” -- something for something.
Senator Obama clinched the Democrat nomination last Monday with 2,118 primary votes. He immediately announced a committee to recommend a vice-president running mate.
The team is comprised of Caroline Kennedy, former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, and longtime Washington politico Jim Johnson.
According to the Associated Press, Senator Clinton told several other senators she would be interested in the vice-presidential nomination.
The next day, Senators Obama and Clinton spoke before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at Washington. The two chatted backstage, and it is supposed they discussed a vice-presidency for her.
DODGING THE PRESS
After the American Israel event, the traveling press corps assigned to the Obama campaign were hustled aboard a plane to Chicago where Obama was scheduled to speak next.
When Obama did not show up for the flight, newshounds realized they were scooped.
Indeed.
Sen. Clinton had phoned Sen. Dianne Feinstein and asked permission to use the latter’s Washington home for a top-secret meeting between senators Clinton and Obama.
Of course, Sen. Feinstein agreed.
She is chair of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, a member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
It’s nice to have friends in high places.
WELCOME
Obama’s plane for Chicago took off without him. Frustrated reporters shouted bloody murder.
Meanwhile, private automobiles cruised Obama and Clinton discretely to Sen. Feinstein’s home.
She seated her distinguished guests on comfortable chairs facing each other at the fireplace, put a pitcher of iced water near by, ushered their aides to her dining room, and retired to her second-floor bedroom “to work.”
She asserts she did not leave her bedroom door ajar.
An hour later, Obama and Clinton gathered up their aides, thanked their hostess and melted into Washington traffic.
Now we know how momentous political decisions are often made.
BACK SCRATCHING
What favors were exchanged by Obama and Clinton are not known.
However, it is not likely he would choose Mrs. Clinton as a running mate. The combination of an African-American and a woman, simultaneously, on a ticket for the presidency is too much change of custom. Either one is a challenge for voters.
In either case -- here and now – there are too many other issues affected.
Sen. Obama is a charismatic Black man with a short stint as an Illinois state senator – and now is a first term national senator. In neither case does he have meaningful legislation to his credit.
He made his way through South Chicago ward politics as someone who gets things done. He was a long-time member of a church famous for the pastor’s racist rant against white people.
CLINTON BAGGAGE
Sen. Clinton also carries political baggage. As a partner in the Rose Law firm, she was deeply involved in the White Water scandals.
She lied under oath and stole incriminating records discovered years later in her private White House study.
Her husband, President Bill Clinton also lied under oath regarding sexual peccadilloes as Arkansas governor and as American president. He was impeached by the House of Representatives but exonerated by a Democrat Senate.
DEMOCRAT CONVENTION
Sen. Clinton may have wangled a prime-time speaking privilege at the Democrat National Convention in Denver August 25-28 – plus other consolation prizes.
Sen. Obama, if elected President could appoint her to the Supreme Court – though Hillary might like to remain a U.S. Senator with the right to run for the U.S. presidency if Obama’s bid fails.
Until then, she might be given chairmanship of a prominent Senate committee having high, public visibility.
INSIDE HUMOR
Reminds US of an old political joke.
A lobbyist approaches a prominent Senator and tells him that if he will vote for a certain bill, “You will find a new Cadillac in your driveway the next morning.”
“What!” thunders the Senator. “I don’t accept bribes.
“Sorry,” says the solicitor. “How about I sell you one for a hundred dollars?”
“That’s more like it,” responds the Senator. “I’ll take two.”
By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist
