Headlines this past week have included the CPAC clown car and the RNC
election post-mortem on the Republican side, neither of which MSNBC
appears able to stop trumpeting. On the Democratic side, Hillary
Clinton's endorsement of marriage equality, which ruffled some Fox News
feathers, and Barack Obama's trip to Israel soaked up most of the
airtime.
While MSNBC gleefully pursues the rifts that have continued
to rock the Republican Party, a brief report, overshadowed by Obama's
day in Jerusalem, shined some light, however briefly today, on a battle
in the Democratic Party that is being fought in the hills of Kentucky.
If
you had the impression that 2008 was a mere memory, that Hillary
Clinton's four years of service in the Obama administration and Bill
Clinton's work for the Obama campaign indicated that all wounds were
healed and that the
Obamas and Clintons ended their only private meal together singing Kumbaya, think again. There is a power struggle going in behind the scenes.
Politico broke this little gem today to almost no fanfare.
Democratic
heavy hitters — including Bill Clinton — are quietly trying to woo a
new candidate to jump into the race to unseat Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell, even as actress Ashley Judd is taking steps toward
launching a star-studded campaign of her own.
With fears growing in some Democratic quarters over Judd’s potential
candidacy, some prominent Democrats in the Bluegrass State are beginning
to set their sights on 34-year-old Alison Lundergan Grimes, the
Kentucky secretary of state. Among Grimes’s attributes: She lacks
political baggage since she’s served barely a year in office, and she
hails from a well-connected family influential in Kentucky Democratic
politics. But it’s not at all certain if she’ll jump into the race.
Grimes
does have the Clintons in her corner. Earlier this month, the former
president — a longtime friend of Grimes’s father — privately urged the
young secretary of state to mount a Senate bid while
assuring
Grimes that both he and his wife, Hillary, would get behind her should
she decide to take on the powerful Senate GOP leader, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
According
to this article, the biggest Kentucky-based cheerleader behind a Judd
run is John Yarmuth. Whom did Judd support back in 2008 and where did
Yarmuth stand? You have to wonder. According to
Wikipedia, Judd supported Obama. What of Yarmuth?
May 7th, 2008
...
Yarmuth said he doesn’t think Obama should concede Kentucky (even
though he’ll likely lose the state) to Clinton but he thinks Clinton
should drop out of the race on May 21.
Yep! He was one of those. He was calling
for her to withdraw in the face of a likely
win. Here is how much Obama cared about the Kentucky race. From
the same article.
Oh, and Obama’s camp says he won’t be in
Kentucky this Friday due to scheduling conflicts.
So, as I said a few weeks ago,
Democrats, Let Hillary Clinton Nap And Get Focused On 2014 (She Will Be When She Gets Some Sleep).
I took some flak for that one. but there had already been indications
that aside from the book she is writing she had plans to campaign in
2014. Now we are beginning to get an idea of where and for whom. We
know a Clinton-backed candidate can knock it out of the park and unseat
McConnell in Kentucky.
You
can make this about 2016 if you want to, certainly there are cases to
be made. But if you look at the facts, just the facts, it is about
getting a major obstructionist out of the Senate. As to who might next be in front of the Clinton bats, I suggest
Ted Cruz and
Harry Reid.
Posted by Mary C. Curtis on March 20, 2013 at 8:35 am
If
you said Hillary Rodham Clinton owes the start of her independent
political career to Rick Lazio, even Lazio might agree. The tipping
point for the 2000 race for the U.S. Senate from New York between a
former first lady and a U.S. Congressman? When Lazio, the Republican
nominee, crossed over to Clinton’s side of the stage in a
pre-election debate
and demanded she sign a piece of paper. Few remember what was on that
page, a pledge against using soft money in the campaign. They do
remember the moment. Women – and to be fair, a lot of men – cringed,
recalling similar encounters they might have had with a guy who stepped
over the line. The rest is history, and it belongs to Clinton.
I thought of that image watching the back-and-forth between Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the
gun legislation debate
last week. Cruz’s question on the constitutionality of a ban on assault
weapons, using the example of limits on the First Amendment, had merit.
But it was the tone of condescension in Cruz’s voice and the smirk on
his face that stuck.
“I’m not a sixth grader, Senator. I’ve been
on this committee for 20 years,” Feinstein said. She has history, not
only in the Senate but on the front lines of gun violence. Though her
presence on the scene when San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and
Supervisor Harvey Milk were murdered in 1978 doesn’t automatically give
her the upper hand in a disagreement on gun rights, it does earn her
some respect. Cruz missed that. And while his Senate seat looks to be
safe in Texas, his national ambitions definitely took a hit. Who wants a
president who reminds them of that dude who treated you like an idiot?
Dianne intends to fight on for an assault weapons ban. Harry Reid may collapse rather than do battle, but not Dianne. He should be replaced. She should be majority leader. Fight on, Dianne. Let's see if the Clintons know a good primary opponent for Reid in Nevada as well as a replacement for Cruz.
