Unusual new friends help Clinton shed her liberal past
Unusual new friends help Clinton shed her liberal past
By Holly Yeager in Washington
Published: May 13 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 13 2006 03:00. Copyright by The Financial Times
This week's revelation that Rupert Murdoch will host a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's Senate re-election campaign put the "punditocracy" in a tailspin. But it should not have come as much of a surprise.
Yes, the former first lady used to complain that her husband was under attack from a "vast rightwing conspiracy" that surely included the conservative media baron's News Corp. And yes, when she ran for the Senate in 2000 his New York Post did all it could to derail her.
"It was absolute holy war," said Michael Tomasky, editor of The American Prospect, a liberal magazine, and author of a book on her first campaign. "They were taking swipes at her in the sports section."
But Mrs Clinton - the undeclared but still leading Democratic candidate for president in 2008 - has been engaged in a long, slow effort to tone down her liberal reputation. In that respect, she is every bit the political heir to Bill Clinton, who introduced "triangulation" to American politics.
Her hedging seems to have few limits. During a meandering public chat this week at the National Archives in Washington, Mrs Clinton declared herself "a big fan" of the Three Stooges. When Allen Weinstein, the US archivist, said the world was divided into two groups of people, those who loved the Three Stooges and those who loved the Marx Brothers, Mrs Clinton replied: "Being a politician, I like them both." At the same forum, she said President George W. Bush has "a lot of charm and charisma".
Could Mr Murdoch also be accused of trying to have it both ways?
"We think that she has been effective on state issues and local issues here in New York," Mr Murdoch, the Australian-turned-American citizen, said during a conference call on News Corp's earnings this week. He said the fundraiser would be an "opportunity for people in our office who want to join us at a breakfast and to hear her", and insisted it had "nothing to do with anything other than her Senate re-election".
This is not the first time Mr Murdoch has strayed from his usual spot on the political spectrum. He famously switched the editorial support of his British newspapers - most notably The Sun - to Labour just a few weeks before the May 1997 general election that put the party in power after 18 years in opposition. Some believed his shift in loyalties played a role in the outcome. The Sun proclaimed, "It woz the Sun wot won it". But others said he simply joined a winning cause to protect his business interests.
These days, Mr Murdoch has serious gripes with at least some Washington Republicans. News Corp has enjoyed testy relations with the Federal Communications Commission and Kevin Martin, the FCC chairman appointed by Mr Bush, who has put fighting indecency at the top of his agenda as media regulator.
Last month News Corp's Fox television network joined three others in filing a suit in federal court, challenging a recent FCC ruling that broadcasts they had aired were indecent because they contained variations of two obscenities.
Mr Murdoch's new warmth towards Mrs Clinton follows a careful courtship by the former first couple.
While the senator is among the most polarising figures in US politics, she has also courted high-profile Republican politicians, working on pet causes with Senate colleagues such as Bill Frist, the majority leader, and Lindsey Graham, one of the managers of the impeachment case against President Clinton.
The approach has helped Mrs Clinton bring federal money to New York. Boasting this week to a group of business leaders from the state about the highway and public transit money she had sent home, she said it showed "what we can do when we work together, when we put aside ideological differences".
But her "strange bed fellows" tactic is hurting her standing among some liberal bloggers and activists.
"It's beyond disturbing yet not surprising to see something like this happen," read one comment on the liberal DMIBlog after news spread of Mr Murdoch's plans. "I desperately hope Hillary won't end up being the Democratic candidate. I just couldn't bring myself to vote for her."
Mr Tomasky said Mrs Clinton and her advisers were underestimating the role the internet could have in her presidential ambitions. "It's pretty clear that she just wants to run the kind of campaign her husband ran in 1992," he said. "But this is not 1992."
By Holly Yeager in Washington
Published: May 13 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 13 2006 03:00. Copyright by The Financial Times
This week's revelation that Rupert Murdoch will host a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's Senate re-election campaign put the "punditocracy" in a tailspin. But it should not have come as much of a surprise.
Yes, the former first lady used to complain that her husband was under attack from a "vast rightwing conspiracy" that surely included the conservative media baron's News Corp. And yes, when she ran for the Senate in 2000 his New York Post did all it could to derail her.
"It was absolute holy war," said Michael Tomasky, editor of The American Prospect, a liberal magazine, and author of a book on her first campaign. "They were taking swipes at her in the sports section."
But Mrs Clinton - the undeclared but still leading Democratic candidate for president in 2008 - has been engaged in a long, slow effort to tone down her liberal reputation. In that respect, she is every bit the political heir to Bill Clinton, who introduced "triangulation" to American politics.
Her hedging seems to have few limits. During a meandering public chat this week at the National Archives in Washington, Mrs Clinton declared herself "a big fan" of the Three Stooges. When Allen Weinstein, the US archivist, said the world was divided into two groups of people, those who loved the Three Stooges and those who loved the Marx Brothers, Mrs Clinton replied: "Being a politician, I like them both." At the same forum, she said President George W. Bush has "a lot of charm and charisma".
Could Mr Murdoch also be accused of trying to have it both ways?
"We think that she has been effective on state issues and local issues here in New York," Mr Murdoch, the Australian-turned-American citizen, said during a conference call on News Corp's earnings this week. He said the fundraiser would be an "opportunity for people in our office who want to join us at a breakfast and to hear her", and insisted it had "nothing to do with anything other than her Senate re-election".
This is not the first time Mr Murdoch has strayed from his usual spot on the political spectrum. He famously switched the editorial support of his British newspapers - most notably The Sun - to Labour just a few weeks before the May 1997 general election that put the party in power after 18 years in opposition. Some believed his shift in loyalties played a role in the outcome. The Sun proclaimed, "It woz the Sun wot won it". But others said he simply joined a winning cause to protect his business interests.
These days, Mr Murdoch has serious gripes with at least some Washington Republicans. News Corp has enjoyed testy relations with the Federal Communications Commission and Kevin Martin, the FCC chairman appointed by Mr Bush, who has put fighting indecency at the top of his agenda as media regulator.
Last month News Corp's Fox television network joined three others in filing a suit in federal court, challenging a recent FCC ruling that broadcasts they had aired were indecent because they contained variations of two obscenities.
Mr Murdoch's new warmth towards Mrs Clinton follows a careful courtship by the former first couple.
While the senator is among the most polarising figures in US politics, she has also courted high-profile Republican politicians, working on pet causes with Senate colleagues such as Bill Frist, the majority leader, and Lindsey Graham, one of the managers of the impeachment case against President Clinton.
The approach has helped Mrs Clinton bring federal money to New York. Boasting this week to a group of business leaders from the state about the highway and public transit money she had sent home, she said it showed "what we can do when we work together, when we put aside ideological differences".
But her "strange bed fellows" tactic is hurting her standing among some liberal bloggers and activists.
"It's beyond disturbing yet not surprising to see something like this happen," read one comment on the liberal DMIBlog after news spread of Mr Murdoch's plans. "I desperately hope Hillary won't end up being the Democratic candidate. I just couldn't bring myself to vote for her."
Mr Tomasky said Mrs Clinton and her advisers were underestimating the role the internet could have in her presidential ambitions. "It's pretty clear that she just wants to run the kind of campaign her husband ran in 1992," he said. "But this is not 1992."
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