Bill And Newt Return To The Fray
Dotty Lynch is the Senior Political Editor for CBS News. E-mail your questions and comments to Political Points
That impish face was back and the words were flowing. "That's the famous Hillary Clinton defense. That's the vast left-wing, you know, conspiracy as opposed to her description of a vast right-wing conspiracy." That was Newt Gingrich back on center stage explaining to CBS News' Gloria Borger why Tom DeLay's attack on the Democrats, George Soros and the liberal media was not the way to solve his problems.
"I'm saying that when you're being attacked the first thing you naturally do, is you describe your attackers. In this case that won't work. DeLay's problem isn't with the Democrats; DeLay's problem is with the country. And so, DeLlay has a challenge: to lay out a case that the country comes to believe, that the country decides is legitimate. If he does, that he's fine."
There is a lot of history – not all of it good – between Gingrich and DeLay, and playing the Hillary card may have been his ultimate payback. But, as with all things Gingrich, it might just have been smart, shrewd political analysis.
Hillary Clinton's husband also waded back into the fray this week. During a press conference to discuss a big $10 million grant the Clinton Foundation was devoting to HIV/AIDS initiatives, Bill Clinton was asked what he thought about Arthur Finkelstein, the consultant who is trying to raise $10 million for a "Stop Her (Hillary) Now" campaign. It was reported over the weekend that Finkelstein, who is gay, had married his partner of 40 years. Finkelstein has worked for a number of conservatives like Jesse Helms who have campaigned against gays and gay rights but he describes himself as more of a libertarian than a conservative.
"I thought one of two things," Mr. Clinton said. "Either this guy believes his party is not serious and is totally Machiavellian in its position, or you know, as David Brock said in his great book 'Blinded by the Right,' there's some sort of self-loathing or something. I was more sad for him." Like Gingrich's line, one part political gotcha and one part interesting analysis.
These are the kind of comments that political reporters dream about in an age of on-message Stepford candidates. Toward the end of the '90s, columnist Maureen Dowd, who referred to Gingrich and Clinton as ethical co-dependents, wrote that she was dreaming of "cucumber candidates" like George Pataki, who might calm things down. But after the Bush-Cheney-Kerry-Edwards match, most reporters are back yearning for a good case of heartburn.
Gingrich is on a tour to promote his book, "Winning the Future," which lays out a "new contract to build a safer, healthier, more prosperous future," and has scheduled visits to those two book-loving states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Next week, he will talk to editorial boards at the Concord Monitor and the Manchester Union Leader and attend a fundraiser for the New Hampshire Republican Party. There has been a lot of speculation that Newt is just throwing out the presidential bone to sell more books, but a lot of activists and reporters seem to be happily taking the bait.
Mr. Clinton started his new job as a UN envoy for tsunami relief on Wednesday, and the handlers for his more disciplined wife are praying that he steers clear of New York politics. But for political reporters, the idea of a Newt Gingrich-Hillary Clinton match in '08, with Bill on the side doing color commentary, is enough to make us wade through all 16 chapters of the new Gingrich book and attend every press conference of the Clinton Foundation on global warming.
Who knows we might even learn something as we wait for the zingers.