Paul Begala showed his ‘independence’ from Team Hillary yesterday. Referring to the fact that Barack and Hillary tried to wait each other out on the Iraq War funding vote, Begala told CNN:
“You know, I think both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, neither of them covered themselves with glory here. This — this bill was not unexpected. It was not a deal that would suddenly shock anybody. And the fact that they could not decide until just — just right before the vote, where they were going to be, I think, is going to upset a lot of their supporters. And maybe this gives new oxygen to some of the stronger, clearer anti-war candidates.”
Maybe. Only the most politically addicted will have noticed the atmospherics around the vote. The vote itself is what counts. I can’t see too many people saying, seven months from now, ‘I would have voted for Hillary but she waited until the last moment to cast that ‘nay’ vote’. I mean, let’s try to keep it real here.
But there is a much larger point here. The last time we had a senator running for president from the majority party, it was Bob Dole. And Bob Dole was the majority leader. Dole was able to use the Senate as a tool in his campaign. For example, the Republicans tried to gunk up the Welfare Reform Bill with enough poison pills that Clinton would be forced to veto it. Clinton called their bluff and signed the bill anyway. Even though this caused several mid-to-high level resignations from the admininstration, it didn’t ultimately hurt Clinton’s reelection prospects. So, what’s my point?
The point is that if we are going to turn the leadership of our party from Reid-Pelosi to Dodd or Clinton or Biden or Obama, then they need to demonstrate an ability to lead the Senate caucus.
Dodd made a genuine effort to lobby his colleagues on this bill. The rest of them were holding their fingers in the wind up until the last moment. It’s less the specifics about what Barack and Hillary said before the vote or how long they waited to cast their votes, than it is a failure to show any leadership role over the caucus. Dodd proved ineffective. But Clinton and Obama didn’t even try. And that makes it hard to picture them as the leaders of the party a mere seven months from now.
