Inside Politics

Bill’s strategy

“The Oval Office love fest between Bill Clinton and President Bush showed Clinton masterfully doing his trademark triangulating — in a manner that could boost his wife, the presumptive 2008 presidential contender,” the New York Post’s Deborah Orin writes.

“When Bill Clinton snuggles up to Bush, he makes himself look like a centrist at the expense of fellow Democrats — who look more extremist by comparison in a new spin on the strategy known as triangulation when Clinton was president. That automatically and conveniently makes Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) look more centrist too,” Miss Orin said.

“So there was Bill Clinton at Bush’s side, volunteering that Iraq’s elections ‘went better than anyone could have imagined’ and warning against any demand that Bush set an exit timetable for Iraq — points sure to enrage liberal Dems.

“Given Bill Clinton’s political savvy, it’s hard to imagine this was accidental.”

“And it nicely meshes with Hillary Clinton’s sashays toward the center on issues like abortion, Iraq and even teaming up with Republican conservative Sens. Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback to seek a study of how electronic media impacts kids.”

Janklow and Daschle

Former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle was devoted to public service and did many important things for his home state of South Dakota, a former Republican governor and congressman said in a lengthy newspaper ad.

Bill Janklow, who resigned from Congress in his first term last year after being convicted of vehicular manslaughter, did not say what prompted him to place the ad in newspapers statewide last week. However, he and Mr. Daschle are longtime friends, the Associated Press reports.

“If we remember Tom Daschle the public servant for just one thing, it should be his ability to get things done for our state,” Mr. Janklow wrote in the ad. “In a calling increasingly characterized by self-congratulatory press releases and photo opportunities, he cared only for results.”

Mr. Daschle was ousted from the Senate by Republican John Thune in a bitterly contested race last year. Mr. Daschle had served four terms in the U.S. House and followed that with three terms in the Senate, where he was minority leader.

Mr. Janklow was first elected governor in 1978, the year Mr. Daschle won his first term in Congress. Mr. Janklow served four terms in office.

Mr. Daschle said he was flattered by Mr. Janklow’s praise.

“I’m very grateful for his kind words,” Mr. Daschle said in a telephone interview, adding that Mr. Janklow did not tell him ahead of time about the ad.

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