Inside Politics

Angry and shrill

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, “seems to have a lot of anger,” and voters usually do not send angry candidates to the White House, the Republican Party chairman said yesterday.

“When you think of the level of anger, I’m not sure it’s what Americans want,” said Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican National Committee.

Mr. Mehlman cited the senator’s remarks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in which she called the Bush administration “one of the worst” in history and compared the Republican-controlled House to a “plantation” where opposing voices are silenced.

“I don’t think the American people, if you look historically, elect angry candidates. And whether it’s the comments about the plantation or the worst administration in history, Hillary Clinton seems to have a lot of anger,” Mr. Mehlman said on ABC’s “This Week.”

When contacted for a response, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson told the Associated Press: “If the president and the White House spent half as much time worrying about the runaway deficit and the broken Medicare system as they do about Hillary Clinton, the country would be in much better shape.”

In an interview with CBS last month, President Bush said Mrs. Clinton would be a formidable candidate.

Rescuing the GOP

“President Bush was in trouble. Nothing was going right, and the war in Iraq was rapidly losing support. Democrats smelled victory but kept bungling the chance. Their nominee was so unappealing that Bush and the GOP scored a giant victory,” New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin writes.

“That’s a short history of the 2004 elections, when Bush won a second term and the GOP gained seats and kept control of both houses of Congress,” Mr. Goodwin said. “Fast forward and 2006 is shaping up like deja vu all over again.

“Bush hasn’t seen 50 percent approval in the polls for months, Iraq is stuck in bloody neutral and congressional Republicans are under fire for ties to a corrupt lobbyist. With midterm elections in the fall, Dems should be able to take one or both houses and exert much more influence over the last two years of Bush’s term.

“But Democrats are still getting in their own way, and could blow their chances again. The most prominent party leaders, including Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy, have become so extreme that their attacks make Bush look good by comparison.

“Clinton seems to have gone off the deep end. She followed up on her stupid remark at a Martin Luther King Day event that the House is ‘run like a plantation’ by charging the White House with a ‘deliberate policy of neglect’ in rebuilding New Orleans. She suggested in a San Francisco appearance that Bush saw the hurricane as ‘a mixed blessing’ and that he was afraid ‘all those Democrats might come home.’ NAACP Chairman Julian Bond topped that by saying Republicans would be happy to fly the Nazi flag.

“Such nutso talk feeds the rage of party fanatics, but it’s a surefire turnoff to the independents who decide close elections. The situation recalls Israeli Abba Eban’s memorable line about Palestinians — ‘they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.’”

Story Continues →