Inside Politics

“That Fox News Channel matters now more than ever for campaigning Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton couldn’t have come at a better time for FNC’s top Sunday show, ‘Fox News Sunday’ with Chris Wallace,” Paul Bedard writes in the Washington Whispers column of U.S. News & World Report.

“In fact, with his news-packed shows stuffed with new Democratic arrivals to the Fox studio, he bested CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ and ABC’s ‘This Week’ in the critical Washington market during the May sweeps. Sure, Tim Russert’s ‘Meet the Press’ on NBC was king, but grabbing second in the D.C. market is like winning for the three other guys. We talked with the busy Wallace [last week], and he said that winning Washington is more than just getting bragging rights.”

Mr. Wallace said, “Washington is probably the single most important market for a Sunday morning talk show because one of the things that the guests on these shows want to do is to reach out to the other opinion makers and their colleagues in the political world. So if you’re able to say to a guest, ‘Look, we finished second in Washington, and if you want to get your message out to people on the Hill, to people in the White House, to the opinion makers in Washington, we’re the place to do it.’ It’s a powerful argument.”

Clinton’s future

If Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton returns to the Senate instead of the White House, she will face an institution in which she ranks 36th in seniority among the 49 Democrats, 17 of whom endorsed her presidential rival, Sen. Barack Obama, reporter Carl Hulsewrites in the New York Times.

Mrs. Clinton’s relatively junior status “limits her options in the Senate,” he writes. “She is pretty far down the ladder on her committees, denying her a chairmanship, the most potent source of influence and bargaining chips in the Senate give-and-take.”

“Allies have said the Senate leadership should carve out an important niche for her, but that is not easy since any position could come at the expense of a more senior member. Top Democratic officials say the party leadership is not considering any special spot, though lawmakers would not rule out some accommodation if she sought one.”

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.