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Hillary shows how Dems can woo 'heartland'
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| Contributor | None Entered |
| Last Edited | None Entered Feb 09, 2005 03:08am |
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| Category | Commentary |
| News Date | Wednesday, February 9, 2005 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | In 1991, defense-hawk Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) caught the presidential bug, abandoned his record and opposed the first Persian Gulf War -- a big mistake. Has the same thing happened to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.)?
Last week, Bayh -- one of the four lead sponsors of the resolution that authorized the 2003 Iraq war and chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council -- was one of just 13 Senators to vote against the confirmation of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The others were all liberal Democrats, plus Independent Jim Jeffords (Vt.).
Bayh, who was on the short list for the vice president nomination in 2004, is an all but certain presidential candidate in 2008, and possibly the leading moderate in the race.
So was his "no" vote on Rice a bid to win favor with the anti-war mainstream of the Democratic Party? Significantly, the arguable Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), voted for Rice. Taking a page directly from the centrists' post-2004 playbook, Clinton also went out of her way to show respect for foes of abortion and other "values" voters.
Bayh's vote mystified some of his friends in the DLC. "He does strange things sometimes," one of them said. Another speculated that Bayh, normally cautious, is eager to "raise his profile" and "step out" on national security issues.
Bayh's staff insists that positioning for 2008 had nothing to do with his vote. They insist that he remains a supporter of the war, but believes that the Bush administration has badly mishandled it and that Rice, as a principal manager, does not deserve a "promotion."
In the absence of further evidence of caving to the left, I'm inclined to accept that explanation.
Still, politicians' actions have political consequences, and I think Clinton's were more appropriate to her party's current predicament than Bayh's. A Northeastern liberal, she's tilting toward the center to make her profile more resemble that of her politically successful husband th |
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