NYDailyNews

Hil Is Ready for Party At Her New D.C. Home

By TIMOTHY J. BURGER
Daily News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - In her debut as the Democrats' aspiring hostess with the mostest, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will open her elegant new home for a fund-raiser tonight that will be the first test of the former First Lady's draw as a political force in her own right.

With ex-President Bill Clinton far away in Africa, the senator will host about 150 fat cats under a tent for a white wine and hors d'oeuvres reception that has the potential to do much more than just help fellow freshman Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) retire a huge campaign debt.

The Daily News reported in December that Clinton tailored her search for a Washington home to find a suitable place for soirees and fund-raisers for her out-of-power Democratic Party.

That could help her groom herself for a presidential bid of her own — or at least reposition herself and her husband as party power brokers.

"We're hoping for a good turnout," Clinton said yesterday. "I'm really looking forward to helping Sen. Cantwell."

Clinton also is expected to hold fund-raisers for the Democratic National Committee at her $2.85 million home near Embassy Row.

"I haven't scheduled [other] fund-raisers yet, but I'm going to be, I'm sure, doing more to help Democrats," she said.

She held forth about the event yesterday in her first freewheeling session with reporters since the just-ended two-week congressional recess.

With reporters swarming outside the weekly Democratic senators' luncheon, Clinton covered topics ranging from President Bush's education bill to her "fabulous" vacation in Costa Rica with her husband.

The senator gushed about "a lot of serious resting and catching up on sleep and card-playing and word-games playing and beach walking" — but refused to say whether she won the parlor games with her card-shark husband.

Best of all, she said, it was her first vacation in a decade without the media.

Tonight's fund-raiser came together when Clinton and the other female Democratic senators twisted their donors' arms to help Cantwell retire a multimillion-dollar campaign debt that she had personally guaranteed with her since-devastated dot-com fortune.

Sources said Clinton actively made fund-raising pitches to her supporters for Cantwell — a rare phenomenon in the me-first Senate.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001