Dick Morris
The Political Life

Is Hillary frightened?

Even a casual observer of Hillary Clinton cannot help but notice a vast difference between the feisty, aggressive partisan who ran for senator and the mousy, quiet, circumspect junior senator tiptoeing around Washington these days.

Her campaign suggested that she would be in the forefront of the attack on President Bush should he backtrack on environmental and public health protections enacted during her husband’s administration. But all we hear from the New York Democrat as Bush kills these initiatives one after the other are the virtual sounds of silence.

In the first 100 days of this administration, Bush has rescinded arsenic limits in drinking water, advocated drilling in the Arctic, slashed environmental enforcement funding, reneged on his pledge to back the Kyoto accords, and refused to call carbon dioxide a pollutant. So where’s Hillary?

Beyond one or two pro forma statements, she is nowhere to be seen. She voted against John Ashcroft’s nomination as attorney general, but scarcely uttered a peep of public criticism. Sen. Clinton now says that she will fight against the nomination of Mary Sheila Gall as head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. What an odd choice for a crusade! Not only is it way down on anyone’s list of priorities, but Ms. Gall was appointed to the commission by President Bill Clinton.

On the tax cut, the main Bush legislative initiative, we hear no cries of protest. Hillary is not leading the charge. She is content to be a face among many in the rank-and-file of Democratic legislators. Even as Bush gears up for a possible Supreme Court appointment — or two — this summer, Hillary says little about her commitment to protecting choice.

The Republicans ram through a law making it a crime to assault a fetus while attacking the mother and Hillary is silent. Fetal tissue research dominates the headlines with the exciting discoveries about the potential of stem cells to halt a variety of dreaded human ailments, but Hillary says nothing.

Why is Hillary lying low?

My guess is that she is scared to death of the probe of her connection with her husband’s pardons now under way in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York. Unwilling to antagonize the finger on the trigger, she is pulling her punches and downplaying her criticism of the Bush administration.

Her silence runs counter to her patented strategy of savaging the prosecutor, as she did with Kenneth Starr as he doggedly pursued his investigation. Why the change? Because Hillary can no longer control the Justice Department. Her lap dog — Janet Reno — has left with the change of administrations.

On her case is U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who is currently conducting a series of investigations into the pardons Bill Clinton issued on that fateful last day of his presidency — the day he took eight years of achievement and poured ink all over them in the history books.

Her probe centers on the Marc Rich pardon and Roger Clinton’s possible selling of pardons. Neither of these investigations is likely to involve the senator. But it also encompasses Hillary’s possible involvement in a pardon-for-votes trade for Hasidic support in the New Castle community in New York during her Senate race. White’s probe also potentially could involve Hillary’s brother’s role in accepting contingency fees for his efforts to promote the pardon of Carlos Vignali, a convicted drug dealer.

It’s a pretty good idea for anyone who is under federal investigation not to give the Justice Department or the man who appoints the attorney general a hard time. With subpoenas flying around and witnesses getting immunity for their testimony, Sen. Clinton seems to be finding that silence is both golden and prudent.

Otherwise, how can we explain this unusual circumspection on Hillary’s part? With the public relations nightmare she has faced in the past four months — the gifts, the pardons, her brother’s fees — you would think that she would be anxious to step forward in public fighting the good fights to regain some measure of public support. Battling for the environment or public health would seem to be just the ticket for a senator from a liberal state who has run into ethics problems.

But Hillary knows that today’s press release could tip the balance in the delicate judgment calls that the Justice Department must make in any investigation of a public official. So silence — or at least very muted talk — is the order of the day for Sen. Clinton.

Dick Morris is a former political consultant to President Clinton, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and other political figures.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2001

Answers

she's not providing enough fodder for dick morris so he writes about that. i think the silence is a blessing.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001

Dick Morris and Hillary Clinton absolutely despise each other, a fact which must be kept in mind. Still, I think this Morris article is quite good.

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2001

My enemy's enemy is my friend :)

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2001