Clinton’s Kerry Rebuke Is A Prelude to ’08

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The New York Sun

While Senator Clinton joked earlier this week that she would rather talk about “nuclear proliferation” than about the scandal surrounding Democrat Alan Hevesi, her response to Senator Kerry’s flub was decidedly different.

Mrs. Clinton was one of the first to rebuke Mr. Kerry after he told a crowd in California that those who don’t succeed in academics get “stuck in Iraq.”

With her own re-election next week practically guaranteed, Mrs. Clinton’s attack underscores how much emphasis she is putting on solidifying a strong national security resume as her possible run for president gets closer.

It also offers insight into the divide that could exist between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kerry if they both run in 2008; or between the junior senator and the more liberal Democrats who could be taunting her from the political left for the party’s nomination.

“It probably demonstrates … that she is a very political animal,” the executive director of RealClearPolitics.com, Tom Bevan, said of Mrs. Clinton’s quick response to Mr. Kerry.

“Certainly it wasn’t required,” he said. “Her Senate seat is not in jeopardy, so the only thing she was thinking about was how it would play with respect to 2008.”

Mrs. Clinton’s criticism of Mr. Kerry comes after she’s tiptoed around the controversy involving Mr. Hevesi, the comptroller who used a state employee to chauffer his ailing wife.

On Sunday, Mrs. Clinton criticized Mr. Hevesi’s behavior but would not say whether she supported his re-election. On Monday, she said she would vote for Mr. Hevesi because there was no good alternative.

On Tuesday, she drew laughs after a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations when she responded to a question about Mr. Hevesi by asking whether she could continue discussing nuclear proliferation.

When it came to Mr. Kerry, she led the Democratic pack. Mr. Bevan noted that most of the Democrats to publicly rebuke Mr. Kerry’s comments are locked in tight races, and primarily in Republican strongholds. They include three Senate candidates, Jon Tester in Montana, Claire McCaskill in Missouri, and Rep. Harold Ford in Tennessee.

Other than the candidates who were all but required to publicly distance themselves from Mr. Kerry’s remarks for the sake of their races, many Democrats were silent or made their ire with Mr. Kerry known behind closed doors.

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, called Mr. Kerry’s response a “blooper,” a remark that was characterized as a defense of Mr. Kerry.

Mrs. Clinton said the comment was “inappropriate” and added that “nobody wants to see the 2004 election replayed.”

Yesterday, Mrs. Clinton steered the conversation back to Mr. Bush and the Iraq war.

A professor of political science at the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato, said criticizing Mr. Kerry was a must for any potential 2008 candidate. “She needed to condemn John Kerry and she did it,” Mr. Sabato said.

Mrs. Clinton has been talking about foreign policy and using every opportunity she can to show strength on national security and terrorism matters and cast the Bush administration as inept.

Mr. Bevan said the former first lady knows that if she does run in 2008 she’ll have to work even harder as a woman and Democrat to convince the American public that she is strong enough on terrorism.

While she is considered the Democratic front-runner for the nomination due to her name recognition and war chest, Mrs. Clinton also has to worry about whether rank-and-file Democrats will believe that she has the broader appeal to beat a Republican in the general election.


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