Phil Brennan
Monday, Feb. 12, 2001

During her Senate race Clinton told CNN's Larry King that she had promised New York voters she would serve out the full six-year term and that she intended to keep that vow.

That was "as definitive as I can get," she said.

But all the signs suggest she was – well, let's say, "fudging" the truth, something she and her husband have been wont to do whenever they believe the occasion warrants it.

Serious Clinton watchers will remember that Bill campaigned for governor of Arkansas in 1990, repeatedly saying he would not seek the presidency in 1992.

There are significant indications that Hillary is equally unconstrained by her promise, and she is indeed setting her sights on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:

• When pressed on the subject of Hillary's plans, Terry McAuliffe, the newly installed chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), waffled. McAuliffe, installed in the job by Bill Clinton to be his man at the DNC, at first denied Mrs. Clinton had any such intentions.

As reported in NewsMax.com, McAufille at first "guaranteed" that the ex-first lady wouldn't run. But seconds later, when challenged by host Tim Russert to put his money where his mouth was, he quickly backed down.

RUSSERT: You haven't mentioned Hillary Rodham Clinton running for president in 2004.

MCAULIFFE: I feel pretty safe saying – making a Shermanesque statement here – that Hillary Rodham Clinton will not run for president in 2004.

RUSSERT: Absolutely guaranteed?

MCAULIFFE: Guaranteed.

RUSSERT: If she does, will you contribute a million dollars to the Boys and Girls Club of America?

MCAULIFFE: (Pause) Wow.

RUSSERT: How sure are you? You said Shermanesque. The Boys and Girls Club will get one million dollars from Terry McAuliffe if Hillary Clinton runs for president in 2004.

MCAULIFFE: Tim, in fairness, I would like to check with my lovely wife, Dorothy, before I make such a statement.

McAuliffe beat out Gore's candidate to head the Democratic Party.

McAuliffe's allegiance is total to Bill and Hillary Clinton – and he was their No. 1 fund-raiser.

His position may insure Hillary the nomination, if she puts her hat in the ring.

• On Wednesday, Feb. 7, it was announced that Mrs. Clinton has set up HILLPAC, her very own political action committee (PAC), a move that will allow her to raise unlimited amounts of money which she can then contribute to Democratic candidates running for federal office all over the U.S., and build up a backlog of political IOUs she can collect when she runs for the presidency.

According to the Associated Press, she's also planning to set up another PAC in New York that will help her to solidify her home base, which she'll need to have solidly behind her when she enters the presidential primaries.

The setting up of a nationwide PAC by a member of Congress is typically viewed by pundits as the first step of launching a presidential campaign.

• Hillary is bringing her top political guru, the notorious Harold Ickes, to Washington and installing him in an office there. Ickes, a close adviser to both Clintons when they were in the White House, ran her senatorial campaign. There can only be one reason why she would bring this heavy hitter to Washington, and it is obviously not to advise her on her role as a senator except when it bears on her presidential hopes.

• Top Republicans long ago foresaw Hilary's Senate race as merely a prelude to a future White House campaign. Very early in the New York Senate race they warned New Yorkers that if they sent Hillary to the Senate they would also be sending her on the road to a try for the White House four years later.

Said her then-opponent New York mayor Rudy Giuliani: "This is not just any Senate race. ... I expect she will use her Senate seat as a springboard to become a leading Democrat prospect to run for president," he wrote in a fund-raising letter.

The state's GOP chairman also warned that the New York Senate race was merely a prelude to a White House try in 2004: "If she wins in New York it will only be a matter of time before she announces for president. ... This is our best chance to stop another Clinton from taking the White House," wrote state Republican Party Chairman William Powers on the GOP's Web site.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, former Reagan and Bush speechwriter and widely recognized political expert, said in an interview: "If she wins in New York and Al Gore loses in the general election, Mrs. Clinton will be first in line in 2004."

• Faced with the prospect of having her husband's dirty linen and Monica Lewinsky's soiled dress hung out in public again should Bill Clinton be indicted for his lies in the sexgate case, Hillary insisted that he make his 11th hour deal with independent counsel Robert Ray. "The now-former president was inclined to not take the deal," according to the American Spectator Online.

A former White House communications aide told the magazine's Web-based "Washington Prowler" column, "[Clinton] wanted to take his chances. He didn't think Ray would prosecute, and even if he did, he didn't believe he would be convicted."

When Hillary learned of her husband's decision to continue battling over his sleazy past, she told their mutual scandal lawyer David Kendall to keep negotiating.

"She didn't want it hanging over her head two years from now when she might be thinking of forming a presidential exploratory committee," the source told the Spectator. "She didn't want her husband to be what John Zaccaro was to Geraldine Ferraro."

Political observers believe that Mrs. Clinton, along with her husband, will become the Democrats' shadow presidency, using Hillary's Senate seat as a platform from which to launch attacks against the Bush administration on everything from such Democratic issues as health care and Social Security to education and foreign policy.

Every time they see an opening, you can expect Mrs. Clinton to take the lead as Bush's most vociferous Democratic critic.

From her safe vantage point representing the nation's most liberal large state, her attacks are sure to push all the right special interest group buttons and keep her in the public eye.

Moreover, with Bill Clinton's man running the DNC, you can expect to see it become an arm of Hillary's ongoing campaign for the White House.

When campaigning in upstate New York during the Senate race, Hillary let her guard down for a moment. Just after a "Hillary" chant from the crowd died down, a man called out "President Clinton" when her husband was nowhere around. Hillary Clinton smiled. "Sounds good," she said. Is Hillary planning a White House run in 2004? You bet she is.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Sen. Hillary Clinton

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