Ickes reminded that Bill Clinton also came under fire from party liberals for his more centrist rhetoric. But they stuck with him because "his record in totality was extraordinarily progressive."

Ickes was responding to complaints from liberals this week, who went wild after Mrs. Clinton's Monday speech to the DLC.

"By aligning herself with the DLC, it is pretty well guaranteed that there will be somebody running for the [2008 presidential] nomination to her left," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the liberal group Campaign for America's Future. "She is going to have to choose between the DLC and the progressive activist base of the party," he warned.

In fact, Mrs. Clinton has a 95 percent rating with the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action. The American Conservative Union, meanwhile, gave Clinton a zero rating for her 2004 Senate votes. Her career ACU rating is just 9.

Still, while trying to assure critics that Hillary hadn't wandered completely off the liberal reservation, Ickes took pains not to paint her into a radical corner.

"It's hard to characterize her as an extreme liberal," he insisted to the Times. "She has a lot of progressive and liberal support, but Hillary is moderate in many of her positions."

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