Headlines this past week have included the CPAC clown car and the RNC election post-mortem on the Republican side, neither of which MSNBC appears able to stop trumpeting. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton’s endorsement of marriage equality, which ruffled some Fox News feathers, and Barack Obama’s trip to Israel soaked up most of the airtime.
While MSNBC gleefully pursues the rifts that have continued to rock the Republican Party, a brief report, overshadowed by Obama’s day in Jerusalem, shined some light, however briefly today, on a battle in the Democratic Party that is being fought in the hills of Kentucky.
If you had the impression that 2008 was a mere memory, that Hillary Clinton’s four years of service in the Obama administration and Bill Clinton’s work for the Obama campaign indicated that all wounds were healed and that the Obamas and Clintons ended their only private meal together singing Kumbaya, think again. There is a power struggle going in behind the scenes. Politico broke this little gem today to almost no fanfare.
Democratic heavy hitters — including Bill Clinton — are quietly trying to woo a new candidate to jump into the race to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, even as actress Ashley Judd is taking steps toward launching a star-studded campaign of her own.
With fears growing in some Democratic quarters over Judd’s potential candidacy, some prominent Democrats in the Bluegrass State are beginning to set their sights on 34-year-old Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state. Among Grimes’s attributes: She lacks political baggage since she’s served barely a year in office, and she hails from a well-connected family influential in Kentucky Democratic politics. But it’s not at all certain if she’ll jump into the race
Grimes does have the Clintons in her corner. Earlier this month, the former president — a longtime friend of Grimes’s father — privately urged the young secretary of state to mount a Senate bid while assuring Grimes that both he and his wife, Hillary, would get behind her should she decide to take on the powerful Senate GOP leader, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
According to this article, the biggest Kentucky-based cheerleader behind a Judd run is John Yarmuth. Whom did Judd support back in 2008 and where did Yarmuth stand? You have to wonder. According to Wikipedia, Judd supported Obama. What of Yarmuth?
May 7th, 2008
… Yarmuth said he doesn’t think Obama should concede Kentucky (even though he’ll likely lose the state) to Clinton but he thinks Clinton should drop out of the race on May 21.
Yep! He was one of those. He was calling for her to withdraw in the face of a likely win. Here is how much Obama cared about the Kentucky race. From the same article.
Oh, and Obama’s camp says he won’t be in Kentucky this Friday due to scheduling conflicts.
So, as I said a few weeks ago, Democrats, Let Hillary Clinton Nap And Get Focused On 2014 (She Will Be When She Gets Some Sleep). I took some flak for that one, but there had already been indications that aside from the book she is writing she had plans to campaign in 2014. Now we are beginning to get an idea of where and for whom. We know a Clinton-backed candidate can knock it out of the park and unseat McConnell in Kentucky.
You can make this about 2016 if you want to, certainly there are cases to be made. But if you look at the facts, just the facts, it is about getting a major obstructionist out of the Senate. As to who might next be in front of the Clinton bats, I suggest Ted Cruz and Harry Reid.
Posted by Mary C. Curtis on March 20, 2013 at 8:35 am
If you said Hillary Rodham Clinton owes the start of her independent political career to Rick Lazio, even Lazio might agree. The tipping point for the 2000 race for the U.S. Senate from New York between a former first lady and a U.S. Congressman? When Lazio, the Republican nominee, crossed over to Clinton’s side of the stage in a pre-election debate and demanded she sign a piece of paper. Few remember what was on that page, a pledge against using soft money in the campaign. They do remember the moment. Women – and to be fair, a lot of men – cringed, recalling similar encounters they might have had with a guy who stepped over the line. The rest is history, and it belongs to Clinton.
I thought of that image watching the back-and-forth between Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the gun legislation debate last week. Cruz’s question on the constitutionality of a ban on assault weapons, using the example of limits on the First Amendment, had merit. But it was the tone of condescension in Cruz’s voice and the smirk on his face that stuck.
“I’m not a sixth grader, Senator. I’ve been on this committee for 20 years,” Feinstein said. She has history, not only in the Senate but on the front lines of gun violence. Though her presence on the scene when San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were murdered in 1978 doesn’t automatically give her the upper hand in a disagreement on gun rights, it does earn her some respect. Cruz missed that. And while his Senate seat looks to be safe in Texas, his national ambitions definitely took a hit. Who wants a president who reminds them of that dude who treated you like an idiot?
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Dianne intends to fight on for an assault weapons ban. Harry Reid may collapse rather than do battle, but not Dianne. He should be replaced. She should be majority leader. Fight on, Dianne. Let’s see if the Clintons know a good primary opponent for Reid in Nevada as well as a replacement for Cruz.
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Hillary Clinton 
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