- Pacific
WASHINGTON — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was gracious in her full-throated endorsement of Senator Barack Obama. But that does not mean all is forgiven by others in the Clinton universe.
For proof, look no further than Doug Band, chief gatekeeper to former President Bill Clinton.
Band keeps close track of the past allies and beneficiaries of the Clintons who supported Obama's campaign, three Clinton associates and campaign officials said. Indeed, he is widely known as a member of the Clinton inner circle whose memory is particularly acute on the matter of who has been there for the couple — and who has not.
"The Clintons get hundreds of requests for favors every week," said Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. "Clearly, the people you're going to do stuff for in the future are the people who have been there for you."
McAuliffe, who knows of Band's diligent scorekeeping, emphasized that "revenge is not what the Clintons are about." The accounting is more about being practical, he said, adding, "You have to keep track of this."
Band, who declined to comment, is hardly alone in tallying those considered to have crossed the former candidate or the former president in recent months by supporting Obama. As the Obama bandwagon has swelled, so have the lists of people Clinton loyalists regard as some variation of "ingrate," "traitor" or "enemy," according to the associates and campaign officials, who would speak only on condition of anonymity.
Philippe Reines, a spokesman for both Clintons, said neither kept any specific catalog of those believed to have wronged them. "There is no list," Reines said.
The lists maintained by supporters tend to be less formal documents than spoken diatribes, with offenders' names spat forth in rants, gripe sessions and post-mortems.
Several names and entities are common among various list makers. The lineup invariably begins with A-list members like Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico; Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the House Democratic whip; Gregory Craig, Bill Clinton's lawyer in his impeachment and trial; David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist; Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri; and several Kennedys. Some members of the Democratic Party's rules committee, the state of Iowa and the caucus system in general are also near the top.
The news media have already focused on some list entries, including the online gossip purveyor Matt Drudge (who had the nerve to show up at Hillary Clinton's departure speech on Saturday), Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair (the author of a recent profile of Bill Clinton) and the cable network MSNBC (whose hosts Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann are charter list members, Clinton associates said).
The lists are also reported to include lesser-known Obama-supporting members of Congress (for whom the Clintons campaigned), former ambassadors (appointed by Bill Clinton) or Clinton White House officials turned Obama advisers (like Anthony Lake, a former national security adviser, and Susan Rice, a former White House and State Department official).
These are people who should know better than to ask the former president or first lady for a job recommendation for a son-in-law.
Prominent list entries tend to be philosophical about their status. "When you're on the losing end of a campaign, your sense of victimization is higher," said Joe Andrew, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee (appointed by Bill Clinton) who joined the lists after he switched his superdelegate allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Obama just before the primary in his home state, Indiana.
Richardson, the former energy secretary and United Nations ambassador under President Bill Clinton who endorsed Obama after leaning toward Hillary Clinton, said, "I know they're unhappy, but I've been on these lists before."
While Hillary Clinton has a short list of people who disappointed her, Bill Clinton, who reportedly has an encyclopedic memory of all the people he has helped, employed or appointed over the years, apparently has a far longer one, the campaign officials said.
Hillary Clinton's friends have a list of their own (it has frequently included the former president), as do veterans of Bill Clinton's White House (who love to blame Patti Solis Doyle, Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager), Clinton campaign employees (who complained incessantly — and continue to — about Mark Penn, the demoted chief strategist), Clinton fund-raisers and women's groups who supported Hillary Clinton's campaign.
"I won't forget these people," said Susie Tompkins Buell, a co-founder of the Esprit clothing company and a longtime friend of the Clintons who describes herself as "a soul sister" to Hillary Clinton.
When asked to name "these people," Buell specifies "all the women who sold out Hillary." She declined to volunteer names on her list but answered "all of the above" when read a roster of prominent women supporting Obama that includes Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. (6.11.2008, Mark Leibovich) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/world/americas/11iht-11clinton.13626061.html?_r=2
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