The Problem With Being Married to Bill

So far, it’s all been good for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in her race for the White House — or the Restoration, as it has been called. She leads in every poll and it’s due primarily to her service as first lady in the White House of her husband, the 42nd president, Bill Clinton. He has bequeathed to her his popularity in the Democratic Party, visibility, experience with national issues, gobs of money and endorsements and a team of experienced operatives who know how to run presidential campaigns.

But for the first time this week, we have seen the potential downside of this alliance. At a time when all Democrats are either outraged over or chortling about the Libby pardon, Mrs. Clinton has found out all too well about the less desirable aspects of being inextricably tied to her husband. 
Like liberals everywhere, she jumped in with a statement criticizing the pardon (“cronyism at the expense of justice,” yada yada). Husband Bill couldn’t resist either, and noted solemnly, “They believe they should be able to do what they want … the law is a minor obstacle.”

The White House jumped in ready for battle. Tony Snow responded, “This provides a nice chance to go back and look at the Clinton pardons … there was not much investigation of it.” Indeed. That administration was ending, so there was not much investigation of the pardons for, among others, international fugitive Marc Rich, whose wife Denise was a friend of Husband Bill and a major donor to the Democratic Party; key ally and former Democratic Rep. Mel Reynolds; Husband Bill’s own half-brother; and a cocaine trafficker who paid the first lady’s brother a fee to seek a pardon. Wouldn’t those be some worthwhile hearings to cover?

The point here is that Bill Clinton is not an unalloyed good for his wife as she pursues her own candidacy. Events could force her at any time to defend her husband’s actions of over a decade ago. And on some things, he has, as Ricky Ricardo would say, “a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.” How hard did he pursue Osama bin Laden during nearly eight years in the White House? Why did he endorse a “wall of separation” between executive agencies that denied the Justice Department access to information that might have foiled the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001?

The second downside is that such a focus on HIS past comes at the expense of HER future. Every successful presidential candidate strives to be future-oriented, focusing on the challenges ahead, not the controversies of the past. Bill Clinton IS the past, and the more the focus on him, the less on what his wife can propose to do in her presidency.

Like we said, it’s always about him.