What does the future hold for Sen. Clinton?

  WASHINGTON - Sen.  Hillary Rodham Clinton is fully assuming her role as the state's junior Democratic senator after losing a long and bitter fight for the presidential nomination to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
     In a conference call with New York journalists on Tuesday, Clinton was constrained to say she fully expects to get along with Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who will become Obama's White House chief of staff. The issue was prompted by reports that as first lady Clinton tried to have Emanuel fired when he was in President Bill Clinton's White House political office.
   The respected Jackie Calmes of the New York Times has written "in the early months (of 1993), the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, maneuvered to have Emanuel fired. Clinton's chief of staff, Mack McLarty, instead demoted him from political director to the press office."
    Calmes reported Rahm didn't quit, but took the demotion, lost his big office, and moved into a tiny room at the White House press office and "just went to work." Since leaving the White House, Emanuel was elected to Congress, ran its 2006 Democratic campaign, and was elected chairman of the party's House caucus.
     The New York Daily News reported that Clinton hinted that the Obama transition team has not singled her out for any legislative initiative, such as health care reform. But Clinton has already said she intends to be in the thick of that battle.
      However, the staff of the ailing Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., has been hard at work on health care legislation that they will introduce at the opening of the new Congress in January. Kennedy was a strong supporter of Obama's nomination challenge to the one-time front runner Clinton.
     Media friends of the Clintons', such as Bonnie Erbe, have noted there is still tension between elements of the two Democratic camps, despite the many appearances that Bill and Hillary made in Obama's behalf, because Team Obama hasn't moved to retire what is widely described as a $10 billion Hillary Clinton campaign deficit.
    But it is a $21 million campaign deficit, according to Congressional Quarterly's Moneyline tracking Web site, not $10 million. That's as of Sept. 30. Complicating the campaign help issue is the fact that the senator herself shifted $10 million of her Senate campaign fund into her presidential effort in 2007, and there is still a reported $6 million surplus in her Senate campaign account and she doesn't have to run for the Senate again for four years.
    Friends of the senator have advanced her name as secretary of state, or a Supreme Court justice, if there is an early retirement from the bench after Obama is inaugurated Jan. 20. The State Department balloon hasn't floated very high.  New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who resisted heavy pressure from Bill Clinton and endorsed Obama, is the latest possibility mentioned for the state job.
    What do you think Sen. Clinton should concentrate on? Where can her influence make a difference for Upstate New York? What role do you see for her in the Obama administration?

--Douglas Turner

Comments

[Barton Keyes]

Sen Clinton should concentrate on developing a bi-partisan group of Senators that can help move key legislation through the Senate in the coming years.
That would do several things: (1) it would show the public (which has called for such bi-partisanship) that she is the one who can turn such hopes into reality; (2) the creation of such a bi-partisan group would make her a valuable asset to the Obama White House, even an asset that needs to be taken into account and negotiated with. This would give her power and leverage. And this is all the more possible as Clinton has a stronger history of co-operating with Republicans like McCain and other moderate Republicans than Obama; and (3) by becoming the can-do and go-to person in the Senate she positions herself for a party leadership role should Obama succeed or fail in his presidency.

[the ostrich from Mrs. Clinton's negative campaign ad]

When she first ran in 2000, she promised some big number of new jobs in WNY. Then after she won, she explained that promise was valid only if there was a Democrat president (which she conveniently forgot to mention during her campaign - opps!).

Anyway, now that there will be a Democrat president, shouldn't her top priority be to implement that mysterious plan of hers to create all those jobs in WNY?

Or will she have some other excuse now? Or is it that the plan was bogus all along?

[the ostrich from Mrs. Clinton's negative campaign ad]

In other words, Doug, why should our focus be on her ambition, her morale her sense of fulfillment -- when there's so much she promised the people that she hasn't delivered and which the media of course never confronts her about because it's not as important as what kind of dog the Obamas get?

[Morning Joe]

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is fully assuming her role as the state's junior Democratic senator after losing a long and bitter fight for the presidential nomination to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois."

So in other words, from now on she'll be DOING HER JOB? Considering that she's done nothing since being elected, I guess that can't be too hard.

Do political candidates who already hold an office still get paid while they campaign for a higher office? If so, we are basically paying them not to do their job, but for them to essentially get a promotion. Anyone else here get paid by your employer to seek out a better job?

Man. Politics really are where it's at.

[BobbyCat]

Hillary and Chuck Schumer should concentrate on bringing jobs to WNY. We should be well-positioned for President Obama's plan to free-up Federal dollars for infrastructure. We need to revamp out sewer system and stop the overflows into Lake Erie. Many bridges need to be rebuilt. Thousands can be employed winterizing homes and lowering energy costs. While we're at it, every municipality should OWN their wind turbines and pass the savings on to their beleagured taxpayers.

Investing in infractructure is a win-win because it keeps the dollars at home and it creates jobs,jobs and more jobs.

It's been a while since we smelled some bacon around here. We're long overdue.

[Don H]

Mr Turner's choice of words could not have been more appropriate: "... fully assuming her role as the state's junior Democratic Senator..." Unfortunately, that's all it's ever been for her, a role to play as a stepping stone to the Presidency. May she have success getting appointed to something in the Obama administration so New York can get someone as junior senator whose main interest is representing the people of New York.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

Maybe now she'll create those 200,000 jobs she personally promised to provide to upstate New York. After all, there's a Democrat in the White House (even if he is a Chicago politician, which isn't all that different from the Mafia) and a Democrat-controlled Congress. Now she has no excuse!

But, of course, it's not going to happen and she'll come up with some other lame excuse as to why she couldn't keep her campaign promise.

It's business as usual, folks and you people were stupid enough to vote for it!

[Jibreel Riley]

Life Time Sen from New York State... I'll be moving to Texas along with the Buffalo Bills

[RKT]

Who careas about Hillary Clinton. Don't know what her so special as she hasn't done anything for NY since she's been elected. All she likes doing is positioning the senate position for something grander in her personal scheme of things. Why voters in NY put her in is a mystery to me. As for the Wall Street collapse, both US Senators have been duds. Don't tell me Chuck Schumer got this caught off guard. Wall Street's right in his backyard and his old congressional district. What a lot of hooey! Let's hope Obama gets Hillary some Cabinet post or ambassadorship so we can get a "real" New Yorker to represent us.