Clinton's behind 'Hate Bush' Calif. event?

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 200311:02 a.m. EST
Clintons Behind L.A. 'Hate Bush' Event

The invitations to the gathering labeled a "Hate Bush" strategy session by the Drudge Report may have come from Seinfeld producer-spouse Laurie David. But the agenda for the event held Tuesday night at Los Angeles' Beverly Hilton was scripted by Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Ostensibly, the session "was an attempt to acquaint the liberals with Americans Coming Together, an initiative to mobilize Democrats in 17 states that may prove crucial to the outcome of the 2004 presidential race," reported the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday editions.

The meeting was "also intended to build support for the Media Fund, an effort organized by Harold M. Ickes, a former key aide to President Clinton," the paper said.

But according to CNN, it was Hillary Clinton who dominated last night's ACT event, albeit in absentia.

"Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) won't be in attendance, but her name is 'written all over' the event," reported the network's "Morning Grind" on Tuesday. "HRC's HILLPAC 'is the force behind' Americans Coming Together."

ACT, whose official chief is EMILY's List president Ellen Malcom, was created to find loopholes in recently implemented campaign finance reform law, so Democratic Party fat cats like billionaire George Soros can pony up tens of millions of dollars to defeat President Bush next year.

The tip-off to the Clintons' involvement in the "Hate Bush" gathering is the presence of Ickes, whose characterization by the Times as a former key Clinton aide tells only part of the story.

According to one-time Clinton insider Dick Morris, "Ickes is about as independent of Hillary as Bill is."

Writing in the New York Post last week, Morris described Ickes as Mrs. Clinton's "chief advisor."

"His photo graces her memoirs. He was her key operative in securing the Senate seat in New York. To pretend that anything he would do is independent of Hillary is like saying that the left hand is independent of the right hand."

Morris says the Ickes-Malcom-Soros effort is a bid by the former first couple to retain control of the Democratic Party's money machine at the expense of the party's probable 2004 nominee, Howard Dean.

Of course, should Mrs. Clinton decide to jump into the presidential race at the last minute, it wouldn't hurt that the former first couple already controlled a huge chunk of their party's campaign cash.