Clinton Could Face an Uneasy Return to the Senate

NYT: Clinton Could Face an Uneasy Return to the Senate
By CARL HULSE
Published: May 26, 2008

....While she has received millions of votes, stirred thousands of Americans at rallies, made hundreds of appearances and is just scores of delegates short of her goal, defeat would still return her to the Senate as No. 36 out of 49 Democrats. But the seniority arithmetic is only the beginning. There is also the personal challenge of returning to a club where more Democratic members, some quite pointedly, favored Senator Barack Obama and spurned her. For Mrs. Clinton, who has spent years cultivating friendships and raising money for colleagues, that had to hurt. Though the Senate is a place where rival lawmakers daily work side-by-side, this family feud was more public and pronounced than usual....

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...(E)ven if she is once again principally the junior senator from New York, a case can be made that her campaign has strengthened her Senate hand. She is now an even more firmly established national figure in her own right, with a defined and substantial following, one of the few in the Senate who can make that claim. Her standing will enable her to command attention even though she might lack a clear Senate platform. She will be sought after as a campaign resource (and, should she choose to settle scores, can shun requests from those who did not help her)....

But Mrs. Clinton’s relatively junior status limits her options in the Senate. She is pretty far down the ladder on her committees, denying her a chairmanship, the most potent source of influence and bargaining chips in the Senate give-and-take. Allies have said the Senate leadership should carve out an important niche for her, but that is not easy since any position could come at the expense of a more senior member. Top Democratic officials say the party leadership is not considering any special spot, though lawmakers would not rule out some accommodation if she sought one.

But talk outside the Senate of Mrs. Clinton becoming majority leader is considered truly fanciful within the Senate, where it has also provoked unspoken irritation at the image of Democrats waiting for Mrs. Clinton to swoop in off the campaign to guide her waiting colleagues. Not to mention the fact that Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the current leader, does not seem to be going anywhere....Even if Mr. Reid were to change plans, others who have been tending the Senate’s business while their colleagues seek the presidency might have something to say about that majority leader job....

Colleagues, hedging that the nomination fight is not over, say Mrs. Clinton will no doubt be a major force in the Senate even if she has no formal role. “She is a such a professional, and she is policy driven,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri. “She knows that to accomplish the things we want to accomplish, we will have to work together.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/us/politics/26clinton.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

.....and being a destructive nuisance. She is in danger of crossing that line (some say she already has). The Democratic Party can make her irrelevant if she pushes it too far. She wouldn't be the first one.

becomes bitter and vindictive like Lieberwhore....

.......her throwing a tantrum if the Party insists that Obama won and running as an Independent.... oh, the nightmare.....

have an overwhelming Democratic majority to neutralize Hillary and Lieberwhore.

global organizations wanting world government unions doesn't worry you? The Americas Union of America, Mexico, and Canada with no real democracy just puppets as rulers.

Enforce the Logan Act.

I'm certain Joe Lieberman's committee chairmanship will be open in another few months. . .

4,000 Americans dead, countless Iraqis, increased terrorism - all so they could get the war vote off the table in the 2002 election. That was HER strategy and she won't own it or apologize for it. The Senate knows whose fault it is.

Things will really get done.

Dodd was the most prominent opponent of retroactive immuntiy for phone companies in the Senate, while Harry Reid put it to a vote which passed the Senate.