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.
There is an enemies list and it is maintained by the Clintons and revenge is being planned. BUT, and this is a point I made early in this election season, how much revenge can be taken by people who have been rejected by their party and cast out of their leading positions?
If Hillary had been elected president, or even if she had gained the nomination, she would be in a position to do some serious damage to anyone who crossed her. And Bill as the former two-term president who had managed to put his wife in the Oval Office would also have enormous power to damage anyone who got on his wrong side. However the Oval Office fantasy has been lost and all the Clintons have left is a Senate seat and a Democrat party which is heaving a massive sigh of relief that they have finally gotten rid of the albatrosses from Arkansas.
Even the money that the Clintons control will begin to dry up now. After all what use will he be to Middle Eastern business interests, Asian criminal masterminds and the Red Chinese military and intelligence services if he is now viewed only as the has-been from Hope who was a big part of why his wife lost her bid for the nomination?
Bill Clinton is going to join Jimmy Carter in the land of ungracious presidential retirement. He won't go away but won't exercise any real power either. He will simply hang around the periphery of American governmental affairs constantly sticking his nose in where it isn't needed or wanted and doing more harm than good. All to the applause of an ever shrinking number of demented fanatical followers.
As for Hillary it will all depend on the deal she made with B. Hussein to pull out and not cause a riot at the convention. If she only gets her campaign debt paid off and a prime time speaking slot then she goes back to the Senate where she will no longer have to pretend to be a "moderate". In that case expect Barack Obama's "most left-wing" voting record to be shattered in the first session of the new congress.
Either way they are never again going to be what they once were.
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