War of the Rosen.
The federal investigation of 2000 Hillary fund-raiser David Rosen continues. The latest news is that Sen. Ted Kennedy's brother-in-law, Raymond Reggie, secretly taped at least one telephone conversation with Rosen as part of a separate FBI investigation. Reggie recently pleaded guilty on federal bank fraud charges in New Orleans, and his role in taping Hillary's moneyman surfaced as a result of that plea, in an effort to have his sentence reduced. It will be remembered that Rosen is under investigation on accusations of filing false campaign finance reports, particularly from a 2000 Hollywood fund-raiser for then-First Lady Hillary.
He was indicted last January on charges that he falsely reported that the fund-raiser cost $400,000, instead of the actual cost of the event, $1.2 million, according to published reports. Clinton is not at this point a target of the investigation. In addition, the New York Post reports that Reggie never taped either Bill or Hillary during the time that he was working undercover for the FBI, from July 2002 through last December. Hillary's people are keeping tight-lipped, with her lawyer David Kendall saying: "The Senate campaign committee fully cooperated with the investigation. [David] Rosen worked hard for the campaign and we trust that when all the facts are in, he will be cleared."
Rock Star Treatment.
Hillary recently had an event with Homeland Security chieftain Michael Chertoff at NYC's Grand Central Terminal. As she made her way up to the podium, she was greeted with "whoops and hollers," and onlookers there broke into spontaneous applause when she merely walked up the stairs. Earlier this month, Hillary appeared at an event in Minnesota. When Sen. Mark Dayton (D.-Minn.) introduced her, he told the large audience to "Please welcome the next great President of the United States of America." The crowd responded by giving Hillary a tremendous standing ovation.
Win Walking Away.
Hillary's 2006 re-election campaign is not just looking to win next year, but to win big. Her top communications aide, Ann Lewis, told the New York Sun in an interview: "I want her to get re-elected well and I want her to have options for what to do next." Naturally this is likely to be interpreted to mean 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This is akin to when then-Gov. George W. Bush won his Texas gubernatorial re-election bid in 1998 with an astounding 68% of the vote, which served as a springboard to the White House in 2000. According to Baruch College professor Douglas Muzzio, the Clinton campaign is "looking to out-Schumer Schumer," referring to the New York senator's re-election last year in which the Democrat won 70% of the vote. "If I were making decisions for them, I would say, 'I want at least 72%,'" Mr. Muzzio said. "Given the paucity of the Republican field running against her, Hillary might get it, and that opens huge possibilities. It would be a slingshot effect coming out of the 2006 election." It also helps that Hillary has raised enormous amounts of cash ($8.7 million in the bank), has a virtually 100% name recognition, is seeking votes in a rather liberal state, and is married to a political maestro.
As former Clinton nemesis Newt Gingrich recently said, "Any Republican who thinks she will be easy to beat has total amnesia about the Clintons," not least because she has "the smartest American politician as her adviser."
