Fully Authorized Now. In fall 2003, Adam Parkhomenko launched the unauthorized website VoteHillary.org, which promoted Hillary’s candidacy for President. In July 2004, he established the unauthorized “Draft Hillary for President 2004” organization in the vain hope of getting Sen. Clinton the Democratic nomination that year. This was a mere month before Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.) received his inevitable coronation in Boston at the Democratic National Convention. Parkhomenko’s organization failed in its chief objective—perhaps fortunately for Hillary, since she would have had to face an incumbent President, instead of an open bid for the White House in 2008.
However, Clinton has now hired Parkhomenko to be part of her political action committee (HillPAC) staff, according to the New York Post. This hire is good news for Parkhomenko, but Hillary’s likely 2006 opponent, Jeanine Pirro, is charging that it means Hillary is definitely using her Senate seat as a steppingstone to the White House. HillPAC’s executive director, Pattis Solis Doyle, says Parkhomenko will be a “jack-of-all-trades staffer with duties that include database upkeep and web-site work.” The Post speculates that Parkhomenko’s previous efforts gathered extensive contact information about strong supporters of Clinton, and that her campaign will be putting this information to good use.
Bill Cries Wolf. Former President Bill Clinton recently appeared on CNN, where he told Wolf Blitzer that he’s not so sure his wife Hillary will be running for President in 2008. “We have a rule in our family that I always followed and now she does: Don’t look past the next election or you might not get past the next election,” he said. “I’m convinced in my own mind that she hasn’t decided on that. I believe I would know if she had.” The former President also commented on Hillary’s potential 2006 opponent, saying that Pirro might not even be the GOP nominee. “I don’t know who the Republicans are going to nominate and I don’t think you do,” he told Blitzer.
Hill Hits Hard? Jeanine Pirro’s campaign is already accusing Hillary’s camp of dirty tricks. Specifically, one of Pirro’s top aides is claiming that Clinton supporters are the source of reports that the Westchester County district attorney had taken campaign donations from firms with alleged ties to organized crime. Campaign spokesman Michael McKeon complained: “It’s clear the Clintons and their attack dogs and their surrogates are already stooping to throwing mud, which is not much of a shock. They are very much afraid of Jeanine.” Although McKeon admitted he had no direct knowledge that friends of Hillary were behind the stories, he said: “[O]ne plus one equals two. Jeanine declares, this comes out, equals the Clinton attack team. It’s simple arithmetic.” The reporter behind the reports, however, says he checked the facts from public records, and the charge was called “baseless” by state Democratic Chairman Herman Farrell.
Not Just Pirro. Although Jeanine Pirro has been in the news quite a bit recently, Edward Cox insists he is not leaving the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Clinton’s re-election bid next year. The day after Pirro announced her official plans, Cox vowed, “We’re going to stay in this race.” Cox also promised, “We’ll support whoever the Republican nominee is, but we expect to be that nominee.” Meanwhile, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer also has said that he is not quitting the Senate race. “I’m staying in the race and I expect to get the Conservative [Party] line,” Spencer told WROW-AM, an Albany radio station. Spencer said it’s possible that if Pirro wins the GOP nomination, he would be the Conservative Party’s nominee. “I’ll split the two liberals,” Spencer said, referring to Pirro and Clinton. “That would be the worst-case scenario, but it is an interesting scenario,” he noted. Both Cox and Spencer adhere to traditional conservative values, and are pro-life, in contrast to Pirro.
