Hillary Clinton takes the high road

The junior senator from New York defends herself against White House charges that she played politics with news of 9/11 warnings -- but she won't fire back.

By Anthony York

May 22, 2002 | WASHINGTON -- When the media sharks were circling late last week over disclosures that President Bush was briefed about possible al-Qaida hijackings before Sept. 11, Bush loyalists went into a familiar defensive crouch. Not only did they coordinate a counterattack accusing Democrats of playing politics, involving everyone from Dick Cheney to Laura Bush, White house spokesman Ari Fleischer singled out one Democrat in particular -- the junior senator from the state of New York.

"When there was a suggestion that Bush knew ... about 9/11, Mayor Bloomberg of New York said that suggestion was ridiculous," Fleischer said, referring to a New York Post headline from that morning. "I have to say with disappointment that Mrs. Clinton, having seen that same headline, did not call the White House, did not ask if it was accurate or not. Instead, she immediately went to the floor of the Senate, and I'm sorry to say that she followed that headline and divided."

Democratic critics say Fleischer's comments were out of line, and illustrate an apparent reflex within the White House war room -- when the going gets tough, blame a Clinton. And in an interview with Salon Tuesday, Clinton insisted her comments on the Senate floor Thursday were no different from those made by many other Democrats last week.

Here is the quote that attracted so much White House anger: "My constituents would like to know the answer to that and many other questions, not to blame the president or any other American but just to know, to learn from experience, to do all we can today to ensure that a 9/11 never happens again," Clinton said on the Senate floor Friday. In fact, other Democrats made tougher criticisms of the White House over the apparent failure to interpret and act on 9/11 warnings.

But Clinton refused to blame Fleischer for playing politics by singling her out.

"I think it's in our national interest to make sure that we have enough information to be able to take appropriate steps to defend ourselves," Clinton said. When asked about being singled out by the White House spokesman, a diplomatic Clinton refused the bait. "I'm not going to characterize their response," she said, but she made clear she was disappointed, if not surprised, by the tenor of Fleischer's comments.

Clinton may well be disappointed by the White House attack -- in person, she seemed almost to physically shrink from the possibility of being entangled in another partisan squabble, now that she's trying to be just another first-term senator. But the Fleischer assault made her halo shine nonetheless in liberal circles. On ABC, liberal commentator and Clinton critic George Stephanopolous (who wrote a tell-all about his time in the White House not too flattering to the first lady) sprang to her defense Sunday: "The first lady didn't say anything more -- in fact, Tom Daschle's words were far more vitriolic than hers. They know this rallies their base, no question about it."

But an administration official said Fleischer's comments Friday had their desired effect -- freezing efforts by congressional Democrats to shine a scandal spotlight on the Oval Office.

"There was a general tone on Thursday where it seemed like the other side thought they had an opportunity to score political points and didn't really care how they did it," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We simply responded to attacks that were being leveled on us in a proportional way."

When asked if Sen. Clinton's comments constituted one such attack, the official said, "I don't think they were helpful." But the official said the response was not part of any "blame Clinton" strategy. "She's a figure. She's in a Senate seat that was once held by Bobby Kennedy and Patrick Moynihan. When she's on the floor and attacks us, it's going to be noticed."

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