Martha Stewart Went To Jail For Much Less
2016-09-02 02:47:45 UTC
Hillary Clinton has managed to win support from Republicans
without conceding any part of the progressive economic agenda
she outlined during the Democratic primary.
But with fall approaching and momentum on Clintons side,
Democrats and Republicans alike are looking over the horizon to
a thornier reality: if elected, Clinton would likely become the
first Democrat since Grover Cleveland to enter office without
control of both houses of Congress.
That means the bipartisan show of support she has now -- thanks
to Donald Trump and the alt-right, conspiracy-driven campaign
Clinton attacked Thursday in Reno -- is likely to evaporate as
soon as the race is called. If she wins the presidency, Clinton
would likely enjoy the shortest honeymoon period of any incoming
commander-in-chief in recent history, according to Washington
strategists, confronting major roadblocks to enacting her
ambitious agenda, as well as Republican attacks that have been
muted courtesy of the GOP nominee.
It will be the defining fact of her presidency, Jonathan
Cowan, president of the moderate think tank Third Way, said of
Clinton's problem of entering office with a divided Congress.
Its unprecedented."
President Obama and former President Bill Clinton both enjoyed
at least two years of a Democratic majority in Congress when
they entered the White House, a period when they were able to
enact major portions of their agendas.
While Democrats are confident about taking control of the Senate
if Clinton wins the election, even her top operatives who have
been working to elect down-ballot Democrats do not expect to
snatch up the House of Representatives.
What that would leave her with is an absolute imperative to
govern from the center," said Cowan, a former Bill Clinton White
House official. "She will have no choice. There is no choice.
Obama will have picked most of the low hanging executive orders,
and she'll be in this Grover Cleveland moment.
At the same time, many Republicans who have aligned themselves
with Clinton say they feel like they have been holding their
fire -- and that ends Nov. 9.
In any other election, the majority of national security
Republicans would be going after her, and I would be
enthusiastically doing so, said Kori Schake, a veteran of
George W. Bushs National Security Council and State Department,
and an adviser to Sen. John McCains 2008 presidential campaign.
She wasnt a particularly good secretary of state, the lack of
judgment on emails was a shock to a lot of us. She rightly
criticized the Bush administration for its failures creating
stability in Iraq -- and made the exact same mistake herself on
Libya.
Schake is on the long and growing list of Republicans who have
said they plan to support Clinton this fall. But many of those
Republicans for Hillary dont want a vote against Trump to be
confused with any newfound love for Clinton.
A lot of us would like to hold her accountable for the
failures, but we are holding our fire, Schake said. It's
because all of us are afraid of Trump. If she wants to maintain
our support after, shes going to have to address our policy
concerns about the economy and Americas role in the world.
For now, Clinton has stuck to her primary promises of raising
taxes on the wealthy and overhauling corporate taxes to pay for
initiatives like paid family leave and
Republican strategist Tim Miller, Jeb Bushs former
communications director turned anti-Trump activist, has found
himself in an odd position this cycle: the unlikely darling of
Democrats gleeful at his taunting of Trump. He finds that
perplexing.
I would love to be working against Hillary Clinton right now,
but its a strange year, said Miller. The cannons have been
lowered against her because of our candidate. Hillary Clinton,
being a multi-decade partisan who fought tooth and nail with
Republicans and called them her enemy, is uniquely ill-suited to
having a honeymoon period if she wins.
He noted that next year, the focus will be on her domestic
agenda, which is not in any way bipartisan.
Clinton and her campaign have been trying to make a bipartisan-
sounding pitch. I will be president for Democrats, Republicans
and independents, Clinton said in a speech the night she
clinched her partys nomination on June 7. Her running mate Tim
Kaine addressed disaffected Republicans from the DNC stage last
month: we have a home for you here in the Democratic party.
The campaign hopes that inclusive tone can stretch into next
year. Our sole concern right now is in continuing to build a
coalition of support to elect Hillary Clinton as the next
president, said campaign spokesman Brian Fallon. We are keenly
aware that how you approach the campaign influences the
situation you inherit when it comes to governing. Republicans
and Democrats alike believe in increased investment in
infrastructure. Republicans and Democrats alike believe we need
to act to reform our immigration system.
Fallon added that the Democratic nominee remains optimistic
about at least gaining seats in the House. The composition of
the Congress that a potential President Clinton would be working
with is not at all predetermined, he said.
Neither is Clintons victory, although with a six point lead
over Trump nationally, according to the Real Clear Politics
polling average, many Republicans are now girding for that
eventuality.
Republicans operatives on the Hill, for instance, are already
planning to block Clintons agenda by strategically targeting
individual Democratic senators who will be up for reelection in
2018. Take Joe Manchin in West Virginia, explained one GOP
operative of the strategy. If Hillary puts up an anti-coal pro-
EPA judge for the Supreme Court, the smart play is to start
pressuring him with an advocacy campaign to vote no. Voting
with Clinton would jeopardize his reelection chances, and voting
against her would rob her of a Democratic Senate vote she
couldnt afford to lose without the 60 votes needed to
filibuster.
Meanwhile, Clinton is facing similar pressure from the left when
it comes to sticking to her campaign promises.
Appointments will be the first taste that people get, as to
whether she is going to think big and be willing to dare
Republicans to oppose populist positions and appointees, said
Adam Green, whose group, the Progressive Change Campaign
Committee, will be one of a host of progressive organizations
advocating to appoint anti-Wall Street crusaders to posts like
Treasury Secretary and Chief of Staff. Green added that the left
will be pushing Clinton to begin her administration by daring
Republicans to oppose her on big ticket items like expanding
Social Security and instituting debt-free college.
With pressure from both sides, it is inconceivable she would
have a mandate to govern coming in, said Dan Holler,
communications director at the conservative Heritage Action for
America. There should be a distinction in how people think of a
campaign, and then legislating. Its been an incredibly
convoluted election cycle. Using that to judge where people will
be in January is not a reliable indicator.
Republicans on the Hill said that much of what Clinton has
proposed during her campaign amounts to unfinished agenda items
of the Obama administration -- and they dont expect her to have
any more luck than he did while facing an obstructionist
Republican Congress. If she wins, her four years will look a
lot like the last six years of Obama, said one influential
House Republican staffer. Shes talking about things the
president couldnt get done, why does she think she will have
more luck?
Some Republicans warned that Clinton will have less. Groups like
America Rising PAC have spent years researching the most
effective attacks on Clinton. There is a long history of
Republicans opposing pretty much everything Hillary Clinton has
done, from trying to reform healthcare in the 1990s to what she
was doing as secretary of state -- theres a long memory there,
said Holler. Assuming she wins, Republicans could in some world
say the message here is that we have to compromise with Hillary
Clinton. Id be very surprised if that was their takeaway.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/hillary-clinton-presidency-
gop-plan-227427
without conceding any part of the progressive economic agenda
she outlined during the Democratic primary.
But with fall approaching and momentum on Clintons side,
Democrats and Republicans alike are looking over the horizon to
a thornier reality: if elected, Clinton would likely become the
first Democrat since Grover Cleveland to enter office without
control of both houses of Congress.
That means the bipartisan show of support she has now -- thanks
to Donald Trump and the alt-right, conspiracy-driven campaign
Clinton attacked Thursday in Reno -- is likely to evaporate as
soon as the race is called. If she wins the presidency, Clinton
would likely enjoy the shortest honeymoon period of any incoming
commander-in-chief in recent history, according to Washington
strategists, confronting major roadblocks to enacting her
ambitious agenda, as well as Republican attacks that have been
muted courtesy of the GOP nominee.
It will be the defining fact of her presidency, Jonathan
Cowan, president of the moderate think tank Third Way, said of
Clinton's problem of entering office with a divided Congress.
Its unprecedented."
President Obama and former President Bill Clinton both enjoyed
at least two years of a Democratic majority in Congress when
they entered the White House, a period when they were able to
enact major portions of their agendas.
While Democrats are confident about taking control of the Senate
if Clinton wins the election, even her top operatives who have
been working to elect down-ballot Democrats do not expect to
snatch up the House of Representatives.
What that would leave her with is an absolute imperative to
govern from the center," said Cowan, a former Bill Clinton White
House official. "She will have no choice. There is no choice.
Obama will have picked most of the low hanging executive orders,
and she'll be in this Grover Cleveland moment.
At the same time, many Republicans who have aligned themselves
with Clinton say they feel like they have been holding their
fire -- and that ends Nov. 9.
In any other election, the majority of national security
Republicans would be going after her, and I would be
enthusiastically doing so, said Kori Schake, a veteran of
George W. Bushs National Security Council and State Department,
and an adviser to Sen. John McCains 2008 presidential campaign.
She wasnt a particularly good secretary of state, the lack of
judgment on emails was a shock to a lot of us. She rightly
criticized the Bush administration for its failures creating
stability in Iraq -- and made the exact same mistake herself on
Libya.
Schake is on the long and growing list of Republicans who have
said they plan to support Clinton this fall. But many of those
Republicans for Hillary dont want a vote against Trump to be
confused with any newfound love for Clinton.
A lot of us would like to hold her accountable for the
failures, but we are holding our fire, Schake said. It's
because all of us are afraid of Trump. If she wants to maintain
our support after, shes going to have to address our policy
concerns about the economy and Americas role in the world.
For now, Clinton has stuck to her primary promises of raising
taxes on the wealthy and overhauling corporate taxes to pay for
initiatives like paid family leave and
Republican strategist Tim Miller, Jeb Bushs former
communications director turned anti-Trump activist, has found
himself in an odd position this cycle: the unlikely darling of
Democrats gleeful at his taunting of Trump. He finds that
perplexing.
I would love to be working against Hillary Clinton right now,
but its a strange year, said Miller. The cannons have been
lowered against her because of our candidate. Hillary Clinton,
being a multi-decade partisan who fought tooth and nail with
Republicans and called them her enemy, is uniquely ill-suited to
having a honeymoon period if she wins.
He noted that next year, the focus will be on her domestic
agenda, which is not in any way bipartisan.
Clinton and her campaign have been trying to make a bipartisan-
sounding pitch. I will be president for Democrats, Republicans
and independents, Clinton said in a speech the night she
clinched her partys nomination on June 7. Her running mate Tim
Kaine addressed disaffected Republicans from the DNC stage last
month: we have a home for you here in the Democratic party.
The campaign hopes that inclusive tone can stretch into next
year. Our sole concern right now is in continuing to build a
coalition of support to elect Hillary Clinton as the next
president, said campaign spokesman Brian Fallon. We are keenly
aware that how you approach the campaign influences the
situation you inherit when it comes to governing. Republicans
and Democrats alike believe in increased investment in
infrastructure. Republicans and Democrats alike believe we need
to act to reform our immigration system.
Fallon added that the Democratic nominee remains optimistic
about at least gaining seats in the House. The composition of
the Congress that a potential President Clinton would be working
with is not at all predetermined, he said.
Neither is Clintons victory, although with a six point lead
over Trump nationally, according to the Real Clear Politics
polling average, many Republicans are now girding for that
eventuality.
Republicans operatives on the Hill, for instance, are already
planning to block Clintons agenda by strategically targeting
individual Democratic senators who will be up for reelection in
2018. Take Joe Manchin in West Virginia, explained one GOP
operative of the strategy. If Hillary puts up an anti-coal pro-
EPA judge for the Supreme Court, the smart play is to start
pressuring him with an advocacy campaign to vote no. Voting
with Clinton would jeopardize his reelection chances, and voting
against her would rob her of a Democratic Senate vote she
couldnt afford to lose without the 60 votes needed to
filibuster.
Meanwhile, Clinton is facing similar pressure from the left when
it comes to sticking to her campaign promises.
Appointments will be the first taste that people get, as to
whether she is going to think big and be willing to dare
Republicans to oppose populist positions and appointees, said
Adam Green, whose group, the Progressive Change Campaign
Committee, will be one of a host of progressive organizations
advocating to appoint anti-Wall Street crusaders to posts like
Treasury Secretary and Chief of Staff. Green added that the left
will be pushing Clinton to begin her administration by daring
Republicans to oppose her on big ticket items like expanding
Social Security and instituting debt-free college.
With pressure from both sides, it is inconceivable she would
have a mandate to govern coming in, said Dan Holler,
communications director at the conservative Heritage Action for
America. There should be a distinction in how people think of a
campaign, and then legislating. Its been an incredibly
convoluted election cycle. Using that to judge where people will
be in January is not a reliable indicator.
Republicans on the Hill said that much of what Clinton has
proposed during her campaign amounts to unfinished agenda items
of the Obama administration -- and they dont expect her to have
any more luck than he did while facing an obstructionist
Republican Congress. If she wins, her four years will look a
lot like the last six years of Obama, said one influential
House Republican staffer. Shes talking about things the
president couldnt get done, why does she think she will have
more luck?
Some Republicans warned that Clinton will have less. Groups like
America Rising PAC have spent years researching the most
effective attacks on Clinton. There is a long history of
Republicans opposing pretty much everything Hillary Clinton has
done, from trying to reform healthcare in the 1990s to what she
was doing as secretary of state -- theres a long memory there,
said Holler. Assuming she wins, Republicans could in some world
say the message here is that we have to compromise with Hillary
Clinton. Id be very surprised if that was their takeaway.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/hillary-clinton-presidency-
gop-plan-227427