Uncategorized

Hillaryland

By Karen Tumulty | March 19, 2010 | +

For your political trivia file:

I was struck by this passage in today’s NYT story about the Secretary of State:

While their underlings at times grouse about one another — some Clinton supporters call White House officials “The Cardinals” (to suggest that they are too controlling), and some Obama staff members refer to the State Department as “Hillaryland” (the campaign’s leftover name for the enemy camp) — Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton both have compelling reasons to make their relationship work.

In fact, “Hillaryland” goes back much, much farther than the 2008 campaign. Back when I covered the White House in the late 1990s, it was how the then-First Lady’s tight-knit staff referred to itself. I once asked Hillary Clinton spokesman Neel Lattimore where this rather odd nickname originated, and he said it actually began as sort of a joke during the 1992 campaign. As he recalled it, back in the Little Rock headquarters, Hillary Clinton’s operation put up a sign designating its part of the workspace as “Hillaryland,” and Mrs. Gore’s responded by marking its territory as “Tippertown.”

Related Topics: Hillary Clinton, hillaryland, tipper gore, tippertown, Uncategorized

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  • http://patricksartor.wordpress.com patricksartor

    I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat

    - Will Rogers

  • Paul-no not that one

    Love those blind quotes!
    .
    Of course to ferret out such important information journalistic sacrifices have to made.

  • dumdedumdum

    Speaking of twisted residues from the Clinton presidential campaign of the early 90s, the story behind the Bill Clinton/”I feel your pain” meme (as an expression of some sort of touchy feelly ness on Clinton’s part) is an interesting one. I think Clinton said “I feel your pain” once (actually twice in a row, on one occasion, for the sticklers) during the campaign (I’d be happy to be corrected about that), and that in an angry and frustrated response to someone from ActUp, Bob Rafsky, who had been attacking Clinton’s attitude towards the AIDS epidemic. See http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/28/us/1992-campaign-verbatim-heckler-stirs-clinton-anger-excerpts-exchange.html

    But “I feel your pain” has come to connote something completely different.

  • jymallyn

    Anyone who underestimates the wisdom of President Obama fails to understand WHY Hillary is his Secretary of State rather than continuing to be the elected Senator from New York.

    As Sun Tzu said, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

    The blessing of Obama’s wisdom is that it not only neutralized Hillary by putting her on Obama’s leash, it also neutralized alcoholic Bill Clinton by forcing Hillary to keep him on a leash.

    Someday, someone will do a play based upon the Clinton’s political careers appropriately titled “McBill” in which the penultimate line will be “Out. Out. Damn spot.”

    Thank you for letting me share.

  • apr2563

    I am reading the great Molly Ivin’s book “Who Let the Dogs In?” and although she dispared of Cllintons triangulation and abandonment of so many progressive issues, she documents the systematic hostility of the traditional media towards the Clintons from the beginning of his Presidency.
    //
    They spent more time on all the “gates” then they ever did on Bush foreign policy and corruption.
    //
    By the way, my son got me a Kindle for Christmas. At first I was not enthused. I am enjoying it, particularly the 1000s of books you can order for no cost. Still read regular books and miss flipping pages when reading on Kindle, but it another means of access to lliterature. I just ordered Middlemarch at no cost.

  • sacredh

    Ah, now I understand why Cheney’s staffers put the plaque on his restroom that said “DICKHEAD”.

  • http://patricksartor.wordpress.com patricksartor

    Alcoholic?

    Bill Clinton had issues with a bad diet and saying no to women after power made him so attractive to women.

    Alcoholic?

    GWB said that he was an alcoholic until he found Jesus and got into politics.

    He should have stuck to bottle.

  • http://patricksartor.wordpress.com patricksartor

    So, you are saying it isn’t an impeachable offense to loose money on a real estate deal at Whitewater?

    I think the Republicans were just seeking revenge for Richard Nixon and with Jimmy Carter’s worst sins being his “lusting in his heart” for other women that they were ready to find anything.

    Heart?

    That’s not where I experience lust, but that’s another story.

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