New York Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf predicted “voters won’t blame [Hillary] and they might even support her more.”
A First Marriage on the rocks could spur Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for Senate, experts said yesterday.
Political pundits said an estrangement makes it easier for Mrs. Clinton to run for retiring New York Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan’s seat because it stirs up sympathy for her – and allows her to fend off embarrassing questions about her hubby’s sexcapades.
“If they are a team, she has to deny and defend or fudge. If they aren’t a team, she can say, ‘He’s disappointed me, and that’s a question you really need to ask him,'” said one Democratic strategist.
New York Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf predicted “voters won’t blame her and they might even support her more.”
The First Lady is mulling forming an exploratory committee – the first step toward launching a full-fledged campaign. Pals say she’s leaning toward running.
In New York, Mayor Giuliani, who might find himself in a race against Hillary – and whose own marriage has been dogged by rumors of trouble – said the Clintons’ relationship is nobody’s business.
“I don’t think it’s anybody’s concern but theirs – if it is a concern,” the mayor said.
Marist College Poll Director Lee Miringoff said a highly publicized split between the Clintons could hurt Giuliani.
“If [the Clintons’] marital problems were to somehow become a long-running show, of course, it would then be tough for Rudy to even get a quote into the paper,” he said.
New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who has openly urged the First Lady to run, plans to meet with her at the White House today.
Meanwhile, President Clinton, on a four-day goodwill trip to Central America, came up with a new explanation for his wife’s last-minute decision not to go with him.
Clinton, repeating White House claims that she hurt her back during their ski trip to Utah, insisted she would have come along but didn’t want to risk “seriously ruining her back for Africa.” The First Lady is slated to tour Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco with daughter Chelsea starting March 20.
The White House dismissed as “rumor and gossip and innuendo” reports that a furious Mrs. Clinton cut short the couple’s ski trip after a huge row, and couldn’t bear the idea of sharing a hotel room with her husband in Central America.
But Democratic insiders said there’s little doubt the First Lady is “very angry” with her husband.
“What a lot of people on the inside say is that there won’t be a formal separation. It’s just like an ebbing away,” said a Democratic source.
Although Mrs. Clinton issued a statement standing by her man after his fling with ex-intern Monica Lewinsky, she’s been silent on Juanita Broaddrick’s recent allegation that Clinton raped her in 1978.
Today, Clinton makes a sentimental journey back to Arkansas for the dedication of his childhood home in Hope. His wife isn’t going.
Later this month, while Mrs. Clinton is in Africa, the president will go stag to the Gridiron dinner – an annual roast of the First Couple – and the White House radio and TV correspondents’ dinner, both traditionally attended by the president and his wife.
Mrs. Clinton kept out of the public eye yesterday. Spokeswoman Marsha Berry said the First Lady “wanted to rest up.”
Despite the back-injury claim, Mrs. Clinton has shown no sign of being in pain.
She sat on a hard wooden pew for two hours at Tuesday’s funeral service for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, said one guest.
And just two days after she cut short the ski trip, Mrs. Clinton was stumping in New York, effortlessly bending over to chat with young kids at a Flushing school.