On Politics
BY RICHARD BORRECA
Clinton will ride in
to boost party’s spiritsFormer President Clinton will be in Hawaii this month to campaign for local Democrats. When Republican candidate for governor Linda Lingle is asked which big-name political star is coming to bolster her campaign, she quips, "We are bringing out Bill Clinton."
Clinton is the neutron bomb of Democratic celebrities. He's the biggest and the most popular Democrat in the national field today. He is viewed as someone who can blast past the armor of a hard-charging Republican and put the Democrats in command. It was Clinton who, after years of the party being trampled by Republicans, proved that Democrats could win back-to-back presidencies.
Even after being out of office for two years, Clinton is still a political supernova. Last year he visited 22 countries and has been in more than 17 so far this year. In a recent swing through Houston, not exactly a Democratic hotbed, he picked up a fast $100,000 for the Democratic Party and grabbed another $600,000 at the swanky River Oaks home of Joyce and Arthur Schechter, Clinton's ambassador to the Bahamas, for his presidential library and foundation in Little Rock, Ark.
Still, Clinton comes to Hawaii dragging his own tawdry baggage. In 1998 he was impeached for lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice. His White House adultery scandal still lights up the radio talk show phone lines. He beat the impeachment, but the perjury cost him his law license.
When Clinton comes next week, he is scheduled to appear at a rally in Honolulu and then dash through the neighbor islands with stops in Lihue, Wailuku and Hilo, the three bastions of Democratic support.
Republicans such as Micah Kane, GOP executive director, say Clinton's visit will help as much as it hurts.
"This shows the Democrats' inability to communicate with their own grassroots. The party has become the Andy Winer (Democratic coordinated campaign chairman) show," he says.
Other observers such as the decidedly liberal head of the Waikiki Health Center, the Rev. Frank Chong, see Clinton's visit as a chance to have someone talk up the Democratic Party and philosophy.
"The one thing Clinton adds is good Democratic rhetoric. The local Democrats are starting to sound like the Republicans -- they sound like Bush and Lingle," Chong complained.
But other Democrats know that their candidate has not once led a governor's race poll, and a visit from Clinton, even with the baggage, will be a welcome boost from a former two-term president. And that still counts.
Richard Borreca writes on politics every Sunday in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached at 525-8630 or by e-mail at rborreca@starbulletin.com.
