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Lanny Davis: GOP Sounds Frightened of Hillary Clinton
Monday, November 10, 2014 08:18 PM
By: Bill Hoffmann
Washington powerhouse lawyer Lanny Davis, who was special counsel to President Bill Clinton, says Republicans are incessantly talking about Hillary Clinton because they're afraid of her expected presidential run.
"What's very amusing is the number of Republicans that are mentioning Hillary Clinton as being harmed by the election. You think they're worried? I mean, do you think?" Davis said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"They can't take their eyes or minds or voices off Hillary Clinton. Gov. [Scott] Walker better have a program that tells us how to solve America's problems and stop obsessing about Hillary Clinton. It seems like they're kind of afraid of her, wouldn't you say?"
Davis says he's fascinated by the bluster of Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus that there's nobody the GOP would rather run against than Clinton in 2016.
"Isn't it interesting how many times Reince Priebus says that he wants to run against Hillary Clinton? You think it's because he's worried about Hillary Clinton?" Davis said.
"It reminds me of Sen. Dale Bumpers on the floor of the Senate when he said in defense of President Clinton's impeachment: 'So, you know, back in my country, all the Republicans here say I'll tell you what this is not about. It's not about sex.'
"Well, when someone tells you what it's not about, it's about sex. So, bring it on. If you're so obsessed with Hillary Clinton and telling us that you can't be beaten, why do you need to tell us? It's very amusing."
Davis doesn't buy arguments that the sweeping Republican victories in last week's midterm elections were damaging to Clinton.
"The answer is of course that Hillary Clinton was not on the ballot, Bill Clinton wasn't on the ballot, Barack Obama wasn't on the ballot," he said.
"But the American people did put on the ballot Washington, D.C., and its dysfunctionality, and President Obama does have very poor approval ratings and lots of other reasons, including local candidate issues, are what happens in elections.
"Do you know what happened in 2006? The Republicans got creamed. Do you think Hillary Clinton got any credit for all the people from Reince Priebus when she campaigned . . . I don't think so."
Davis says he is not yet convinced that Clinton has decided to run for the Democratic nomination, but he thinks she likely will.
"I'm not convinced. I have not talked to her. I have not asked her the question," he said.
"But I know her for 44 years, and knowing her as I do, she is a grandmother, she loves her life, she loves her privacy to the extent that she has any, and being a presidential candidate, much less being president, is a big decision.
"Do I think it's likely? Yes, I do, because she is by far the most qualified of either any Democrat or Republican, but I'm biased, of course. But she has not made her mind up for sure yet. That's my guess."
If she does run, will Clinton face a challenge from the left?
"Yes, she'll get a challenge. I don't know what's meant by left. Bernie Sanders is a liberal, Hillary Clinton has been a progressive liberal, whatever the title you want to give her ever since law school," he said.
"But we define liberalism, in my view, as not handing debts over to our children, of being responsible. And Bill Clinton developed the definition of liberalism that gained him electoral votes in border states, in states like Georgia or Arkansas and Arizona. And I would also add Colorado and Montana.
"So where is Hillary Clinton? She is a traditional progressive Democrat from Franklin Delano Roosevelt all the way through Barack Obama, but she doesn't agree with all policies of all those presidents. She's got to lay out a vision for the future."
Aside from his work with Bill Clinton, Davis, in 2005, was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
In 2008, he supported Hillary Clinton, then a New York senator, in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. He later supported Obama.
