Cuellar v. Watson, with Friends like These…
February 20th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Trying to exploit any advantage they can find, perceived or otherwise, the Clinton campaign had a conference call this afternoon to try to squeeze the last bit of juice from Kirk Watson’s painful performance on MSNBC last night. Their featured guest: Laredo Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar.
But before we go to the Clinton attack, here is some of Watson’s efforts at a mea culpa.
So . . . That really happened.
On Tuesday night, after an important and historic victory in the Wisconsin Presidential Primary by Senator Barack Obama, I appeared on the MSNBC post-election program. “Hardball” host Chris Matthews (who is, it turns out, as ferocious as they say), began grilling me on Senator Obama’s legislative record.
And my mind went blank. I expected to be asked about the primary that night, or the big one coming up in Texas on March 4, or just about anything else in the news. When the subject changed so emphatically, I reached for information that millions of my fellow Obama supporters could recite by heart, and I couldn’t summon it.
My most unfortunate gaffe is not, in any way, a comment on Senator Obama, his substantial record, or the great opportunity we all share to elect him President of the United States.
Both Cuellar and Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson went out of their way to spare Watson from criticism as they used his words, or lack thereof, to attack Obama. “Without mentioning any names because this person is a friend of mine, I know that last night they asked one of his supporters on national TV and asked him if he could name one accomplishment and he was asked repeatedly and couldn’t come up with one accomplishment,” said Cuellar after a recitation of Clinton accomplishments ranging from “making sure children get immunized” to health care assistance to the troops.
Wolfson, after describing Watson as “an outstanding representative on behalf of his constituents,” added that the whole episode “speaks a lot less about the strength of Senator Watson’s memory than it does about the fact that Senator Obama is not running on any significant legislative accomplishments… He is running on the strength of his oratory and the strength of his promises.” (The Obama campaign has consistently refused to apologize for their candidate’s ability to make a good speech. Obama’s people also point to their varied plans for the country.)
It was inevitable that questions would arise about Cuellar as a surrogate. His loyalty to the Democratic Party is open to question. After all, he’s been endorsed by the Club for Growth, served in Gov. Rick Perry’s administration as secretary of state, and endorsed George W. Bush for president in 2000.
“I do consider myself a conservative Democrat,” Cuellar said. “This is the beauty about Hillary Clinton. She has shown herself to be able to work with conservative Democrats like myself and Republicans. There is a lot of people who are trying to purify the Democratic party.”
Clinton is apparently not one of them.
Wolfson did a little two-stepping on the subject. “The Democratic Party is a diverse party. We have strong supporters from all wings of the Democratic Party from across this country,” he said. “Of course, she isn’t always going to agree with all her supporters and her supporters aren’t always going to agree with everything she stands for…”
February 21st, 2008 at 1:18 am
[…] v. Watson, with Friends like These… February 20th, 2008 Andrew Romano wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt“This is the beauty about Hillary […]