Keep Your Enemies Closer
Hillary Clinton is courting a Pennsylvania primary endorsement from an unlikely source: the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a newspaper owned by the Clintons' erstwhile archenemy, banking heir Richard Mellon Scaife. Once described by the Clinton White House as the "Wizard of Oz" behind what Senator Clinton called a "vast right-wing conspiracy" to smear the couple, Scaife published stories implying foul play in the death of Clinton aide Vince Foster, which investigators ruled a suicide.
But that was then. Now Hillary is running for president, and last week she gave a lengthy interview to the paper's editorial board and used the occasion to bash Barack Obama for his ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The Tribune-Review posted video excerpts of her remarks on its Web site along with a picture of her sitting next to Scaife. Scaife's lawyer and editorial-board member Yale Gutnick told NEWSWEEK that Clinton "made a deep and favorable impression" and that Scaife was "very impressed with what she had to say." The paper, he said, is waiting to see if Obama also appears in person before deciding whom to endorse.
Clinton's chat with Scaife is the latest twist in what looks like a concerted campaign to schmooze, if not neutralize, a man she once considered a deadly foe. Last summer Bill Clinton invited Scaife and Christopher Ruddy, author of Foster conspiracy stories, to lunch at his Harlem office. The result: Ruddy publicly praises him, and Scaife donated to a Clinton charity. Hillary Clinton's campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said that the rapprochement with Scaife represents her willingness "to try to move beyond the fights of the '90s."
Comments