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You Want Change? The GOP Now Hearts Hillary

In the hours since President Obama's inauguration, there's been an avalanche of discussion centered on the notion of a fundamental shift in American politics, the sort the president himself touched on in his well-received speech on Tuesday.

But for all the talk, nothing comes closer to demonstrating just how much things have changed politically than what happened yesterday in the United States Senate when Hillary Clinton was confirmed to be the next Secretary of State by a vote of 94 to 2.

Change is a funny thing. It rarely happens suddenly or out of the blue and, by the time it is recognized, it doesn't often seem all that much different. Still, the near love-fest between Mrs. Clinton and not a few Republicans (even conservatives!) that has developed over recent years remains somewhat stunning for anyone who remembers days once filled by obsessions over cattle futures, lost billing records, Whitewater, pink pantsuits and, yes, the "vast right-wing conspiracy."

These days Republicans are more apt to down a few shots with the former senator from New York than shoot pumpkins in bizarre backyard Clinton conspiracy theory experiments.

It was just ten years ago, you'll remember, that the same legislative body giving her overwhelming approval to become the nation's top diplomat was voting to impeach her husband for perjury and obstruction of justice. Although the vote in the Senate was never really in doubt back then, all but a handful of Republicans voted to kick the president out of office, including some of the same senators present yesterday.

Hillary Clinton was the touchstone of Republican opposition through the 1990s, more so than her husband at times. Countless direct-mail appeals raising a specter of behind-the-throne power mongering raised tens of millions for conservative causes. Publishing industries were launched based on attacking her and talk radio always had a villain to skewer, even on the slowest of news days.

Somewhere between demonizing her for bashing the cookie-making moms of America and agreeing with her about 3am phone calls, much of the GOP fell in love - or at least out of hate.

Now, a Republican presidential nominee still recovering from November's loss is taking the Senate floor to implore one stray member of his own party to lift his opposition (tied to her husband's foundation, not her qualifications) to Clinton's nomination and allow the rest of the body to roar their approval.

Of course politicians are mindful of the public mood and most all of those senators are well aware of exactly where that is at the moment. A fight over this could only damage them. But there's something more going on here than mere expediency.

For starters, Clinton has impressed her colleagues by all accounts. She's worked hard as a senator, been prepared and, at least until her presidential campaign, avoided showboating. She's also charmed them. John McCain has said he grew to respect her during some of their overseas forays they've taken together and reportedly even went shot-for-shot with her over a bottle of vodka on one. True or not, the two have become fast friends.

McCain is the "maverick" of his party, someone who's worked well in the past with other GOP targets like Ted Kennedy and from whom a little cross-aisle fraternization is expected. Other recent Clinton admirers, like Richard Mellon Scaife, are decidedly not in the same category.

The ultra-rich financier of much of the vast right-wing conspiracy had a similar conversion of sorts last year. As publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Scaife made a mini-industry out of investigating the Clintons in the 1990s - especially on Whitewater and the Vince Foster death. Prior to the Pennsylvania primary last spring, however, Scaife hosted Clinton at his paper. She came away with a near endorsement.

"Her meeting and her remarks during it changed my mind about her," Scaife wrote in an editorial. She displayed "courage" and "confidence" he continued and "exhibited an impressive command of many of today's most pressing domestic and international issues. Her answers were thoughtful, well-stated, and often dead-on." He's not alone among conservatives to warm to Clinton, though he is the starkest example. And Clinton will never win a popularity contest with Republicans but she's no longer guaranteed to end up at the bottom of one either.

Scaife said he was particularly impressed with her on foreign policy and that's perhaps another big reason why she's dropped out of the GOP's line of fire.

In a Democratic presidential campaign initially dominated by debate over what should be done about the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, Clinton didn't help her chances of winning the nomination with her positions on foreign affairs. She regretted her vote to authorize the war and slammed the Bush Administration's conduct of it but refused to apologize for her vote.

She mocked Barack Obama for suggesting that he would find it appropriate to reach out and talk with leaders of antagonistic nations like Iran and North Korea (an attitude she now says she agrees with and will have to advance), suggested strongly that only she or McCain were up to the task of answering crisis calls in the middle of the night and sometimes came across just as hawkish as the Republican candidates. If she didn't give them cover, she at least gave them comfort.

The GOP is in rough shape, having lost badly in two consecutive election cycles and seen their power ebb lower even than the early 1990s when the Clintons burst onto the national stage. They are struggling to find the voices and vision for the years ahead.

Politically, they don't have the means to revive their decade-long battle with Hillary Clinton. Realistically, they don't have the will to reopen divides that no longer seem so wide. That makes the bitter political wars of the 90's seem so far away. It would be almost unbelievable if not for all this change going on.

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Related Topics: clinton | hillary clinton | mccain |

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