Hil stuck in campaign mode: Secretary of state-designate can't stop raising money

By Michael Goodwin, NY Daily News

Sunday, December 7th 2008

The invitations arrive almost daily now, their tone and content so audacious that the first instinct is to suspect they are scripts from "Saturday Night Live" or a piece of clever satire from The Onion. Then they would be funny.

The first e-mail is from Bill Clinton, who begins, "I am sure you have heard the exciting news: Hillary Clinton is nominated to be our next Secretary of State!"

Yes, I had heard the news, but I play along with Bubba anyway, clicking the link he provided to send his wife "a message of congratulations." Alas, the link also gave me the option of contributing money to our next secretary of state.

The pitch is a disappointment, but not a total surprise. In this time of great need in America, who needs your money more than Hillary? It's Christmas, and she's got $7 million in campaign debts she'd rather not pay herself.

Apparently nothing tugs on the holiday heartstrings like being nominated to be America's top diplomat. If that doesn't get you to give till it hurts, nothing will.

Before long, another invitation arrives, this one from Hillary's mother, Dorothy Rodham. She's gushing how "I'm so proud of everything my daughter has accomplished and excited about what her future holds."

After more happy talk about how Hillary has "inspired millions of people, especially young girls," Mom gets to the point. She wants money, too.

She provides a link so I can help Hillary "pay down the debt from her campaign." For $50, I get a copy of "Dreams Taking Flight," a "young readers" hagiographic book about her daughter.

If I cough up $250 or more, Mom says I get "a book that's personally signed by Hillary." The mailing was paid for by "Hillary Clinton for President."

But isn't the campaign over? Didn't the other guy win? Only temporarily, it seems. For as I read a blurb from the book, I learn that Hillary didn't win her party's nomination "this time."

Wait, there's more. My Daily News colleague Michael McAuliff got a copy of a third invitation, this one to a "conversation" with Hillary in a Manhattan ballroom Dec. 15. "President Bill Clinton" is the special guest and the host is America Ferrera, of TV's "Ugly Betty" fame. The evening is in "support of Hillary Clinton for President Debt Relief."

For $50, you get a seat. For $1,000, you get a "VIP seat & backstage photo with Hillary."

No word yet on whether lobbyists or others who want to curry favor with the State Department will be banned. They probably won't be. After all, you can't fully monetize a cabinet position if you're too picky about the source of contributions.

Somehow, I can't imagine Henry Kissinger or Madeleine Albright or Colin Powell selling seats on their shuttle diplomacy trips. As for Hillary, I'm not sure, thanks to her uncanny ability to create fresh doubts about her judgment.

The flurry of solicitations begins to answer the question of whether she will be able to set aside her political ambitions to become the consummate statesman her new job requires.

As always, the issue is not her ability or dedication to a serious task. I'm among those who think she has the potential to be an excellent Madame Secretary, especially since President-elect Obama forced Bubba to disclose who is bankrolling his globe-trotting adventures. Disclosing his conflicts was a necessary cleansing and a prophylactic against his bad habit of freelancing foreign policy.

Yet Hillary's continued fund-raising, pegged to her nomination, is a worrisome sign she hasn't fully bought in to the meaning of Obama's deal. America's top diplomat can't also be an independent political force, and shouldn't even suggest she will be again.

If she can't accept that minimum standard, Obama has made a grave mistake. And so has she.