Hillary Clinton kept her friends close but apparently her enemies closer.
During Hillary Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential campaign, aides compiled a list of Democrats who “betrayed” Clinton by endorsing Barack Obama in the primary.
An excerpt of Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes’ new book “HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton,” first published in POLITICO, reports that Clinton and her aides maintained an extensive spreadsheet, keeping tabs on who endorsed her over primary contender Barack Obama for the 2008 election–and who didn’t.
The “political hit list” included high-profile politicians such as John Kerry, Claire McCaskill, Ted Kennedy, Chris Van Hollen, and Jay Rockefeller. Individuals were graded based on endorsements, favors, and ultimately, betrayals, from one to seven, with one being “most helpful” and seven described as “most treacherous.”
“Almost six years later, most Clinton aides can still rattle off the names of traitors and the favors that had been done for them, then provide details of just how each of the guilty had gone on to betray the Clintons—as if it all had happened just a few hours before,” Allen and Parnes write. “The data project ensured that the acts of the sinners and saints would never be forgotten.”
Senator McCaskill was given a score of seven after endorsing Obama in the Democratic primary even though Bill and Hillary had fought hard for McCaskill when she ran for Senate in 2006.
“Hate is too weak a word to describe the feelings that Hillary’s core loyalists still have for McCaskill, who seemed to deliver a fresh endorsement of Obama—and a caustic jab at Hillary—every day during the long primary season,” the excerpt reads.
Sens. Patrick Leahy, Jay Rockefeller and Rep. Chris Van Hollen earned scores of seven as well.
Ted Kennedy burned the biggest bridge with Clinton according to the book, publicly endorsing Obama despite Bill Clinton’s plea to delay his announcement. “He had slashed Hillary most cruelly of all, delivering a pivotal endorsement speech for Obama just before the Super Tuesday primaries that cast her as yesterday’s news and Obama as the rightful heir to Camelot.” Clinton aides even jested when their enemies fell from grace. “Years later, they would joke among themselves in harsh terms about the fates of folks they felt had betrayed them,” the book states. “‘Bill Richardson: investigated; John Edwards: disgraced by scandal; Chris Dodd: stepped down,’ one said to another. ‘Ted Kennedy,’ the aide continued, lowering his voice to a whisper for the punch line, ‘dead.’” Although Clinton has not yet announced her plans for 2016, the super PAC urging her to run raked in over $4 million in 2013.
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