Kennedys, Clintons in convention feud

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff, Globe Columnist, 8/4/2002

WASHINGTON - What was supposed to be a sporting, four-city competition for the 2004 Democratic National Convention has been transformed into a power struggle between two of the country's leading political families: the Kennedys and the Clintons.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts is spearheading Boston's drive to host the party gathering, telling each of the Democrats' potential presidential candidates that, as he passes age 70, he wants to finally bring the convention to his home state.

But freshman Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, seeking to show she can deliver for her adopted state following the Sept. 11 attack, and possibly laying the groundwork for a presidential run in 2008, has told Kenedy face-to-face she will challenge him.

It is a story with ironic aspects that may ultimately answer the question: Has the Kennedys' time as the party's first family ended, with the torch being passed to a new generation, the Clintons?

''It's just a friendly competition, obviously,'' Clinton said during an interview last week. ''We are excited about having it in New York. He's very committed to getting it in Boston. I appreciate and respect that.''

Standing just off the Senate floor where he has served for 40 years, Kennedy said: ''I think she understands the symbolism of having the convention in New York, and certainly there's something to speak for that. But I also think she has some appreciation for the symbolism of having the convention in Boston.''

The depth of Clinton's challenge was apparent last Tuesday, when the convention site selection committee visited New York. Bill Clinton offered a video testimony on behalf of New York. In a twist, the video also contained lengthy images of President John F. Kennedy and his brothers, Robert and Edward.

''I've always felt Madison Square Garden was the perfect venue for us,'' Clinton said in the video, smiling as he reflected on winning his party's presidential nomination in the building in 1992.

Money to fund the event is also critical to winning the competition, and committee members heard New York was budgeting up to $75 million for the convention - $25 million more than Boston and the two other competitors, Detroit and Miami. New York's fund-raising drive will be overseen by Robert E. Rubin, who was Clinton's Treasury secretary and is cochairman of the city's convention bid committee.

The focus of both families' lobbying is Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who will pick the convention location this fall.

He also was Bill Clinton's chief fund-raiser and the one who initially offered to provide the president and first lady with a mortgage to buy a home after they left the White House. They went to a bank after a political uproar over McAuliffe's proposal.

Last month, Kennedy paid a call on McAuliffe at party headquarters just off Capitol Hill, a rare act of deference from such a senior legislator. He presented the chairman with an eight-page memo, written by former Globe columnist David Nyhan, making the case for Boston's bid.

''Nobody wants it like we do,'' said the memo's opening sentence. ''The city, the state, the Democratic Party in all of its manifestations, the business and cultural communities, leaders of the civic, union, and media realms, as well as rank-and-file Democrats, are solidly behind this bid.''

The memo also addressed Boston's commitment to diversity, a reaction to concerns raised by some members of the site selection committee after they visited Boston in June.

Two to four members complained that Boston's presentation lacked diversity, a key concern for a party that prides itself on representing minorities. Mayor Thomas M. Menino and his staff disputed that, as did the co-chairmen of the site selection committee, one of whom is black.

Some members of the committee complained that they did not see enough minorities on the mayor's staff, among workers at the FleetCenter (the proposed site of the convention), and at some receptions they attended.

On Wednesday, eight members of the 40-person committee will return to Boston to further examine the FleetCenter, transportation and media accommodation plans, and to pore over Boston's convention budget. The city, which initially budgeted $10 million for security, is considering increasing that figure, said Julie Burns, Menino's deputy chief of staff.

Kennedy and other Massachusetts Democrats are pushing for a committee to handle problems associated with the convention bid, including the diversity questions, the fund-raising challenge, and any last-minute issues, said one Democrat close to the city's bid. Steve Grossman, the national committee's former finance chairman, has been approached about serving as chairman of the city's fund-raising effort and may be asked to expand his duties. The rest of the committee would be filled with minority and political figures.

''This is still a problem,'' the Democrat said with exasperation, referring to the diversity questions. But Burns said committee officials have told the city diversity is not an issue. She said the city already has an informal working group focused on fund-raising and answering the overarching question, ''Why Boston?''

From one perspective, a battle between the Kennedys and Clintons for the convention is surprising given the families' close connection.

When Clinton was nominated in 1992, the most cheered image in a convention video about his life was the scene of him as a 16-year-old shaking hands with President Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden. When Clinton became president, he worked at John F. Kennedy's desk. Edward M. Kennedy would pass him a list of to-do items whenever he visited the Oval Office.

Throughout the 1990s, the Kennedys and Clintons also fed off each other, with Kennedy taking the Clintons sailing when they vacationed on Martha's Vineyard, and with Clinton stepping up to provide extensive military resources in one of the Kennedys' most grievous moments: the July 1999 search for John F. Kennedy Jr.'s crashed airplane. Pictures of each family hang in the reception area of the other's offices.

From another perspective, it is not surprising the Kennedys and Clintons are competing, given the families' political natures.

Kennedy is considered one of the Democrats' most effective legislators, while Bill Clinton is considered perhaps the party's sharpest political mind. Kennedy has a knack for inserting himself into nearly every political debate, while Hillary Rodham Clinton has received compliments for being an active senator - after serving initially as Kennedy's understudy in the ways of the Senate.

''It's natural that Ted Kennedy should want the thing in Boston and Hillary would want it in New York,'' said historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. ''They're senators of the states, of course. I don't think there's anything more to it than that.''

A New Yorker, Schlesinger is involved in the battle himself, and that fact contains several ironies.

Schlesinger worked in the Kennedy White House and later became a biographer for Robert F. Kennedy, who after serving as his brother's attorney general was elected to the US Senate - from New York. Today, Hillary Rodham Clinton holds that seat.

Schlesinger appeared last week with Bill Clinton in New York's promotional video. After it ended, the darkened stage in Madison Square Garden was lit by a spotlight focused on former New York governor Mario Cuomo, who urged the site selection committee to pick New York. One of Cuomo's sons, Andrew, is married to one of Robert F. Kennedy's daughters - Edward M. Kennedy's niece, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo.

Hillary Rodham Clinton said the competition would not strain her friendship with Edward M. Kennedy.

''Oh, no, no, no. I'm one of his biggest fans ever,'' she said.

Kennedy was equally complimentary - even as he made one more pitch for Boston's bid.

''She's got a story to tell. I respect that and understand that, but I still think Boston has a very compelling story,'' he said. ''I think it tells the story of the great struggles of the Democratic Party in the past and its commitment to liberty going back to the early days of the Revolution, through the abolitionist movement, to the whole period of equal rights for women, to the new economies, and the future.''

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2002

Answers

Go, Kennedys, go!

First time in my life I've ever said that.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2002