She attended campaign strategy meetings in Little Rock, Ark., and later became the first (and so far only) first lady with an office in the West Wing. She would bring his meandering meetings to a close. She plotted out his defense against scandal. She was an independent force within the White House, single-handedly pushing health care onto the agenda and intimidating into silence those who thought she might be mishandling it. She was prone to bouts of anger and nursed deep resentment toward Washington. She endured a terribly complicated relationship with her philandering husband. And yet she was the one who often channeled his energies, steered him toward success and saved him from himself. “She may have been critical from time to time with temper tantrums and things like that,” said Mr. Nussbaum, who went on to become Mr. Clinton’s first White House counsel. “But she was very strong, and he needed her desperately. He would not have been president, I don’t think, without her.” ... But the health care effort and its expansion of government involvement in the private sector proved politically toxic and generated deep internal division within the White House. Mr. Magaziner was seen as dismissive and few were willing to confront the president’s wife. “There were a lot of people who were intimidated,” said Leon E. Panetta, the chief of staff. Ms. Shalala, who had been named secretary of health and human services, was one of the few who tried. “I told Hillary that this thing is just headed for disaster, and she told me I was just jealous that I wasn’t in charge and that was why I was complaining,” Mr. Edelman, who served as Ms. Shalala’s assistant secretary, remembered Ms. Shalala telling him. Some of the White House economists were dubious and privately called Mrs. Clinton’s health care team “the Bolsheviks.” nytimes/2014/12/06/us/politics/hillary-clintons-history-as-first-lady-powerful-but-not-always-deft.html?_r=0
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 16:14:27 +0000