A Political Iwo Jima

Jeff Jacoby indulges in some well-deserved I told you so in his Sunday Boston Globe column (“The Dominant Clinton”). Jeff quotes Bill Clinton at his departure from Edwards Air Force Base on his way out of Washington on January 20, 2001:

"I left the White House, but I'm still here!" Clinton told the crowd. "We're not going anywhere!"…"He means it," I wrote at the time. "He isn't going anywhere. Yes, he packed his bags, zipped his pants, and turned the White House keys over to the new tenants - but he's still here. There are more grotesqueries to come from our ex-president. There will be more truth-twisting, more money-grubbing, more scandal. Even out of office, he will find seamy new ways to degrade the presidency. Just wait."

Sadly, the Clintons are still not going anywhere.

Democrats who might be feeling heady over Obama’s huge victory in South Carolina should recall the scorched earth left behind by the Clintons in Washington; especially the all-nighter spent signing last minute pardons, including one for Marc Rich.

The Clintons will not go away quietly but will fight to their political death. I would estimate Obama’s present odds of winning the Democratic nomination as 50-50 at best. Having power means literally everything to the Clintons. They will stop at nothing to recapture it, just as 10 years ago they stopped at nothing to hold on to it. The struggle for the Democratic nomination is shaping up to be a political Iwo Jima.