Democrat Civil War: Time to Turn to the Capo di tutti Capi?

Something ominous is happening within the Democratic Party, and Barack Obama will soon have to start paying attention. For weeks now, James Carville has been railing against the Obama administration’s handling of the oil spill in the Gulf. On Tuesday, Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania, added further fuel to the flames by issuing a warning. If Obama did not start pulling troops out of Afghanistan in July, 2011 as promised, he predicted that there would be a political insurrection within the party and that the President might face a primary challenge. It is in no way surprising that the Republicans have revived Hillary Clinton’s famous “3 a.m.” political advertisement and have given it a new spin, for they smell blood in the water. “Hillary was right,” they say. After the oil spill, the proverbial telephone rang and rang and rang, and the President . . . golfed, partied with celebrities, and went on vacation again and again.

Carville and Rendell have this in common. They are Democrats; they are fiercely partisan; and they were strong supporters of Hillary Clinton during the primaries back in 2008. Their maneuvers should perhaps be read in light of an op-ed piece that Leslie Gelb published in The Wall Street Journal back in the middle of June, suggesting that, when Robert Gates retires, Hillary be made the first female Secretary of Defense; that, in 2012, she be put on the ticket in place of Joe Biden; and that Biden be awarded the booby prize and be named Secretary of State.

I have no idea whether Gelb ran his piece past the Clintons before publishing it. But I would not be surprised. He, too, is a restless, frustrated, critical Democrat on the outs, and the scenario that he paints is by no means ridiculous. Joe Biden is not an asset, and Barack Obama views him with obvious disdain. Bill Clinton is a talented campaigner and a master in the art of staging comebacks, and in 2012 Hillary might be able to turn out a host of white women to vote for Obama who would otherwise sit on their hands.

As it happens, on Saturday, President Obama will have a priceless opportunity that he would be ill-advised to pass up. On that fateful day, in Rhinebeck, New York, on the estate of John Jacob Astor IV, if the rumors are borne out, Chelsea Clinton will marry Marc Mezvinsky in the presence of 400 of their parents’ best friends. And, although Bill Clinton is not a Sicilian, he would certainly be hard-pressed on so auspicious a day to deny anyone who asked of him a favor – least of all a sitting President of the United States who came to him, saying, May their first child be a masculine child!

For such an interchange, the circumstances should be ideal. Apart from former Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee John Edwards and former Democratic Presidential nominee Al Gore – who are, not to put too fine a point on it, indisposed, and whose recent difficulties might have the unfortunate effect of reminding attendees and the general public of past indiscretions on the part of the father of the bride – virtually everybody who is anybody in the Democratic establishment is likely to be in attendance.

The atmosphere should be just right. Chelsea’s intended is also connected. His mother, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinksy, represented Pennsylvania in Congress from 1993 to 1995 and was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor there in 1998. His father, Ed Mezvinsky, represented Iowa in Congress from 1973 to 1977, chaired the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee, and was the Democratic nominee for Attorney General in that state in 1988. Moreover, shortly after the beginning of the new millennium, the groom’s father, who is known in law-enforcement circles as Fast-Talkin’ Eddie, was convicted on 31 counts of bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud, and two years ago he was released from prison. Upon request, I am sure that Fast-Talkin’ Eddie would be willing to arrange a meeting with the goodfella affectionately known to one and all as Slick Willie.

Of former President Clinton could we not say something like what Mario Puzo once wrote concerning another powerful individual?

Don Vito Corleone was a man to whom everybody came for help, and never were they disappointed. He made no empty promises, nor the craven excuse that his hands were tied by more powerful forces in the world than himself. It was not necessary that he be your friend, it was not even important that you had no means with which to repay him. Only one thing was required. That you, you yourself, proclaim your friendship. And then, no matter how poor or powerless the supplicant, Don Corleone would take that man’s troubles to his heart. And he would let nothing stand in the way to a solution of that man’s woe. His reward? Friendship, the respectful title of ‘Don,’ and sometimes the more affectionate salutation of ‘God father.’ And perhaps, to show respect only, never for profit, some humble gift – a gallon of homemade wine or a basket of peppered taralles specially baked to grace his Christmas table. It was understood, it was mere good manners, to proclaim that you were in his debt and that he had the right to call upon you at any time to redeem your debt by some small service.

I should think that Marc Rich and many another figure in debt to Barack Obama’s prospective benefactor could testify to the truth of such a claim. William Jefferson Clinton is known to everybody as a generous man, and he, too, has a taste for peppered taralles . . . of one sort or another.

Of course, in these propitious circumstances, should President Obama come hat in hand to speak with former President Clinton in the library at the Astor estate in Rhinebeck, one could easily imagine the latter asking the former, Why didn’t you come to me at the beginning of this affair? One can even imagine him speaking in a voice like cold death and saying something like the following: We have known each other many years, you and I, but until this day you never came to me for counsel or help. I can’t remember the last time you invited me to your house for coffee though my wife is your Secretary of State. Let us be frank. You spurned my friendship.  You feared to be in my debt. The Democratic Party’s capo di tutti capi might even bring the conversation to a temporary halt with a single question: Why do you fear giving your first allegiance to me?

I cannot imagine Barack Obama enjoying such an exchange any more than the appropriately named Amerigo Bonasera enjoyed the interview with Don Corleone depicted in the opening scene to Godfather I. But to something of the sort he may soon have to submit. He might have saved himself a great deal of trouble had he taken the advice I offered him in a post on this site back in January and consulted the Comeback Kid at that time. Of course, even then, as I made clear, it was doubtful whether our President could have saved many of his associates in Congress. But neither he nor his predecessor cares one whit for the Democratic Party.

In any case, by now, both surely have their eyes on 2012, and in the two years that follow the thumping that the Democrats are going to get this November Bill Clinton and his minions could do a great deal for Barack Obama if they were willing. To start with, were our current President to give his first allegiance to his predecessor, I am confident that Carville, Rendell, and Gelb would start singing a different tune.

And who knows? On Monday, Dick Morris might get a call.

UPDATE: Something more ominous seems to be in the offing. Michael Barone reports that President Obama has not even been invited to the wedding. Could this mean that Slick Willie, Fast-Talkin’ Eddie, and the Ragin’ Cajun are planning to go to the mattresses?