What is it with Hillary and the Yankees? The junior senator from New York has told us many times that she's a fan. Yet she has at best been a stealth one. Sure, she donned the club cap at a White House rally for the team's 1999 World Series win--but that was in 2000, during her campaign. She's been AWOL ever since, skipping games as well as a return engagement at the White House--President Bush's own Yankees reception last spring. (She pleaded a prior engagement upstate.) By contrast, her colleague Sen. Charles Schumer has been a regular attendee, both this year and in years past. And Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, of course, has virtually moved in with the team.
"I would love to go see [the Yankees] play," she told the New York Post back in the spring. "But it's like a lot of things that are fun and relaxing. It has to take a back seat to work."
Funny, then, that she managed to find time for the U.S. Open tennis championships over the summer. On Aug. 27, she sat in the stands at Flushing Meadow with Billie Jean King and other celebs to take in the Serena Williams-Anca Barna match. As it happens, the Yanks played no fewer than 16 home games in August alone. But Hillary skipped them all. How far is the Bronx from Chappaqua? I'm not sure, but I do know it's closer to home than the U.S. Tennis Center in Queens.
So with the Yankees now headed to their fourth consecutive World Series, will Sen. Clinton finally attend a game? Don't bet your ticket money on it. Her spokesman, Peter Kauffmann, tells us that "the games in New York are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and we expect the Senate will be in session those days."
It's a familiar pattern: Get around awkward problems by blaming your schedule. She used it earlier this year to deal with the dilemma posed by New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade. With gay and lesbian groups banned from marching under their own banner, there was no way Hillary could participate without offending one side or the other. So she managed to accept an invitation to march in Syracuse's parade instead--which incidentally happen to be controversy-free.
Sexual politics is one thing, but why such a phobia about baseball? Maybe she's nervous about what kind of reception she'd get from the crowd. On Oct. 20, in an incident that received minimal media coverage (and none from the New York Times) Hillary was booed by firemen and police when she took the stage at the "Concert for New York" at Madison Square Garden. According to a same-night posting by the Drudge Report, "VH1 cameras captured firemen and police heroes wildly booing Clinton, who attempted to raise her voice above the shouting crowd. 'Get off the stage! We don't want you here!' yelled one New York City police officer just feet from the senator. Anti-Clinton slurs spread and intensified throughout the Garden, with many standing near the stage lobbing profanities. . . . [She] ended up giving the shortest presentation of the evening, clocking in at under 20 seconds."
Judging by the treatment they gave Seattle during last Monday's fifth (and final) playoff game, Yankees fans are going to be even less deferential. As Seattle's fortunes sank ever lower that night, the home audience's customary lovefest turned into a public hazing. They bellowed chorus after chorus of taunts at the beleaguered Mariners: "No game six! No game six!" (a reference to manager Lou Pinella's declaration that the contest would have to run its full course, with a last bout on his home turf) and "We want Nelson! We want Nelson!" (a dig at the Mariners' ace relief pitcher Jeff Nelson, who left the Yankees after last season) among others.
One might reasonably ask: Why the fascination with Hillary's sports-viewing habits, anyway? We don't track Gov. George Pataki's or George W. Bush's or anyone else's for that matter. When we do, it is only in passing. The answer, I think, is that it points to a larger issue, indeed the central one of the Clintons' public life: truth vs. expediency. Nobody cares what team or teams Hillary roots for. But people do care what she tells us about her preferences. They don't like to be served half-truths and evasions of the "It depends on what your definition of 'is' is" variety.
Everybody knows that she discovered the Yankees only when she became a senatorial candidate in New York. Even that could be forgiven. Politicians have deathbed conversions all the time. Yet despite having had ample time to do so, she has yet to act on her supposed affection for the team. Worse, her explanations for why she has not have been transparently incredible. It all smacks of the signature Clinton practice of taking a position not out of conviction but because it serves the needs of that particular time.
That approach may have worked well in the past. Indeed, it was the Clintons' stock-in-trade. But there's been markedly less tolerance for such flim-flammery since Sept. 11. As Kathleen Parker, a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, noted last week, "Airplanes flying into buildings and killing thousands have a way of putting things into proper perspective. We see with sudden clarity what matters." And what's spin.
Which at least partially explains Hillary's rude treatment at Madison Square Garden. Fireman Michael Moran, whose brother, a battalion chief, was lost in the World Trade Center and who wowed the crowd with his colorful denunciation of Osama bin Laden, told Drudge on Tuesday that Hillary was booed because of the "claptrap" she utters. "She says what she believes will work in the moment," he told Drudge. "I don't think there has ever been a sincere word that has ever come out of her mouth."
Uh-oh. Maybe Hillary shouldn't go to Yankee Stadium after all. At least not before she learns what the meaning of "fan" is.
"I would love to go see [the Yankees] play," she told the New York Post back in the spring. "But it's like a lot of things that are fun and relaxing. It has to take a back seat to work."
Funny, then, that she managed to find time for the U.S. Open tennis championships over the summer. On Aug. 27, she sat in the stands at Flushing Meadow with Billie Jean King and other celebs to take in the Serena Williams-Anca Barna match. As it happens, the Yanks played no fewer than 16 home games in August alone. But Hillary skipped them all. How far is the Bronx from Chappaqua? I'm not sure, but I do know it's closer to home than the U.S. Tennis Center in Queens.
So with the Yankees now headed to their fourth consecutive World Series, will Sen. Clinton finally attend a game? Don't bet your ticket money on it. Her spokesman, Peter Kauffmann, tells us that "the games in New York are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and we expect the Senate will be in session those days."
It's a familiar pattern: Get around awkward problems by blaming your schedule. She used it earlier this year to deal with the dilemma posed by New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade. With gay and lesbian groups banned from marching under their own banner, there was no way Hillary could participate without offending one side or the other. So she managed to accept an invitation to march in Syracuse's parade instead--which incidentally happen to be controversy-free.
Sexual politics is one thing, but why such a phobia about baseball? Maybe she's nervous about what kind of reception she'd get from the crowd. On Oct. 20, in an incident that received minimal media coverage (and none from the New York Times) Hillary was booed by firemen and police when she took the stage at the "Concert for New York" at Madison Square Garden. According to a same-night posting by the Drudge Report, "VH1 cameras captured firemen and police heroes wildly booing Clinton, who attempted to raise her voice above the shouting crowd. 'Get off the stage! We don't want you here!' yelled one New York City police officer just feet from the senator. Anti-Clinton slurs spread and intensified throughout the Garden, with many standing near the stage lobbing profanities. . . . [She] ended up giving the shortest presentation of the evening, clocking in at under 20 seconds."
Judging by the treatment they gave Seattle during last Monday's fifth (and final) playoff game, Yankees fans are going to be even less deferential. As Seattle's fortunes sank ever lower that night, the home audience's customary lovefest turned into a public hazing. They bellowed chorus after chorus of taunts at the beleaguered Mariners: "No game six! No game six!" (a reference to manager Lou Pinella's declaration that the contest would have to run its full course, with a last bout on his home turf) and "We want Nelson! We want Nelson!" (a dig at the Mariners' ace relief pitcher Jeff Nelson, who left the Yankees after last season) among others.
One might reasonably ask: Why the fascination with Hillary's sports-viewing habits, anyway? We don't track Gov. George Pataki's or George W. Bush's or anyone else's for that matter. When we do, it is only in passing. The answer, I think, is that it points to a larger issue, indeed the central one of the Clintons' public life: truth vs. expediency. Nobody cares what team or teams Hillary roots for. But people do care what she tells us about her preferences. They don't like to be served half-truths and evasions of the "It depends on what your definition of 'is' is" variety.
Everybody knows that she discovered the Yankees only when she became a senatorial candidate in New York. Even that could be forgiven. Politicians have deathbed conversions all the time. Yet despite having had ample time to do so, she has yet to act on her supposed affection for the team. Worse, her explanations for why she has not have been transparently incredible. It all smacks of the signature Clinton practice of taking a position not out of conviction but because it serves the needs of that particular time.
That approach may have worked well in the past. Indeed, it was the Clintons' stock-in-trade. But there's been markedly less tolerance for such flim-flammery since Sept. 11. As Kathleen Parker, a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, noted last week, "Airplanes flying into buildings and killing thousands have a way of putting things into proper perspective. We see with sudden clarity what matters." And what's spin.
Which at least partially explains Hillary's rude treatment at Madison Square Garden. Fireman Michael Moran, whose brother, a battalion chief, was lost in the World Trade Center and who wowed the crowd with his colorful denunciation of Osama bin Laden, told Drudge on Tuesday that Hillary was booed because of the "claptrap" she utters. "She says what she believes will work in the moment," he told Drudge. "I don't think there has ever been a sincere word that has ever come out of her mouth."
Uh-oh. Maybe Hillary shouldn't go to Yankee Stadium after all. At least not before she learns what the meaning of "fan" is.
