Despite denials, blog story persists

Monday, Nov. 20, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Harry Reid won his party's support as Senate Majority Leader this week, but suggestions persist in Washington that Sen. Hillary Clinton might be in line for his job down the road.

It all started when a think-tank blogger posted a well-sourced story claiming that Reid had offered Clinton the majority leadership position for 2008 in exchange for her not running for president.

Reid denies the story as an "urban legend." Clinton said Thursday it has "no basis."

Yet what swirled as a rumor has become so enticing to some that it won't go away. They love the idea of Clinton one day running the Senate and easing out of the presidential contest for a more electable candidate.

Veteran political observer Chris Matthews suggested on his Sunday talk show last week that Clinton would be a natural running the Senate, marking the second week in a row that the topic arose as chatter on his program.

"It's sort of become a narrative that's percolating around," said Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation and who first broke the story in August on his blog thewashingtonnote.com.

Clemons, a fan of Reid, doesn't necessarily support swapping the Nevadan for the New Yorker in 2008. He certainly isn't promoting it. But when a prominent Democratic fundraiser leaked details about the alleged offer, he put it out there.

Speculation soon followed in newspapers from Los Angeles to London. One journalist mused that the trade-off could happen as soon as this month if Democrats took the Senate on Nov. 7, which they did.

The proposition persisted as an attractive one because it gave many Democrats the best of both worlds - a powerful position for their star, Clinton, and a potentially better chance at taking the White House. Some polls show many voters would not support the former first lady in a bid for her husband's former job.

But other Democrats and political observers scoff at the notion that a superstar such as Clinton would need to make a deal if she wanted the majority leader's job, which she apparently doesn't.

"Every credible person I talk to says that's ridiculous," said Matthew Bennett of the progressive think tank Third Way. He calls the speculation "lots of yappers bloviating."

So the idea now simmers in an inside-the-Beltway limbo.

"There is no basis for it, and I have no idea why people are talking about it," Clinton said Thursday. Both she and Reid insist they never discussed it.

Reid said Wednesday that while he was "sure she would make a good majority leader," he plans on keeping his job in 2008.

Clemons admits that after watching Reid work this past week after Democrats swept to power in Congress, it is difficult to imagine the new majority leader handing off his gig in a couple of years.

"It looks like he's having a good time," Clemons said. "Why would he give that up?"