Clinton's people chase the big bucks

[T_i_B]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7028619.stm

Annie is devoting all her time and energy, all her daylight hours and some of the night-time ones - gratis - to raising money for Hillary Clinton.

Fund-raising is an American art form. People who are very good at it are aristocrats in this town, talked of in hushed and admiring terms. And they are depended on by politicians who remember - or have people who remember - the sums involved, the TV adverts paid for and the votes bought.

During a brief and rather strained meeting a few days ago, I asked Annie what she was hoping for by way of reward when President Hillary Clinton takes over in January 2009. Ambassador to Togo, I suggested? The atmosphere froze. I think Annie has her eye on Rome.

And she may make it or, if not Rome, then a White House pass and a job as "head of outreach" to this, that or the other segment of the community. A job that is the desire of almost all Washingtonians. A job that is both very short term - you burn out fast and you are anyway limited to eight years because your president is - and, at the same time, very long term because of course they cannot take it away from you, this fact, that you were in the White House. The point is that none of this will be available to you - even as a Democrat - come the inauguration of 2009, if you did not work for Hillary.