Hillary Clinton crosses fingers, shakes up her campaign

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The new campaign honcho, Maggie Williams, will face the challenge of running an operation that needs to be more careful in its spending than it has been. And she will have to do so while Clinton tries to break a mini-losing streak to Obama, which continued Sunday with his triumph in the Maine caucuses.

An excellent overview of tensions ...within Clinton's staff was provided two weeks ago by the New Republic's Michelle Cottle. The piece, which you can read here, presaged Williams' ascension. Noting that her "history with the Clintons is a fraught one," Cottle also offers this useful background:

"Of the original Hillaryland crew, arguably no one bore the brunt of the scandals and political storms as fiercely. Twice, Williams became the object of intense public and legal scrutiny: first, when the Whitewater probe raised allegations that she had helped obstruct the investigation into Vince Foster's suicide by removing files from his office on the night he died; and, again, when the disputed details of her acceptance of a $50,000 political donation from Johnny Chung earned her an invitation to testify before Congress during the Democrats' 1996 fund-raising scandal. For many political watchers, Williams stood as the poster child for the Clintons' careless disregard of those close to them. At the end of Bill Clinton's first term, a scarred and exhausted Williams, having racked up $350,000 in legal bills, resigned her White House post and fled to Paris for a couple of years with her new husband."

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/02/clin...

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