I LIKE IT

Over at Pandagon, Ezra has a great idea: Replace Daschle with Hillary.

I think Hillary Clinton is the perfect choice. She's a female, but she's strong. She's a liberal from a liberal state (thus she's quite strong from an electoral perspective, her only real threat is Giuliani) but she takes smart stances on various issues. She can raise money like nobody's business and she's inherently controversial...

She has a star power that few can match, so that means her criticisms and moves will be taken seriously by the press. That is a tremendous boon, and it comes directly from her controversial nature. Further, she'll get the Right howling, and that's fine. Let them howl. It gives our people the chance to go on TV and look normal -- laud this great step for women, talk about how brilliant Hillary is (second in her class at Yale Law, Bill was third), get our issues out there, etc. Their virulent hatred of the Clintons didn't work when Bill was on top and it hasn't worked against Hillary, her book did great and her net favrorables have only continued to rise.

We're at our strongest when conservatives are toeing the line of bigotry, and Hillary will bring them to that edge. Moreover, she's smart, savvy, connected, and can use her star power to give our party the press it needs to be effective in opposition.

I love absolutely everything about this idea. The only question is whether Hillary's ascent to such a position in the near future would overshadow the Democratic candidates. Obviously it would not be her intent to do that, but it's the press that would accomplish this. If she does this anytime before, say, February, the right wing and possibly mainstream media would openly ponder if she's using the position to catapult herself above the Dem candidates to the nomination, no matter how nonsensical that sounds.

If the Senate Dems ever get serious about this idea, I think around early autumn, when congress reconvenes, would be a good time to do this, because by then the Dem nominee, be it Dean or whoever else, will be prominent enough that Hillary won't overshadow him/her.

Other than that, it's perfect. Everytime Bush says or does anything, the press will want a reaction from Hillary. And not to mention, the Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress would be women. Not bad.