The Note: Return of the Empire

Clinton gets another turn in the spotlight -- this time Obama wants her there.

ByABC News
June 26, 2008, 9:28 AM

June 26, 2008 -- With the third branch set to assert itself anew (a gunshot sounding Sen. Barack Obama's move to the political center?) -- quick -- who's the most important Democrat in the country at this precise moment?

That's a trick question -- since there's a two-way tie for first. One more hint: Obama is in third place.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton gets two days back in the center of the action Thursday and Friday -- and former President Bill Clinton gets his own measure of chatter despite not being on the continent this week.

Amid all the talk of hurt feelings and unpaid bills, it's worth considering the favors the Clintons have done for Obama: a gracious exit, opened doors with donors, and mostly (do not undervalue this) just disappearing in the critical period when Obama needed the stage to himself to frame the race against Sen. John McCain.

That period ends Thursday, with two speeches by Sen. Clinton (to a nurses' association and a Latino group -- neither a venue chosen by accident) in advance of the evening event for big money folks at the Mayflower Hotel.

It's been a while since the Clintons campaigned for anyone else -- and if they're rusty, the smart folks with the tape recorders and laptops will notice.

Know that we are permanently in a zone where a few snarky comments from a few disgruntled denizens of Camp Clinton are all it will take to restart the old fires -- to say nothing of potential for lukewarm comments from the Clintons' themselves (how many reporters do you think will be counting Obama references in Sen. Clinton's speeches Thursday?).

Pity Bob Barnett: The Washington super-lawyer is helping Obama and Sen. Clinton negotiate "a thicket of complicated issues, like how to repay Mrs. Clinton's campaign debt and her role at the Democratic convention," Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny write in The New York Times.

Among the perceived slights: Obama hasn't written a $2,300 check himself, and won't use his e-mail list to help retire Clinton's debt. The big issue that's been compartmentalized (and punted): the vice presidency.

"Beyond that, the two sides are negotiating precisely what kind of role she will have at the convention, including what night she will make a prime-time speech and whether her name will be placed symbolically into nomination," Nagourney and Zeleny write. "They are discussing whether Mr. Obama's campaign will provide a plane and staff for Mrs. Clinton as she travels on his behalf. The talks were described by aides on both sides as complicated, but not hostile."

Might she be left to freelance? (No.) "Clinton aides say the New York senator hasn't received detailed marching orders from the Obama campaign," Amy Chozick writes in The Wall Street Journal. "They expect Sen. Clinton to concentrate her efforts among the women and white, working-class voters who made up her strongest supporters but whom Sen. Obama has struggled with in the past. . . . Some Clinton aides predict several more joint appearances similar to Friday's New Hampshire rally in the coming weeks."

It might be tense at the Mayflower: "Obama, who will join his former rival for a $1 million fundraiser at the Mayflower Hotel, has been less than enthusiastic in courting Clinton's money team, according to several major donors and supporters of the former first lady," per Newsday's Glenn Thrush.

Clinton did her part on the Hill Wednesday: "I am 100 percent committed to doing everything I possibly can to make sure that Sen. Obama is sworn in as the next president of the United States next January here in this Capitol," she said, per ABC's Dean Norland and Jennifer Parker.

New York Times columnist Gail Collins: "Hillary has been saying that her supporters are moving through the five stages of grief. But she herself seems to have invented some brand-new sixth stage of chipper serenity."

All (mostly) niceties from Obama, too, on Wednesday: "We don't have some ten-point strategy to [retire Clinton's debt]. What I said was to my large donors, who are in a position to write large checks, to help Senator Clinton retire her debt, or at least a portion of it," he said, per ABC's Jennifer Duck.

On the big dog: "I want him involved," Obama said. "He is a brilliant politician. He was a outstanding president. And so I want his help not only in campaigning but also in governing."

The love has limits: Obama "won't be emailing his list for help retiring Clinton's debt -- a move that might not have been welcomed by many of his grassroots supporters, but would have been symbolically important to some of Clinton's backers," per Politico's Ben Smith.

But first -- perhaps less-welcome returns abound. The Rev. Michael Pfleger is back with his first interview since his mocking of Clinton's tears became a YouTube sensation, telling ABC's Robin Roberts that he does not "apologize for being passionate, I don't apologize for being free."

"I apologize when my passion or my freeness and my flawedness of character get in the way of the content, which is much more important to me," Pfleger said in an interview broadcast on "Good Morning America" Thursday. "I apologize for my mannerism of what I said. I don't apologize for speaking about [it]. I think entitlement is a reality in this society."

His message remains: "It's the reality of the sensitivity of this country, the name-calling, the number of e-mails and letters using the N word, calling me a wigger and telling me to leave the country, why don't I go to Africa?"

An intriguing float from Robert Novak: "Looming on the horizon are two big potential Obamacons: Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel," Novak writes in his column. "Neither Powell, first-term secretary of state for George W. Bush, nor Hagel, retiring after two terms as a U.S. senator from Nebraska, has endorsed Obama. Hagel probably never will. Powell probably will enter Obama's camp at a time of his own choosing."

Not to be lost in the Clinton/Supreme Court hubbub: A potentially big choice looms for Obama. Will he show up for the vote on the FISA bill (whenever that may be)? He's already enraged liberal activists by saying he supports the measure after previously vowing a filibuster -- but will he cast the fateful vote? (Which is better -- further angering the Netroots, or letting Republicans portray you as indecisive -- shirking a difficult vote?)