During this year's Democratic Presidential primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton has said that she has learned from some of her past mistakes in dealing with Congress, and will use that experience as President to help her pass many of her proposed legislative reforms.
Unfortunately, recent events clearly demonstrate that Clinton has either learned nothing from those experiences, or has learned - and simply does not care. Past behavior is generally an indicator of future performance, and Clinton is certainly no exception.
For those who are new to this storyline, let's take a trip back in time. The year was 1993. President Bill Clinton was still on his honeymoon with the electorate. He started a task force on health care, with the goal of reforming the health care system, and appointed his wife to lead it.
A few eyebrows were raised at the idea of a First Lady getting this actively involved in policy making. However, it wasn't the first time nepotism had made an appearance in Washington (the most famous example probably being Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy).
Hillary Clinton obviously had the legal experience and smarts for the job. Plus, she'd chaired a task force to improve education in Arkansas while her husband was that state's governor. By all accounts, that task force did well. So it was very reasonable for the new President to try and repeat that success on a national level.
Hillary would be playing with a deck heavily stacked in her favor. Not only did she have the direct endorsement of the President, but Democrats controlled 57% of the Senate and 59% of the House. Her favorability ratings were around 60%.
Of course, the health care lobby would be working overtime against any proposal to change the system. However, with the clear working majorities Democrats had in Congress, the time was more than ripe for health care reform.
So, what did Hillary do? She took her task force private, closing meetings and even refusing any Congressional input. Rather than courting Republicans, she wouldn't even talk to them. She threatened to "demonize" Congressional Democrats who had the temerity to question parts of her plan. She wound up agitating Democratic leaders like Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
By 1994, the Clinton plan for health care reform was being panned by both sides of the aisle, and it never even got enough support for a floor vote. The plan died quietly in September of that year. This debacle was a large part of the reason Democrats suffered massive losses in the 1994 mid-term Congressional elections, relegating Democrats to the minority party for 12 years.
In a revealing NPR article, entitled "Health Care Initiative a Learning Moment for Clinton", Carl Bernstein, Leon Panetta and David Gergen all describe Hillary Clinton's intractability and absolute refusal to compromise during the "Hillarycare" effort. Bernstein, in the same article, says that Clinton has grown as a leader, and now has shown the ability to accept some form of deviation from her proposals in the interest of getting some improvements passed. Panetta disagrees, saying Clinton has what he calls the "George Bush problem" of stubborn opposition. Gergen says he's not sure if Clinton has changed as a national leader.
Remember, past behavior is a reliable indicator of future performance. Unfortunately, two events that she has highlighted in this campaign clearly demonstrate that Sen. Clinton has not learned anything from her previous trips to Capitol Hill.
Clinton has repeatedly attacked her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, for voting in favor of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Her opposition to the bill was primarily due to the tax breaks energy companies received in the bill. Obama's response was that the bill wound up raising taxes on energy companies, even with the tax breaks; that the bill did include provisions for alternative-energy and efficiency research; and that President Bush clearly stated he would not have signed a tougher bill.
Clinton has recently championed the idea of a gas tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with a temporary windfall tax on oil companies to make up the revenue lost from the tax. She has also used this as a campaign issue against Obama, who opposes the holiday. Obama's opposition is based on his experience with such a holiday he once supported. Illinois had a gas tax holiday in 2000, while he was a state senator. He saw that the savings was simply sucked up by oil companies and gas station owners, and never got to the consumer.
Clinton has even gone so far as to challenge all the members of Congress, channeling Bush 43 by saying, "either you're with us or you're against us." This may not have been the best message to send to undeclared Democratic superdelegates, whose support she needs in much greater numbers than Obama to win the nomination. Colorado's Rep. Mark Udall, one such superdelegate, has already responded in withering terms.
It is worth noting that Clinton has yet to produce a single economist who is not on her campaign's payroll that thinks this is a good idea. On the other hand, a group of 150 prominent economists of all political leanings - including three Nobel Prize winners - have said that the holiday "is a bad idea". Even fellow New Yorkers such as Gov. David Paterson (a Clinton superdelegate) and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have come out against the holiday
Of course, one would expect either Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN, and Clinton superdelegate) or Gov. Mike Easley (D-NC, and Clinton superdelegate) to speak favorably of this idea. Yet, they've been thunderously silent on this proposal. One can only guess why.
Hillary Clinton circa 2008 isn't much different than Hillary Clinton circa 1993. While many legislators, including Obama, have the sense that legislative improvement can be gained by degrees through negotiation and compromise, Clinton still won't accept any proposals that don't completely match her own requirements.
This is precisely why Clinton's candidacy must not succeed. She's got the intelligence and fortitude to be President. What she does not have, has never had, and will never have is a basic understanding of how to accept any idea that isn't entirely her own.
Hillary Clinton's history shows that she can't bargain with a politically favorable Congress, and she's unwilling to bargain with a politically unfavorable Congress. This is a recipe for massive government gridlock - not change. In the words of George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." Please, let's not watch this particular re-run.