Hell Freezes Over–Meet The Iceman

Hell has officially frozen over. Hillary Clinton will finally end her campaign for President, concede to Barack Obama and endorse him on Friday. It was, in the end, a publicly irritated and privately infuriated Charlie Rangel who told her to get out. Rangel represents the smallest geographic congressional district in the country, encompasses slivers of Queens and Manhattan, including Harlem and Spanish Harlem. Rangel has represented this district since 1971. Rangel is significant in that he is THE PERSON who first suggested to Hillary Clinton that she run for the U.S. Senate in 2000 to fill the vacancy, but not replace, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of NY. A main argument Rangel used to get her to run for the Senate was that she ought to have a legacy of her own as something other than Bill’s wife and the victim of Monicagate. Fittingly, I supposed, it was Rangel today who told her that her legacy, her career and her husband’s legacy were all going down the drain. Unlike Rep. James Clybourn of SC who get expletives hurled at him by Bill Clinton months ago when Clybourn chided Clinton for incited racial tensions into the primary, Hillary treated Rangel with great respect. She thanked him, told him she understood his concerns and assured him she would do the right thing. He assured her she needed to do it fast.

Clinton apologists, including Lanny Davis (a jerk), Joan Walsh (who I like but never agree with) and Lisa Caputo (a bright but misguided pro)have been all over the airwaves today trying to make the argument that she needed time to absorb the end of the campaign and prepare her supporters for the end. Get over yourself. Do what Al Gore did. Make a magnanimous speech, then go off, gain a hundred pounds and win a Nobel peace prize. Others have made the argument that it has been sexist and misogynistic for people to “dismiss” her by suggesting she get out of the race. The race is over. She lost. It has nothing to do with her gender and everything to do with her outrage and her, understandable, disbelief that this inexperienced neophyte beat her. But beat her he did. Hillary and Bill, their campaign insiders and longtime loyalists have consistently made up the rules as they have gone along, moving the goal post, lying and manipulating. Clinton apologists and loyalists are not the only ones lending great sensitivity to Hillary. Even Pat Buchanan and Paul Kroeger have been curiously calling for more time.

Hillary's departure is tantamount to hell freezing over. Kudos to Charlie Rangel for playing the Iceman and, incidentally, wrestling that title from John Olenick, possibly the only registered Republican in the Bronx.

Memo to Lanny Davis and the gang: Hillary won’t have the kind of leverage she thinks.