New York, NY — On a quick business run to NYC today, it was hard not to notice the
multiple news reports regarding the new video footage of Hillary Clinton "embracing" Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison at a recent DC ceremony.
The video, shot by Kay’s potential rival for Governor, incumbent Gov. Rick Perry, is a major coup for Perry’s camp. The 46 second clip, recorded during a joint appearance at the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, shows Hillary telling the group she’s "delighted that Kay is my partner on so many important fronts."
Despite the fact the clip is all over the internet and already in the political circulatory system — dailies in Texas and New York have already reported on it — the big payoff will be in a TV ad, and anyone who says this will not have an impact in a Texas GOP gubernatorial primary is certifiable.
At a minimum, this "controversy" has already established a "Kay is a liberal" narrative that’s of no help at all as she considers primarying Perry. One well known Texas GOP political operative told DCSpectator today this video is "pure poison" in a GOP primary, while another reporter in Dallas, asked for their reaction, simply laughed, and said, "looks like we have another substantive campaign to look forward to."
Just the fact the Perry camp had ther presence of mind and resourcefulness to a) surmise there was a huge opportunity up in DC with the event, b) line up a crew, and c) actually pull it off — and then get some free media and political buzz about the caper — should be troubling to Kay’s camp. There’s obviously some serious scheming going on, and this is likely just the tip of the iceberg.
Kudos to the crew guys who told the truth when asked who they were filming for. That’s absolutely required. What a race this is shaping up to be.
Note: From a full disclosure standpoint, I helped run a 2 day Texas fly-around in 1993 w/ John McCain and U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) — organized and paid for by the RNC — during Kay’s ’93 special election against incumbent Bob Krueger, and I was paid for doing so. I have no favorite in this potential race, however, and will continue to look and write about this race as events warrant in a straight-up, unbiased manner.