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• Thursday, May 6, 2010 - Everyone thought the race needed to be made, but...
| Everyone thought the race needed to be made, but no one wanted to make it; it seemed too unwinnableAlso, it seemed that Governor Bumpers, who was immensely popular, was likely to challenge Senator Fulbright in the Democratic primaryFulbright was from Fayetteville, and most of my friends, though they liked Bumpers, felt obligated to help the senator in what was sure to be an all-uphill battle
As it became clear that no one in our area who could run a strong race was willing to do it, I began to think about running myselfIt seemed absurd on the face of itI had been home only six months after nine years awayI was just three months into my new jobI had no contacts in most of the districtOn the other hand, Fayetteville, with its students and liberal Democrats, was not a bad place to startHot Springs, where I grew up, was the biggest town in the south end of the districtAnd Yell County, where the Clintons were from, was part of it, tooAll told, I had relatives in five of the districts twenty-one countiesI was young, single, and willing to work all hours of the day and nightAnd even if I didnt win, if I made a good showing I didnt think it would rock of love tiffany's necklace hurt me in any future campaigns I might undertakeOf course, if I got waxed, my long-hoped-for political career could be over before it began
I had a lot to think about when Hillary came to visit me shortly after ChristmasWe were talking it over in my house one morning in early January when the phone rangIt was John Doar, with whom Hillary and I had spent some time the previous spring when he came to Yale to judge our Casablanca Prize TrialHe told me that he had just agreed to become the chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committees inquiry into whether President Nixon should be impeached, and that Burke Marshall had recommended me to himHe wanted me to take a leave of absence from the law school, come to work, and help him recruit some other good young lawyersI told him I was thinking about running for Congress, but Id consider the offer and call him back the next dayI had to think fast, and as would so often happen in the years ahead, I turned to Hillary for judgment and adviceBy the time I called John back, I had made up my mindI thanked him for the offer but declined, saying that I had decided to make the long-shot race for Congress tiffany heart charm toggle necklace instead, because there were lots of gifted young lawyers who would give anything to work for him on the impeachment inquiry but no one else to take on the fight in ArkansasI could tell John thought I was making a foolish mistake, and by every rational standard I wasBut, as Ive said before, a lot of your life is shaped by the opportunities you turn down as much as those you take up
I suggested to John that he ought to sign up Hillary and our Yale classmates Mike Conway and Rufus CormierHe laughed and said Burke Marshall had recommended them tooEventually they all went to work for John and did an outstanding jobDoar wound up with an extraordinary array of talented young people, proving that, as I had expected, he didnt need me to have a great staff
A couple of days before Hillary had to go back to Cambridge, I took her to Huntsville, about twenty-five miles east of my house, to see former governor FaubusIf I was going to run for Congress, Id have to pay a courtesy call on him sooner or laterBesides, much as I disapproved of what hed done at Little Rock, he was bright and had a brain full of Arkansas political lore, which I wanted to dior handbag sale pickFaubus lived in a beautiful big Fay Jones house his supporters had built for him when, after twelve years, he left the governors office with no moneyHe was then living with his second wife, Elizabeth, an attractive Massachusetts woman who still wore a 1960s beehive hairdo and who, before her marriage, had had a brief career as a political commentator in Little RockShe was extremely conservative, and was in stark contrast in both looks and outlook to the governors first wife, Alta, who was a good hill-country populist and the editor of the local paper, the Madison County Record
Hillary and I were ushered into the Faubus home and seated at a big round table in an all-glass alcove looking out on the Ozarks and the town belowFor the next four or five hours, I asked questions and Orval talked, delivering a fascinating account of Arkansas history and politics: what life was like during the Depression and World War II, why he was still defending what he had done in Little Rock, and how he thought President Nixons problems might or might not affect the congressional raceI didnt say much; I would just ask a new question when Faubus finished buy a chanel bag answering the previous oneHillary didnt say anythingSurprisingly, for more than four hours Elizabeth Faubus didnt eitherShe just kept us supplied with coffee and cookies
Finally, when it was obvious the interview was winding down, Elizabeth Faubus stared hard at me and said, This is all very well, MrClinton, but how do you feel about the international conspiracy to overthrow the United States? I stared right back and replied, Why, Im against it, MrsArent you? Not long afterward, the Faubuses moved to Houston, where Orval was distraught after Elizabeth was brutally murdered in their apartmentWhen I was inaugurated governor in 1979, I invited all the former governors to attend, including FaubusIt was a controversial move among my progressive supporters, who felt Id given the old rascal new lifeThe way it played out proved them right, a classic example of the old adage that no good deed goes unpunishedStill, Id do it all over again just to have the Red-menace exchange with Elizabeth Faubus
After Hillary left, I went to see Dean Davis, told him I wanted to run for Congress, and promised to keep up with all my class work and to make time for the multicolor louis vuitton bags stude |
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