ANDY MEEK | The Daily News
In a front-page story in Thursday's edition of The Hill, the newspaper covering Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., was reported to have turned down an invitation to meet with presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
Davis was among a group of so-far-uncommitted Democratic "superdelegates" who were approached in the last day or so by the Clinton camp in the hopes of garnering their endorsement.
"He says that's not true," U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., told The Daily News about Davis' refusal to meet with Clinton. "But that's on the front page of The Hill. I told him he might as well go ahead and endorse Barack (Obama), because once Hillary sees that he's a dead man anyway."
Frosty ties
That sentiment from Cooper is the product of a long and famously sticky relationship he's had with the former first lady, one that has been the focus of sporadic national media attention over the years. Before he came to Memphis Friday at the request of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., to give a speech at the Shelby County Democratic Party's Kennedy Day Dinner, Cooper talked at length with The Daily News about some of that history.
Cooper, the state chairman of Obama's campaign in Tennessee, said his speech at the Holiday Inn-University of Memphis would focus on the 2008 presidential contest in general terms. But a look at his dealings with the first lady in the 1990s helps put his current political stance into context.
The year was 1993, and the focus was on comprehensive health care reform. The Clinton administration was mounting a full-court press in persuading congressional leaders to sign on to a health care bill championed by the White House.
Cooper had a health care bill of his own.
"They turned up their nose at my bill, and that's fine. But then they constructed this secret 500-person task force to draft a whole new bill - and I knew it would go nowhere," Cooper said. "So I went privately to the White House to warn (Hillary Clinton). No publicity. No nothing.
"She brought in a camera to record the meeting. And she has not released the memos on this meeting. She immediately declared war on me. I warned her we didn't even have the votes (for her bill) in our subcommittee. She said, 'We're going to (politically) cut your legs off.' I've never gotten such a cold reception as I got from her."
Cooper said the first lady set up a war room to undercut Cooper, who was gearing up for a run at the U.S. Senate in 1994. And a former television news reporter from Nashville was tasked with leading that war room, he said.
"Bill Clinton couldn't have been nicer to me during this period," said Cooper, who still keeps an old photograph of himself that was taken during a visit to the first lady's West Wing office in the White House during the 1990s. "I went running with him. I played golf with him. I was asked to hang out in the White House with him.
"I respect Hillary supporters because they haven't had the chance to get to know her like I have. She does not have the political skills of her husband. Or Barack. You need somebody who can bring people together. She criticized my health care bill because it wouldn't achieve universal coverage until 1998. Well, today we'd be celebrating the 10th anniversary of having every American with insurance."
Still in it
The Clinton campaign, meanwhile, declined to respond to Cooper's remarks. When asked, some of her prominent local supporters still affirm their commitment to her, despite a widening lead in the primary race for Obama.
Memphis City Council member Myron Lowery, one of the Democratic superdelegates from Tennessee already committed to Clinton, said he had not felt any recent pressure to shift his allegiance.
"I am still firm with Clinton. I made that commitment, and as long as she's there, I will be there supporting her," he said. "Right now I've made my commitment, and that's where I am."
Another staunch Clinton backer is former Tennessee Gov. Ned McWherter. He's long been a close friend, sounding board and prominent backer of both Clintons.
Speaking with The Daily News, McWherter said Clinton's political skills would be put to good use in reforming the nation's current health care system.
"With her leadership and her knowledge of health care, I believe she could put a good health care program together and pass it in the House and Senate," he said. "We can all talk about having a health care program, but to go to Washington and get legislation on the books and make it real - that's a different proposition. And I believe Hillary possesses that leadership and has that commitment to develop and pass a health care bill for all Americans."
Cooper, meanwhile, is insistent that the country needs to metaphorically turn the page by electing Obama as president.
"I was just with him. ... It's incredible the appeal he has," Cooper said. "We walked from a townhouse near Capitol Hill up to the Capitol to vote. And kids were screaming. He's like a rock star. It's fabulous.
"Democrats would be crazy to throw this away. There's like a million new voters registered in North Carolina and Indiana. Nobody else has been able to do that. The Clintons had eight years. You don't get a do-over in American politics. They had eight good years. Now it's time to turn the page. We need to change."
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