Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, left, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. and retired army Gen. Wesley Clark at a Clinton campaign fundraiser in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007. AP Photo/Seth Wenig.
by Rick Pearson
DAVENPORT, Iowa—Tom Vilsack may no longer be governor of Iowa but the one-time presidential contender who is now a key player in Hillary Clinton’s bid has stirred up some controversy over disparaging comments he made about another New Yorker who is running for president.
Vilsack was reported in the New York Post as saying in a TV interview that former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has “lots of issues” that voters outside New York may not know about.
“I can’t even get into the number of marriages, (and) the relationship he has with his children,” the Post quoted Vilsack as saying. Vilsack also described Giuliani’s past as “interesting.”
Clinton, the New York senator, has studiously avoided any references to Giuliani on the campaign trail and Vilsack’s comments about the former New York mayor may create their own “family values” questions about the relationship between President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton at the White House.
For her part, Clinton would not directly address the subject in a conference call with Iowa reporters this morning.
“I think he’s more than capable of speaking for himself,” Clinton said of Vilsack, according to Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson.
The controversy comes just hours before Clinton and four other Democratic contenders are scheduled to meet in Davenport tonight for a forum on seniors and health care and financial security hosted in part by AARP that will be broadcast nationally on PBS.
In addition to Clinton, the event is to feature Sens. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Joseph Biden of Delaware, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel were not invited to take part. Kucinich has accused AARP of a conflict of interest because it has licensed its name to private insurers for senior health-care policies while Kucinich wants to end for-profit insurance coverage in his health care plan.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is not taking part in the event and is instead attending fundraising events in Atlanta featuring R&B performer Usher.
Obama has said he was curtailing his participation in candidate forums, but some supporters in the Quad Cities area were privately questioning his decision since the demographics of caucus-goers skews to seniors and the forum is being held just across the Mississippi River from his home state of Illinois.
Perhaps in a way to offset any criticism, Obama has scheduled what the campaign calls a “senior town hall meeting” in Ames on Friday. The appearance will coincide with a new TV ad running in Iowa to push his plans for universal health care.
Clinton has been running TV ads in the state ever since she unveiled her own universal health plan in Des Moines earlier this week.