by John L. Micek
Here’s the top of my story from today’s Morning Call on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s biggest ally in Pennsylvania, Gov. Ed Rendell…
On a fine day in 1992, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell were in Philadelphia’s Spring Garden neighborhood to tour a community police station.
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The grass-roots approach to crime fighting was then all the rage. And Clinton, the new Democratic presidential nominee, had come to town to see how Philadelphia was doing it. At the time, the city’s community policing effort was hailed as a national model.
Rendell’s longtime political adviser, David L. Cohen, was walking behind the two men when he noticed that the gaze of the gregarious pols had alighted on a pickup basketball game.
”I saw the two of them kind of nudge each other,” Cohen, now an executive with cable giant Comcast Inc., recalled. Within seconds, Clinton and Rendell had doffed their suit jackets and were jogging over to join in the fun.
As the 2008 presidential campaign arrives in Pennsylvania today for a bruising seven weeks leading to the state’s April 22 primary, Rendell, now in his second term as Pennsylvania’s governor, and Clinton, who’s enjoying an active retirement, again find themselves teammates in the full-contact game of politics.
This time, however, Rendell will be working for another Clinton, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
”There’s a real relationship between the two of them,” Cohen said of the friendship between Rendell and the former president. ”And through that [Rendell] has developed a relationship with Mrs. Clinton.”
Rendell’s reserve of personal popularity, fundraising muscle and organization prowess could play a pivotal role in helping her prevail here. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has no ally of similar stature among the state’s political elite…