It was three for the money last night in New York as the trio of President Clinton, wife Hillary and Veep Al Gore teamed up – for the first time in 2000 – to raise $2.2 million to fight for the Clinton legacy.
As he revved up for the fat-cat bash, the president fretted that voters are so content that they’re sleepwalking, and an “almost somnambulist electorate” will let Republicans win next November.
It marked the first time in the 2000 campaign cycle that the Clinton-Clinton-Gore trio teamed up side-by side to raise campaign cash.
The president hopes boosting his wife into the Senate and his deputy into the Oval Office will become his real legacy – instead of Monica Lewinsky and impeachment.
Last night’s fat-cat bash at the Sheraton New York – featuring filet mignon and grilled veggies for 1,000 people – came just a few days after the controversial raid to seize Elian Gonzalez, an issue where Gore split with his boss.
About 50 protesters opposed to the raid marched outside the hotel.
Hillary Clinton yesterday offered belated support for Elian’s return to his dad, but Gore was still ducking the question of whether the boy should be returned to his father, or whether the arms-heavy raid was the right way.
Hillary and Gore kept their distance from the scandal-scarred president this year – he didn’t even speak at her campaign kickoff – but now that impeachment seems to be fading, they’re reaching out for his fund-raising clout.
Earlier, President Clinton made a solo lunch stop on Fifth Avenue to help raise $500,000 for Republican-turned-Democrat Rep. Mike Forbes (L.I.) – one of the Republicans who voted to impeach him over Sexgate.
Both men sing a different tune now that Forbes is fighting to keep his seat and is one of the GOP’s top targets in the race for control of the House, which Republicans now hold by six seats.
Forbes hailed the president whom he once voted unfit for office as “somebody I’ve grown to have great affection for.”
Clinton praised Forbes in a low-key fashion, but fretted that voters are so happy basking in prosperity that they’ll sleepwalk into a 2000 GOP victory.
He claimed Republicans will try to “paper over” differences between the two parties “in the hope that basically a satisfied and almost somnambulist electorate will give them the reins of power.”
Conspicuously missing from Clinton’s speech at the Forbes bash was the president’s usual stress on the need to elect pro-choice candidates – since Forbes is a right-to-lifer.
After the lunch, the president lobbied for the embattled China trade deal – an issue he also left out of his pro-Forbes speech since the congressman intends to vote “no.”
Today, fresh from the fund-raiser, Hillary Clinton starts a three-day upstate campaign swing.