The last anyone heard from Harold Ickes, he was bravely casting aside logic to claim that Hillary Clinton should still win the primaries, for White America. But unlike other washed-up politicos who spend their retirement in rural red states or simply Jail, Ickes is still toodling around Washington. We went to see him!
Ickes spent Wednesday afternoon in a conference room in Georgetown, speaking about politics and the kidney he lost in a scuffle related to his civil rights work. Despite his reputation as a slightly deranged Clinton loyalist, he was actually quite personable with a good deal of insight into the lessons of the collapse of Clinton’s health care reform (amongst other theories, they failed to include whiny congresspeople in the drafting of the bill, so it was tossed out of a Democratic-run committee in fit of pique).
He even praised the way Obama has concentrated the decision-making power of federal agencies in the White House while giving Congress say in legislation like the stimulus bill.
But Ickes is still Ickes, and when probed about the denouement of the primary campaign, he was steadfast in his belief that hanging on until the bitter end was the best decision for Clinton. He justified this using the most depressing statement ever, since yesterday:
“As you get older and older, and your circle of friends gets smaller, it’s amazing how easily you can be forgotten, in life, and especially in politics.”
When not pontificating in Georgetown, Ickes is running Catalist, a company which creates and analyzes voter databases but is probably not involved with MicroTrends.
{ 25 comments }
And the projects in Chicago on 22nd street named after said harold ickes – is still filled to hilt with welfare queens, crack heads and roaches! His legacy lives on with him! also.
I just kinda feel bad for a guy whose last name soulds like it should be followed by teh phrase “poopy butt.”
It’s not that you’re being forgotten, Harold, so much as most people never knew who you were in the first place. Try introducing yourself as the Michael Deaver of the Clinton administration, and see if that gets you more blank stares or fewer.
Who?
I really, really wish I had known about our Wonkette before the DNC primary. Spending it with Andrew Sullivan and Slate was not good enough. I’m sure many awesome things were said about Ickes and the rest of HRC’s tired, Boomer strategists.
Life would be great if everyone’s name reflected their personality.
How fucking old is he? His father served in the goddam FDR ADMINISTRATION!
[re=247167]heroinmule[/re]: That’s a task for a rainy weekend, going through the beloved Wonkette archives. Oh, the times we had!
Hmmm. He was born three days after the start of World War II. Worked for *five* failed presidential campaigns. Now working to amass a database of every voter in the USA.
Paging George Orwell! Will Mr. Orwell please report to the white courtesy phone!
He’s probably matching up Facebook listings with voter registration to track down more bitters for Hillary 2012.
[re=247137]ToeCramps[/re]: Actually, I’m pretty sure they’re named after his father. You can tell them apart thusly: the elder Ickes was a great New Dealer, and the younger Ickes is a rat faced little fart.
“As you get older and older, and your circle of friends gets smaller, it’s amazing how easily you can be forgotten, in life, and especially in politics.”
ktnxbai
[re=247172]Scarab[/re]: There would be far too many “Rush Wingnuts” and “Sarah K. Lonelysarcasticmatrons”
I doubt he ever had a circle of friends. It was probably more like a parabola.
He’s running a company called Catamite? He’s hoping to attract Republican clients then.
[re=247176]Red Zeppelin[/re]: I did some interweb research, because I thought that the FDR Harold Ickes had to be his grandfather or something; it turns out he was in fact the father, but was 65 or so when Harold the Rat-Faced Younger was born (his wife, The Rat-Faced Younger’s mother, was about 40 years younger). Please don’t diagram that sentence.
Hello. Dad?
Please tell me they paid him in hobobeans. If not, I hope he donated the speaking fee to Hillary’s campaign. That debt ain’t gonna pay itself.
If Ickes had had his way, Hillary would have taken a small band of armed loyalists and still be hiding in the Catskills, occasionally raiding small towns and living on roadkill and bitter memories.
[re=247185]jagorev[/re]: I’m reading the new FDR bio Traitor To His Class right now, though I got to 1937 and decided to take a break, because the book is like a kajillion pages long. Anyway, in FDR’s first term, anyway, Ickes Sr. comes off like a whiny little snot, always griping about how the lovable drunk who ran the WPA was more powerful and tighter with FDR than he was.
It’s good that Ickes runs a company doing the work that Hillary’s people should have done and Obama’s people did. Perhaps Barn Door would be a better name for it. The HC campaign was the greatest choke job since the ’69 Cubs; everyone in it deserved a mea maxima culpa, no exceptions.
Did he show off his powder burns from when he capped Vince Foster in the back of the head?
Sometimes I confuse Harold Ickes with David Icke.
But then I remember that one of them is crazy.
And the other one is a former sportscaster who believes the world is run by lizard-aliens.
Does anyone else think the Coulter add is not so much an ad, but a warning?
Ann Coulter, Free! RUN FOR YER LIVES!
Harry Truman called the elder Harold Ickes the “Chicago Cinch Bug” which would make Jr. another difficult to eradicate lawn pest.
Comments on this entry are closed.