Former Clinton flack joins Rove at Fox News Nick Juliano

Published: Tuesday July 8, 2008





Print This Email This Howard Wolfson, who since last year had spent his days undercutting Barack Obama as Hillary Clinton's communications director, will start this week as a political analyst for the Fox News network, according to several reports. Wolfson told the New York Times that Fox's coverage of the Democratic primary was "fair and evenhanded." Much of the Clinton campaign came to favor Fox toward the end of the campaign in the face of what they saw as a pro-Obama bent from the rest of the networks. (For example, unlike, say, CNN or MSNBC, Fox gleefully spread the rumor that Obama was educated in a Madrassa, referred to his fist bump as a "terrorist fist jab," implied his wife was an unwed mother and hosted a guest who joked about killing Obama.) The latest member of the Fox News team tells the Times he wants to be a "strong progressive voice" on the predominantly conservative network. Wolfson is the second member of Clinton's inner-circle to jump to Fox News; Lanny Davis, who was a prominent surrogate for Clinton during the campaign, was hired last month. Former White House political adviser Karl Rove joined the network earlier this year and has been a frequent contributor through the primary season and this summer. Wolfson, who will contribute to Fox part-time in addition to his work with the Glover Park lobbying firm, said he looked forward to taking on Rove. In a separate interview with the Times, Rove echoed that sentiment, calling Wolfson "surprisingly pleasant and amiable." (Some reporters who dealt with Wolfson on the campaign trail have reached the opposite conclusion.) In any case, there may be some room for agreement between the former Bush and Clinton henchmen. During the primary, Rove praised Clinton on several occasions. The former first lady even pointed to his analysis on the campaign trail in May, when it already was becoming increasingly clear that she couldn't emerge as the Democratic nominee. "I believe I am the stronger candidate. And just today I found some curious support for that position when one of the TV networks released an analysis done by -- of all people -- Karl Rove saying that I was the stronger candidate," Clinton said at a campaign stop in Kentucky. "Somebody got a hold of his analysis and there it is.""