Flirting with Obama risks Clinton's wrath / The message to donors: Don't play the field

U.S. Presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) smiles during a "conversation with community leaders" presidential campaign event in Miami February 20, 2007. REUTERS/Joe Skipper (UNITED STATES) 0 U.S. Presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) smiles during a "conversation with community leaders" presidential campaign event in Miami February 20, 2007. REUTERS/Joe Skipper (UNITED STATES) 0 Photo: JOE SKIPPER Photo: JOE SKIPPER Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Flirting with Obama risks Clinton's wrath / The message to donors: Don't play the field 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

As she watched a stream of A-list Hollywood actors and movie moguls crowd into the elegant ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel to mingle with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama this week, powerhouse blogger and author Arianna Huffington noted that many in the room were uneasy about being there.

"It's like being married, and suddenly you fall in love. You're a good person, and a loyal person ... you have a history with the Clintons," she said. "And you feel like you're cheating."

If some Democrats have cheating on their minds, it coincides with the rise of Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, who has attracted big crowds and evidenced that elusive quality of political charisma, "something you cannot manufacture," Huffington said. "It is priceless -- and we haven't seen it for a long time."

And that has posed trouble for the old love: Hillary Rodham Clinton, the New York senator, front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2008 and the wife of former President Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton, who is scheduled to attend a lunch fundraiser in San Francisco today, expected in her presidential campaign to tap the same liberal Democratic sources of money in Hollywood and elsewhere that backed her husband's successful bids for the White House. And, Huffington and others say, the Clintons tend to play a style of politics that is all or nothing -- you're my friend or my enemy.

Therein lies the conflict, said Huffington, looking at the crowd that wrote $1.3 million in checks to Obama's campaign at an event organized by Hollywood producers David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks SKG -- all of whom had donated generously to Clinton's Senate campaign as well as to Democratic Party causes.

"A lot of people here tonight have long relationships with the Clintons," Huffington said.

"They've been good to you. They've given you Kennedy Center honors. They've helped your kids ... but you're suddenly in love. What do you do?"

Clinton attended a reception Thursday set up by her longtime supporter Ron Burkle, followed by another organized by Haim Saban, a big Democratic moneyman and Clinton donor.

In San Francisco today, she is scheduled to be the star attraction at a sold out "Make History With Hillary" $250-a-head lunch at the Sheraton Palace Hotel. The event is hosted by longtime supporter Susie Tompkins Buell and her husband, Mark Buell, developer Walter Shorenstein, the group EMILY's List and major Democratic donors Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor.

Even as she meets with supporters, Clinton's campaign has wrestled with a potentially damaging story that centers on her competition with Obama for attention and money. Geffen, a former Clinton fundraiser who now backs Obama, said in an interview with columnist Maureen Dowd of the New York Times that Clinton is a divisive figure and that she and her husband lie with impunity.

Geffen, whose harsh words drew immediate condemnation from Clinton's aides, who called on Obama to apologize, seemed to be thumbing his nose at a widely accepted premise among Democrats that messing with the powerful Clintons is unwise.

Huffington, an observer of the Hollywood and political scenes, agreed that insiders have felt uncertain about changing loyalties.

"The Clintons have made it very clear that, in the political world, no dalliances are allowed. There is zero tolerance for that," Huffington laughed. "It's sheer loyalty versus sheer fear."

And it's reinforced, she said by the "constant e-mails being sent out about the senator's poll numbers, along with the implication that 'if you give any money to anybody else, you're on the outs.' And that when she is the nominee, and when she's the president, she will remember."

A veteran California Democratic campaign strategist -- speaking only on condition of anonymity because of clients he represents -- agreed.

The message from the Clinton campaign, particularly its chairman, Terry McAuliffe, has been blunt, the strategist said, "that you're with us or against us. This isn't one of those races that you can max out (in contributions) to all the candidates. The message from Team Hillary is: We're ahead, we're going to be the nominee -- and we will remember who our friends are."

But Chris Lehane, the White House spokesman for Bill Clinton, said remembering who your true-blue friends are is a must for a political winner.

"I think history is pretty clear that those folks who are loyal to the Clintons find the loyalty is really reciprocated -- and that is one of the reasons why so many people have stuck with them for so long," he said. "They really do respect and appreciate it when someone is loyal, and that manifests itself in many ways ... that is what good politicians do."

Lehane also strongly challenged the implication that the Clintons can be punitive and unforgiving -- behavior that he said doesn't work for the long view in politics.

"At the end of the day, politics is about putting one vote after another; you always want to be growing and expanding," he said. "People who get to this level of politics tend to have concentric circles around them."

Nevertheless, many in the nation's entertainment capital -- notably the politically aware on the liberal side -- love the current political drama, especially when it revolves around themes like new loves and old ties.

Singer Natalie Maines, Grammy Award-winning lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, who was at the Beverly Hilton this week, acknowledged there are elements of curiosity and political attraction in her decision to see Obama and to write him a check.

"Everyone was just getting a feel for the first time," she said. "You know, it's early on. And everyone here is obviously supporting him financially by coming to this event ... and sort of hoping he lives up to the expectations."

Lehane advised taking such ruminations with a grain of salt.

"If Hollywood was responsible for anointing the next president," he noted this week, "we would have had Bob Kerrey in 1992, Bill Bradley in 2000 and Howard Dean in 2004."