WASHINGTON -- Sen. Ted Kennedy, in his formula for Democratic Party recovery in a speech before the National Press Club, had only good things to say about President Clinton directly. But indirectly he seemed to be coaxing the president back from the "move to the right" of which many others have accused him since the Nov. 8 Democratic debacle.
Kennedy spoke of the president's "remarkable record of achievement" in his first two years in office and suggested that Clinton didn't get proper credit because he and the Democratic Congress "took on an almost unprecedented array of tough challenges, and did not win every battle."
Massachusetts' senior senator painted Clinton as a victim of "a Republican strategy of obstruction, distortion and massive personal attack" on him and Hillary Clinton, and lectured fellow Democrats that they "need to fight back for our beliefs, not turn our back on the Clinton administration."
The pet liberal target of conservatives had harsh words for those who have done so.
"Blaming Bill Clinton by some in our party," Kennedy said, "comes with ill grace from those who abandoned him on critical votes in the last Congress, then ran from him in the campaign and then lost, often by wide margins. Now they come forward to advocate a strategy discredited by their own defeats."
Kennedy mentioned no names but former Rep. Dave McCurdy of Oklahoma, who blamed the loss of his Senate race on Clinton and then had the chutzpah to serve as host for a Democratic Leadership Council dinner with the president as featured speaker the same night, immediately came to mind.
The senator, in response to a question, said he even supported the president's post-election call for a middle-class tax cut, viewed by many as an attempt to compete with the Republicans who have called for one in their "Contract with America."
Kennedy said that his fundamental recommendation to Clinton "is that he stay the course of change and do what he thinks is right," adding that "my advice to my fellow Democrats is that we work with the president for change -- instead of seeking to change our principles, or distance ourselves from him."
If President Clinton had not created the widespread impression that he is willing to shift ground as a result of the Nov. 8 elections, however, Kennedy's basic recommendation would not have been necessary.
