Bill Clinton Attempts Second Fiddle, Again

ABC News’ Elizabeth Gorman Reports:

Bill Clinton loves shopping for all women, and sometimes loses track of his wife Hillary completely, according to an upcoming profile of the former president in the upcoming issue of The New York Times Magazine.

“The only bad thing about Hillary’s being secretary of state is I can’t always get hold of her,” he says. (Her mobile phone apparently doesn’t get reception inside the State Department fortress.)

The Times’ Peter Baker interviews Clinton about his life after the White House and the 2008 campaign trail, while married to a woman fully entrenched in the administration.

When they’re not on airplanes respectively, the couple sees each other about once a week at their home in Chappaqua, but usually Secretary Clinton has time only to rest.

The story also gives readers a peek into how Clinton spends his downtime finishing crossword puzzles and playing “Oh, Hell,” a card game that Steven Spielberg taught him.

This Clinton, seemingly a bit more humble now, is busy defining his role outside the Obama administration. After he left office, friends said they worried about Clinton, who appeared a bit lost before getting fully engaged in his foundation work.

Baker reports that at the start of the Obama administration, Clinton was still smarting a bit from the 2008 campaign experience. “He never felt a part of the campaign . . . She was keeping him distant,” one Hillary Clinton adviser told the Times.

And as for those controversial remarks he made on race during the South Carolina primary? Clinton attempts to brush off the interpretation of his remarks as pure politics.

“None of them ever really took seriously the race rap,” Clinton tells the Times. “They knew it was politics,” he says. Clinton tells about a minister who he met in Texas, during the general election. The minister supported Obama. “And he came up, threw his arm around me and said, ‘You’ve got to forgive us for that race deal.’ He said, ‘That was out of line.’ But he said, ‘You know, we wanted to win real bad.’ And I said, ‘I got no problem with that.'”

While Clinton allies say he has gotten over his resentment of Obama, the former president is still none too pleased with Sen. Ted and Caroline Kennedy and Gov. Bill Richardson’s endorsements of then-Sen. Obama, according to the Times’ story.

Clinton Tears Up Over Deceased Diplomat

ABC News’ Kirit Radia reports: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a rare emotional moment this morning, fighting back tears as she spoke about a young diplomat killed in Ethiopia earlier this year during his first tour abroad.

“Brian Adkins was a smart, talented, and generous young man, everything that his country looks for in a foreign service officer. Wherever he went, he made an impression and he made a difference,” Clinton said of the 25 year old, her voice cracking and her eyes welling up.

Today Clinton added Adkins’ name and those of two other diplomats who died abroad to a wall honoring diplomats killed in service. Before her remarks, Secretary Clinton met with the Adkins family who attended the unveiling ceremony.

Brian’s father, Dan, told ABC News today his son was “a very giving caring ambitious person.”

“He loved his country, he loved his job, he loved his family,” his father said.

Brian Adkins spoke several languages fluently and worked to put himself through college. He graduated from George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs in 2007.

“His favorite part of his job was knowing that anywhere in the world that he wanted to go his ticket was learn their language,” Dan Adkins said.

Clinton Slashes Campaign Debt in Half

ABC News’ Tahman Bradley reports:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slashed her campaign debt in half during the first three months of this year as virtually the entire Democratic establishment rallies around an effort to retire all of her remaining debt.

Federal Election Commission reports filed Wednesday show Clinton retiring about $3.6 million dollars of debt since January, after bringing in a little less than a million dollars from donors. In all, Clinton brought in $5.5 million.

Clinton still owes pollster Mark Penn’s firm $2.3 million. On December 31, the campaign had $5.9 million in unpaid bills.

Raising campaign funds after an election can be excruciatingly difficult for a losing candidate and the task before the Clinton operation is made all the more difficult because Hillary Clinton herself cannot go out and ask for money. After becoming Secretary of State in the Obama administration, Clinton was barred by the Hatch Act of 1939 from soliciting and receiving political contributions.

The various Democratic Party campaign committees are lending a hand, using their e-mail lists to solicit contributions on her behalf. Longtime Clinton ally James Carville sent out a much publicized fundraising pitch last week saying it is “going to take an extraordinary effort to help pay off” the debt.

That extraordinary effort: prizes for lucky donors.

As outlined in the Carville e-mail, the campaign is now offering the possibility to win a day in New York City with former President Clinton, a weekend lunch with Carville and fellow strategist Paul Begala, and tickets to attend the American Idol season finale.

Clinton lost all opportunities to get back the $13.1 million in personal money she loaned the campaign for the primary election after the time limit for candidates paying back personal loans passed last summer.

The Obama campaign operation — renamed “Organizing for America” and now led by the Democratic National Committee — has been working to drum up grassroots support for President Obama’s agenda. Their FEC report showed the campaign sitting on $9.9 million.

Oh, and — no, the Obama campaign committee cannot wipeout Clinton’s bills. Under law, the Obama campaign committee would only be able to contribute $2,000 to the Clinton organization.

New York Guv to Tap Gillibrand for Clinton Seat

ABC News’ John Berman and Teddy Davis Report:

A shift in Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s Friday schedule stoked speculation in Washington Thursday evening that the Democratic congresswoman is New York Gov. David Paterson’s choice to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the United States Senate.

As of Wednesday evening, Gillibrand was slated to be in Washington, D.C., through Monday.

In a change of plans, Gillibrand is now “in Albany Friday,” according to her spokeswoman.

Gillibrand’s office is saying that “there is no availability before the Governor’s Announcement” which is slated to take place in Albany at 12 noon ET on Friday.

UPDATE:

ABC News has learned that Paterson’s office called top Senate contenders Thursday night to discuss his announcement which was planned for Friday in Albany, N.Y. In at least one of those conversations, the Paterson camp made clear he intended to appoint Gillibrand to the vacant Senate seat.

ANALYSIS:

Gillibrand, who has a 95 percent rating from the National Rifle Association, has drawn fire from Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., whose husband was killed by a gunman on the Long Island Railroad.

Democratic insiders in Washington are praising the pick, however, believing that she will play well in upstate New York and on Long Island, two places where a Democrat can be vulnerable in the Empire State.

Her background includes having voted against the Wall Street bailout twice when it came before the House in September, speaking out against former Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s, D-N.Y., plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, and never voting to make funding for the Iraq war contingent on a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal.

She is a strong fundraiser, an advocate of “pay as you go” budgeting, and seen by Democratic insiders as “more battle tested” than Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy who withdrew her name from consideration earlier this week out of a stated desire to “put family first.”