ADAM NAGOURNEY and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG write of the growing unease among Democrats in Some Democrats Are Sensing Missed Opportunities, appearing in today’s NY Times.

I mention and link only to remark on the following paragraphs (undoubtedly known at the Times as the obligatory Hillary tie-in):

One of the party's most prominent members, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, has been relatively absent for much of this debate, a characteristic display of public caution that her aides say reflects her concern for keeping focused on her re-election bid. Mrs. Clinton, who has only nominal opposition, declined requests for an interview to discuss her views of the party.

I would observe that Senator Clinton’s “characteristic display of public caution” derives from her perpetual focus on her self, not specifically limited to her very near-term goal of her Senate re-election bid.

Count on Hillary, if there’s a fight that involves a large political cost with marginal gain, why she’s just a simple ex-First Lady. Oh, and junior Senator from New York. No good possibilities for triangulation here. Party doesn’t come first, or second or even a distant third in relation to one’s own ambitions.

She shares this characteristic in remarkable degree with the Governor of my own state, George Pataki. (Remarkable, that.)

And if there is one overriding characteristic in which Senator Clinton is quite unlike her husband, at least you could count on Bill to know when he needed to act in the better interests of the party (in the longer term if not always in the short).

(Via Instapundit)