I don’t understand it. Republicans had better be careful what they wish for.

Washington–From the K Street lobbyist corridor to the major gay and lesbian organizations to the city’s kingpin consultants and fundraisers to the big feminist groups, Hillary Clinton has acquired a near-lock on the Democratic establishment in the nation’s capital.

The level of support here for the junior New York Senator approaches what an incumbent president seeking re-election might expect.

The people and organizations run the gamut: Togo West, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs and CEO of The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the nation’s premier black think tank; Elizabeth Bagley, former US Ambassador to Portugal whose Georgetown home has been the gathering place for countless fundraisers; Elizabeth Birch, former head of the Human Rights Campaign, and her partner, former top recording industry lobbyist Hilary Rosen and, of course, former DNC chair and money-man extraordinaire Terry McAuliffe.

Those names only touch the surface of Clinton’s support among the Democratic establishment.

Take Matthew Bernstein, a prominent Hillary-backer. He is a classic Washington success story. Once a lowly legislative assistant to former Senator Howard Metzenbaum, he is now a lobbyist whose clients paid his law firm $1.98 million during just the first half of 2006, according to reports filed with the Senate. Among those clients is the Estate Tax Coalition seeking permanent elimination of the burdensome levy placed on the nation’s wealthiest citizens.

And then there is Vernon Jordan, one of this city’s highest-profile wheeler-dealers, who is now a Clinton $100,000-plus bundler. And Vernon is not the only major bundler in the Jordan family. His wife, Ann Dibble Jordan is also a $100,000-plus bundler whose credentials as a player in Washington include past or present board memberships at Johnson & Johnson, Automatic Data Processing, Citigroup, and Catalyst; service as a trustee at The Brookings Institution, the University of Chicago, WETA (Washington’s PBS affiliate), and the Phillips Collection; and chair of the Board of Directors at the National Symphony Orchestra.

Barack Obama has ten Washingtonians each committed to raising at least $50,000. Some are well known figures, including former Federal Communications Commission chairman William E. Kennard who is now with the Carlyle Group; and Gregory Craig, who defended President Clinton at his impeachment trial before the Senate. But adding up all the Washington fundraiser-bundlers listed on Public Citizen’s White House For Sale web site, Clinton has 21, more than all seven of her Democratic opponents combined, who have 15.

Story