First, I wish John McHugh a speedy recovery.
January 16, 2007, 12:37 pm
By Patrick Healy
Yes, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would’ve have been asked all about Barack Obama today if she’d held her news conference on Iraq this afternoon, as initially planned. But that’s not the reason it was postponed until Wednesday, her advisers say.
In fact, an aide for the senator disclosed at 3 p.m. Monday that the news conference would be postponed. The reason, the aide said, was that one of Mrs. Clinton’s companions on the trip, Representative John McHugh, took ill during a stop in Germany and stayed behind to recover while she and Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, the third member of the delegation, flew back to Washington on Monday.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Bayh seconded that the news conference was scrubbed on Monday because of the timing of Mr. McHugh’s return. The three will speak about their trip at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Clinton advisers say there was no back-channel heads-up from the Obama camp that his announcement was coming this morning. They said there was no way the Iraq presser would’ve gone ahead without Mr. McHugh, a New York Republican — and anyway, Mrs. Clinton will be thrown plenty of questions about Mr. Obama regardless of when she next faces reporters.
Read the comments. LOL!