Grappling with the alphabet stew of world insurgencies can have its pitfalls.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discovered as much Friday as she fielded questions about the Moro Islamic Liberation Front during a town hall-style gathering in Manila.

MILF has the same acronym as an obscene phrase that gained currency in recent years. It was used in a Saturday Night Live political sketch last year in which characters playing Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton criticized sexism in the U.S. election campaign.

Questioned repeatedly about peace efforts with the MILF in the southern Philippines, Clinton struggled with how to speak the acronym.

“I’m encouraged by what I hear about the progress in the peace efforts that are going on between the government and MILF,” Clinton said, pronouncing it like a word — the same way as the acronym for the obscene phrase.

Then she switched and adopted the local usage — saying the letters individually.

Clinton said the time seemed ripe for a peace deal with the MILF, which has been fighting the Manila government for nearly 30 years.

She urged both sides to work to clinch an agreement while the timing is right, noting how Middle East peace efforts had been idle for years after her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, failed to secure a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians in the late 1990s.

“If people are in the mood and willing to make peace,” she said, “do not sleep, do not rest until you finally get there.”

Other tidbits from an hour of fielding questions at the town hall session at a Manila university:

Clinton had a crush on singer Fabian as a girl and headed a Fabian fan club.

Hillary and Bill Clinton try to schedule time for themselves when not occupied with their busy schedules.

“We like to take long walks, we like to go to the movies, we like to go out to dinner, we like to catch up on our sleep,” she said.

And will daughter Chelsea follow her parents into politics?

“I don’t think so,” the secretary of state said. “I think she has really carved out her own life and her own privacy.”

“I think she respects and appreciates the political world but has no plans for being part of it at this time in her life.”

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Cheryl Ravelo (Clinton arrives at a Manila university for a televised town hall-style meeting; Clinton fields questions at the session)

Former President Bill Clinton is clearly hoping that Congress succeeds this time around where his administration failed 15 years ago.

And perfection is not required — just get healthcare reform done. That was Clinton’s message to Senate Democrats who are now behind the steering wheel in trying to move legislation forward.

Clinton’s own effort to overhaul the healthcare system in 1994 fizzled long before reaching this far — the House of Representatives approved its version of a bill last weekend.

Clinton told Democratic senators at their weekly lunch that healthcare reform was an economic imperative and they should not let this latest opportunity slip away.

“It is not important to be perfect here, it is important to get it passed,” Clinton told reporters after the meeting.  ”The worst thing to do is nothing — that was my message today.”

President Barack Obama wants healthcare legislation passed by the end of this year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is hoping the Senate can do that, but time is running short as he awaits an official cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

Reid faces a tough task of stitching together one bill from separate bills passed by two Senate committees that will garner the 60 votes needed to move it in the 100-member chamber.

Senators said the pep talk by Clinton helped.

“People trust him,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who is playing a major role in writing the Senate bill. “He has excellent political and policy judgments and he believes it is far better to pass healthcare legislation than not.”

“He’s the former president of the United States he’s got a lot of sway, he’s a big man.” Baucus said.

For more Reuters political coverage click here

Photo credit: Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus (Former President Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in August 2009)

Former President Bill Clinton is due to visit Capitol Hill today to talk healthcare reform with Senate Democrats and their independent allies.

The meeting’s important because Democrats have yet to find the 60 votes they need to stop Senate Republicans from blocking President Barack Obama’s signature domestic issue. House Democrats got their end of the job done over the weekend by passing landmark legislation.

Clinton’s presidency was overshadowed by his own failed bid to reform the healthcare system in the 1990s. But NBC said he could help sway Democrats wavering in the current debate, including Sen. Blanche Lincoln of his home state, Arkansas. 

A big obstacle that Clinton, Obama and Senate Democrats face seems as old as human nature: people who will cooperate — if they get their own way.

This time, a small clutch of moderates want their own way on the so-called public option, a proposal to offer government supported low-cost health coverage that is anathema to Republicans and the insurance industry.

Some senators are categorical about what they want.

For independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut — a state long associated with insurance interests — opposition to the public option is a moral issue. “If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,” he said at the weekend on Fox News.

But his independent neighbor to the north, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, sounds like Lieberman’s polar opposite: “It would be outrageous to me, that when you have an overwhelming majority of Americans wanting a strong public option, that we do not deliver that.”

Others are not so categorical — until you get to the nitty gritty.

Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska told NBC he could back a public option, but not if states have to make the effort to opt out. Why? Because he doesn’t want them in the system unless they want to be there.

“I don’t think there is anything to be gained by opting out,” Nelson said. “I would look at the ability of the states to opt in, so that the states could make the decisions themselves.”

It seems a small distinction but may prove important. Reform advocates fear their adversaries could easily defeat healthcare reform at the state level, where small numbers of health insurers can sometimes hold a near monopoly.

Obama hopes to sign a healthcare reform bill by the end of the year.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo Credits: Reuters/Chip East (Clinton); Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Lincoln); Reuters/Mike Segar (Lieberman); Reuters/Chris Helgren (Sanders); Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Nelson)

Hillary Clinton was walking with her husband Bill in a nature preserve near their home in New York when the cellphone in his pocket started ringing.

It was five or six days after the November election that Barack Obama won after defeating her for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Instead of turning the phone off while strolling through nature, Clinton’s husband, the former president, answered it.

(Probably a good thing in hindsight. What would have happened if he hadn’t brought the phone? What if he had decided not to answer it? Who would have been Secretary of State then?)

OK, OK, it probably would not have made a difference (but who knows?)

It was the newly elected Obama calling to discuss some potential candidates for his administration. And then he popped the question, and asked Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State.

Clinton says in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she initially demurred saying others were qualified for that position, and then answered yes.

“I finally began thinking, look, if I had won and I called him, I would have wanted him to say yes. And, you know, I’m pretty old-fashioned, and it’s just who I am. So at the end of the day, when your president asks you to serve, you say yes, if you can.”

And if tables were turned, and she were president, would she have called Obama? “Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, of course.”

But she is not running for president again. “I have absolutely no interest in running for president again. None. None. I mean, I know that’s hard for some people to believe, but … I just don’t.”

Here’s the ABC News interview

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/pool (Clinton during meeting with Russian president)

While members of the U.S. Congress angrily debated bogged-down efforts at healthcare reform, three one-time adversaries shared old stories, pats on the back and laughs.

Former Democratic President Bill Clinton, ex-Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate Republican Leader Trent got together this week for the unveiling of Lott’s official Senate portrait.

“I’m still wondering why I’m here,” Clinton said, drawing chuckles and applause from a packed crowd on Capitol Hill of a few hundred people, including past and present congressional power brokers.

Indeed, it was a strange scene.

Clinton, Lott and Gingrich often engaged in front-page political battles during the former president’s eight years in the White House that ended in January 2001.

Most notably, Gingrich and Lott helped lead the failed bid in late 1998 and early 1999 to oust Clinton from office for lying about an affair with a White House intern.

None of them, in their remarks, made any mention of the scandal that rocked the nation and that tied up Congress for months.

Neither did they go near the flap that caused Lott to step down as Senate majority leader after making what was seen as a racially insensitive remark in 2002, ending more than five years a t the helm of the Senate.

Instead, they focused on the good times, kidded about some tough times and talked about productive times.

They noted that together they balanced the budget for the first time in 30 years and passed major legislation, including measures to overhaul welfare, dramatically boost education spending and create the federal health insurance program for children.

Lott revealed a key to their ability to find common ground.

“We never lost our ability to talk, even when I said something stupid — or vice versa,” Lott said.

Along the way, they developed a friendship.

“The world be amazed to know what good chemistry Trent and Newt and I had in private,” Clinton said.

Gingrich said the three were similar in their rise to power.

“We came out of nowhere, we had no plausible reason to get here, we got here and were slightly confused by the experience … and couldn’t believe the other two were here,” Gingrich said.

Lott acknowledged hanging on his office walls cartoons ridiculing Clinton. He said Clinton, after seeing them, laughed and gave him another cartoon — this one of Clinton skillfully fending off Republican opposition. Clinton framed and autographed it for the then Senate Republican leader.

Amid the laughter there was also some heartfelt talk.

Clinton told Lott, said: “When it is all said and done, all that matters is whether people are better off than when you started.”

“On that score, my friend, you did pretty well,” Clinton said.

Lott had a message for Congress, which has becoming increasingly partisan in recent years.

“If three good ole boys from the South, like the ones you heard today, can find a way to get it done …. I know that the outstanding leaders that we have in Congress … can get it done.”

Lott added,  “I will be praying for you.”

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Hyungwon Kang (Clinton, Lott pose in front of portrait of Lott.)

So we hear that current President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton are going to do lunch today.

It will follow Obama’s big financial regulation speech being delivered to Wall Street on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse.

Wondering how much appetite they’re going to have after a speech on financial collapse and during an almost inevitable discussion about healthcare reform — the issue that turned into this past summer’s discontent.

We don’t know what’s on the menu for the presidential meal, but they have in the past both shown a keen appreciation for burgers.

There must be a good burger joint in the area — although we’re guessing since it’s Wall Street, it’s probably Kobe beef and that’s probably not in the budget, what with the deficit and all…

THIS JUST IN: The presidents are lunching at Il Mulino, the fare on the menu looks a tad more culinary-involved than burgers…

UPDATE: Lunch is over, no burgers were had, the presidents opted for fish…

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama receives his order at Ray’s Hell Burger in Virginia). Reuters/Dylan Martinez (Clinton eats chip at pub in England)

President Barack Obama heads for Capitol Hill tomorrow to address a joint session of Congress on one of the most pressing issues of the day, healthcare reform. For those with middling-to-long memories of Washington, this may have a familiar ring. Another Democratic president argued for healthcare reform on another September day some 16 years ago, and somehow healthcare remains unreformed.

Back then, it was President Bill Clinton, who spoke to Congress on September 22, 1993. That speech was full of sounding phrases like “healthcare that can never be taken away” and “security, simplicity and savings.” It also paid tribute to contributions from then-first lady and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose efforts to change U.S. healthcare went down to defeat.

Obama tried out some sounding phrases of his own on Labor Day in Cincinnati, calling on Congress to pass healthcare legislation this year.

Those who question Obama’s plans to reform the American health insurance system have noted the earlier Clinton efforts to do the same thing — and the earlier failure. Fox News warned about “echoes” of the Clinton plan. Politico.com said “history does not seem to be on (Obama’s) side”, citing the Clinton speech and noting that the Clinton healthcare reform plan was dead a year later.

It’s a different time, a different economy, a different president. But will it be deja vu all over again when Obama gives his prime-time health care speech tomorrow? Let us know what you think.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credits: REUTERS/Larry Downing (Colette Carl listens to U.S. President Barack Obama speak at an AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati, Ohio September 7, 2009)

REUTERS/Pool photo (President Bill Clinton in the House chamber before his State of the Union address, with House Speaker Newt Gingrich in background, February 4, 1997)

President Barack Obama meets with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the White House around 11 a.m. in the long-running quest for Middle East peace that has bedeviled American presidents for decades.

Mubarak is already out with his talking points, saying in media interviews that Arab states would recognize and normalize ties with Israel only after an overall Middle East peace deal is achieved, and not before.

Obama then turns to Clinton vs. Clinton. He meets Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at 1:30 p.m. about her Africa trip, and then moves on to a meeting with Bill Clinton, the former president and current husband to the secretary of state, about his trip to North Korea.

The Obama-Clinton meeting on Africa is in the Oval Office, while the Obama-Clinton meeting on North Korea is in the Situation Room — it may be a draw in signaling which one is more important.

And speaking of searching for peace, Jenny Sanford (wife of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford who told the world about his longing for his Argentine mistress) talks to Vogue about dealing with the after-effects of the affair.

“I have learned that these affairs are almost like an addiction to alcohol or pronography. They just can’t break away from them,” Jenny Sanford says.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer (fan at music festival on 40th anniversary of Woodstock)

Hillary Clinton may be Secretary of State, but her husband Bill still wins the popularity contest.

The former president grabbed the headlines recently on what could be considered her diplomatic turf by going to North Korea and securing the release of two American reporters.

And then he was off to Las Vegas to celebrate his upcoming 63rd birthday with pals at a steak house where an 8 ounce goes for $240 — and that’s without a baked potato or veggies — according to the New York Times.

So when Hillary Clinton snapped quite undiplomatically at an African student over what was translated (wrongly) as an inquiry about her husband’s views, it raised the question about why was she so irritated at the mention of Bill?

Was it his spotlight-grabbing derring-do in North Korea? Or the Vegas bash with his buddies? Or something else entirely?

But even though she’s in public office, and he’s not, a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows that Clinton, the former president, is more popular than Clinton, the current Secretary of State, by 58 percent to 53 percent.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Clintons at inaugural service for Obama)

Some days, you really have to feel for Hillary Clinton. And this could be one of those days.

Secretary of State Clinton’s bad day started Monday in Kinshasa, in the middle of a grueling African trip, when a translator goofed and made it sound as if a questioner wanted to know what Clinton’s husband Bill thought of a particular issue. While on this tour, she’d already had to comment on the former president’s humanitarian mission to free to U.S. journalists from North Korea, and basically, she’d had about enough.

Read a just-the-facts Reuters story on what happened here and watch the video below.

But because the Clintons are the Clintons, with a long history in the public eye, that was hardly the end of it. Tuesday morning television — CNN, ABC, NBC, others — replayed the video of Hillary Clinton snapping at the student questioner: “You want me to tell you what my husband thinks? If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion, I am not going to be channeling my husband.” It was a five-star video on YouTube.

Back at the State Department, Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley acknowledged that the question, however poorly it was translated — the questioner wanted to know what President Barack Obama thought, not former President Clinton — struck a nerve. Crowley told CNN that her reaction had to be taken in the context of her African trip, where she has worked to draw attention to the plight of women who are victims of rape as a weapon of war in Congo.

“If Africa, if Congo is going to advance, women have to play a more significant role. She was in the setting of a town hall, and the questioner was interested in what two men thought, not the secretary of state,” Crowley said.

No question about it, Hillary Clinton is a polarizing figure. But whatever you think, being secretary of state is challenging enough, especially on an exhausting trip to a continent with critical diplomatic issues, without being second-guessed about how she feels when asked questions involving her high-profile husband or the man she ran against who is now president.

Or is she fair game, no matter what the circumstances?

In domestic U.S. politics, Obama heads for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for a town hall meeting on health care. Fireworks possible.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Joe Bavier (Hillary Clinton in Kinshasa, August 10, 2009)