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The Peabody Hotel
February 05, 2008 5:02 PM
The Peabody Hotel in Little Rock, Ark., is where the Huckabee press corps is staying tonight.
It is an historic hotel. Particularly for political junkies.
It was in a private suite here where then-Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., first met then-Gov. Bill Clinton, in 1987.
Gore asked for Clinton's endorsement for Gore's first presidential run. He did not get it.
The Peabody back then was known as the Excelsior. On July 15, 1987, where Clinton told a packed ballroom of friends and supporters that he would not run for president. The personal peccadilloes of then-Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., had been picked apart, and Clinton wanted no part of that. Not yet, at any rate.
"I need some family time," Clinton said. "I need some personal time. Politicians are people too."
It was here at this hotel, in the Excelsior's ballroom, where President-elect Clinton and Vice President-elect Gore greeted their supporters on Election Night 1992, so many, many years ago, back when the country wouldn't stop thinkin' about tomorrow.
"We won together a great victory for the American people tonight, and you were part of it, and I appreciate it," Clinton rasped that night in the Excelsior's ballroom, his voice worn and barely audible.
"I can't talk much, so I want to say just this. Beginning tomorrow, Hillary and I and Al and Tipper and all the people who have worked so hard will do everything we can to make you always and forever proud of this night, as proud tomorrow and in the years ahead as you are tonight."
Gushed Gore: "It doesn't get any better than this ... We all have to join hands now in helping Bill Clinton be the best president this nation ever had."
Almost eight years later, Gore went through three presidential debates without mentioning Clinton by name even once.
On May 8, 1991, during an official conference held at the Excelsior, an Arkansas state trooper named Danny Ferguson talked with a state employee named Paula Jones and before long she was in a business suite alone with the governor.
It all prompted quite a mess, as you may recall.
Memories. Good and bad. All of them from this hotel.
If these walls could talk!
- jpt
February 5, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (3)
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If those walls could talk, there would probably be so much blue language that a censor would be needed!
Posted by: chuck | Feb 6, 2008 9:21:32 AM
Time for Mitt! to do the right thing and step aside.
G'bye Mitt.
Vote HUCK!
Posted by: The Commander Guy | Feb 5, 2008 11:31:31 PM
If the walls could talk how many women did Billary bed in that hotel alone? How many bald-faced lies (that Bill convinced himself were true) did he tell in that one building alone? How many calls did she make to find him in that building alone? Indeed, if only the walls could talk!!
Posted by: sophillyfatz | Feb 5, 2008 6:29:55 PM
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