Hillaryland

Hillaryland was the self-designated name of a group of core advisors to Hillary Rodham Clinton, when she was First Lady of the United States and again when, as United States Senator, she was one of the Democratic Party candidates for President in the 2008 election.

The group included Huma Abedin, Patti Solis Doyle (credited with coining the name "Hillaryland"),^[1] Mandy Grunwald, Neel Lattimore, Ann Lewis, Evelyn Lieberman, Tamera Luzzatto, Capricia Marshall, Cheryl Mills, Minyon Moore, Lissa Muscatine, Neera Tanden, Melanne Verveer, and Maggie Williams.^[2]

The group was distinguished by two facts: First, almost all are women; the only man in the group, former First Lady deputy press secretary Neel Lattimore, is gay.^[3] Second, most worked in the Clinton Administration, and have been personal friends and confidants of Hillary Clinton since at least then, if not earlier. Indeed the name Hillaryland dates back to the Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, when it was the portion of the famed Little Rock, Arkansas "war room" that housed Hillary Clinton's staff.^[4] Later it became better known as the moniker for the area of the West Wing of the White House in which the First Lady's staff had their offices; according to Clinton, Hillaryland had its own subculture, based on camaraderie, never leaking information to the press, and having plenty of toys and cookies around for the children of staffers - as Hillary put it, "While the West Wing had a tendency to leak... Hillaryland never did, and every child who ever visited knew exactly where we stashed the cookies." ^[5]

References

External links

• Michelle Cottle, "Hillary Control", New York Magazine, August, 2007.