Human Events.com Hillary Watch The week of April 2, 2002

Dances With Fundraisers

According to the Boston Globe, two Clinton officials quietly reversed the findings of Interior Department staff historians during the final days of the administration to recognize three groups as Indian tribes. This controversial move gave the groups the right to open casinos, a privilege often worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Many people associated with the tribes who gained special consideration from the Bureau of Indian Affairs contributed heavily to Hillary’s New York Senate campaign. James A. Cunha Jr., chief of the Paucatuck Eastern Pequot, contributed $1,000 to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign three months after his group got preliminary recognition status. Thomas Wilmont, a Rochester, N.Y., developer and the chief backer of the Golden Hill Paugussett, another group seeking recognition to build a casino in Connecticut, raised about $50,000 for Hillary at a cocktail party at his home.

Reading, Writing and Rodham

In a speech before leaders of the nation’s urban school districts, Hillary came out in favor of President Bush’s plan for the testing of students–well, sort of. She demanded that the states get federal dollars to help carry out the annual testing program. A member of the Senate Education, Health, Labor and Pension Committee, Mrs. Clinton also called for more federal spending to reduce class sizes and to repair and modernize school buildings, rather than allowing states and localities, as under the Bush plan, to decide where spending is most needed. Sen. Clinton now has to decide whether to support the administration’s proposal to test teachers, which is vigorously opposed by the teachers unions–her biggest donors.

Hillary Ban

The House Rules Committee is reviewing the "Members-elect Gift Ban Application Act of 2001," which would apply gift limitations to newly elected senators and representatives who have yet to be sworn in. The legislation was inspired by Hillary’s $8 million book deal, which was inked after she won election to the Senate but before she was sworn in. As Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.) observed, "I was appalled, but not surprised, at all the types of gifts that were showered on the new senator from New York before the restrictions kicked in, and that was using the loophole in the law for personal benefit."

Spousal Abuse

The Senate might want to reconsider another ethics rule because of Mrs. Clinton, whose husband’s $100,000 speeches before businesses and trade associations raise compelling questions about her legislative integrity. While it is normal for a former President to earn millions on the lecture circuit, it is unprecedented for a former President to receive so much money from groups that have an interest in bills on which his wife will vote. Existing Senate rules limit gifts to senators to $50, but there is no limit on the amount that one can give to a Senate spouse. As Prof. Randy Barnett of the Boston University Law School told The Hill, "[Y]ou don’t need to be an ethics expert" to question the propriety of his speeches or gifts. "This is obviously a legal way of funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into the joint bank account of a senator."

Judeo-Clinton Relations

When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited Washington this week, Sen. Clinton was among those who warmly greeted the conservative leader. It must have been strange for the former First Lady to be so genial to the man who threatens to eviscerate her husband’s fraudulent "peace in the Middle East" legacy, who opposes Palestinian statehood (unlike the senator) and who so thoroughly defeated Ehud Barak, friend of contributor Marc Rich and the Clintons’ favored candidate.

Saturday Night Satire

Rumors abounded on Capitol Hill that Sen. Clinton would be attending the 116th Annual Gridiron Club dinner, sharing a table with Solicitor General Theodore Olsen, Hell to Pay author Barbara Olsen and 2000 Presidential Spoiler Ralph Nader. Sadly, Sen. Clinton was a no-show, apparently having had enough Gridiron dinners as First Lady enduring jokes at her expense about Whitewater, Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky. She missed a hilarious portrayal of her leaving the White House, singing, "We just took what’s owed to us and grabbed ourselves a fistful, sofas, tables, ottomans, bric-a-brac and crystal" to the tune of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

-- Anonymous, April 02, 2001