Did Stanford dump Bill and Hillary? MSNBC April 10 — Are the Clintons too hot to handle for Stanford University? A source says that Bill and Hillary Clinton were each considered to be commencement speakers at the university where daughter Chelsea is graduating. But after “a raging debate,” university officials decided against inviting them because there was fear that Stanford “would experience backlash, especially from its conservative, big donors.” THE SOURCE POINTS out how Morgan Stanley ended up apologizing for having Bill Clinton speak at its annual convention.

Stanford president John Hennessy instead selected Hewlett-Packard president Carly Fiorina — a choice that has generated its own firestorm of publicity. The Stanford student newspaper has criticized the selection as one shrouded in “secrecy and irresponsibility,” saying that Hennessy’s decision was made without the usual student input. Hewlett-Packard is a big donor to the university, and some critics are saying that money weighed heavily in the decision.

“Yes, there was a bit of a dust-up about our choice for commencement speaker this year,” a Stanford spokesman told The Scoop. He declined, however, to say if either Bill or Hillary Clinton were on the short list.

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001