Hillary Clinton Quiet About Past Wal-Mart Ties

The New York Times devotes "investigative journalist" resources to ferretting out Wal-Mart's sending tips to bloggers, but apparently it's not very interested in Hillary!'s long-standing association with the corporate giant:

NEW YORK - With retail giant Wal-Mart under fire to improve its labor and health care policies, one Democrat with deep ties to the company — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — has started feeling her share of the political heat.

Clinton served on Wal-Mart's board of directors for six years when her husband was governor of Arkansas. And the Rose Law Firm, where she was a partner, handled many of the Arkansas-based company's legal affairs.

Clinton had kind words for Wal-Mart as recently as 2004, when she told an audience at the convention of the National Retail Federation that her time on the board "was a great experience in every respect."

But in recent months, as the company has become a target for Democratic activists, she has largely steered clear of any mention of Wal-Mart. And late last year, Clinton's re-election campaign returned a $5,000 contribution from Wal-Mart, citing "serious differences with current company practices."

As Clinton sheds her Arkansas past and looks ahead to a possible 2008 presidential run, the Wal-Mart issue presents an exquisite dilemma: how to reconcile the political demands she faces today with her history at a company many American consumers depend upon but many Democratic activists revile.

...

The Clintons also benefited financially from Wal-Mart. Hillary Clinton was paid $18,000 each year she served on the board, plus $1,500 for each meeting she attended. By 1993 she had accumulated at least $100,000 in Wal-Mart stock, according to Bill Clinton's federal financial disclosure that year. The Clintons also flew for free on Wal-Mart corporate planes 14 times in 1990 and 1991 in preparation for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential bid.

And not only that-- a Wal-Mart lobbyist offered them each a free tour of Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters! Whoo-hoo!!!!

Thanks to Bill.

New Yorkers Won't Support Hillary! For President: Oh, well, New York isn't a particularly liberal state anyway, just like Boston isn't a big college town.*

Six in 10 New York voters believe Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is planning to run for president in 2008, but only about a third of her home-state voters say they would back her if she did so, a statewide poll reported Thursday.

Almost half of New York voters, including three of every 10 Democrats, said they would not vote for her for president, according to the poll from Siena College's Research Institute.

Hillary! spokeshack Harold Wolfson commented, "New York's electoral votes can easily be made up by simply winning Texas. And Utah, and maybe Oklahoma. And we're pretty sure those states are in-play. We've got a Zogby poll that says so."

posted by Ace at 02:23 PM

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