Hillary Rodham Clinton controversies

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Main article: Hillary Rodham Clinton

Over the years, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been involved in various controversies. These have ranged in seriousness from allegations of legal, financial, or ethical wrongdoing to episodes in the American culture wars to clumsy public statements that attracted media attention.

Contents 1 Wellesley thesis and suppression 2 Black Panther Party 3 Alleged anti-Semitic comments 4 Retention of birth name after marriage 5 Cattle futures 6 Tammy Wynette; baking cookies 7 Whitewater 8 Travel office firings 9 Vince Foster 10 Improper actions regarding FBI files 11 Imaginary discussions with Eleanor Roosevelt 12 Role in 1996 campaign finance controversy 13 Staying in marriage to Bill Clinton 14 Kissing Suha Arafat 15 Changing sports affiliations 16 Book contract 17 Ghostwriters 18 Hasidic pardons 19 Attendance at funerals after September 11 20 Gandhi comment 21 Hollywood fundraiser 22 2006 Martin Luther King Day comments 23 Remarks on young people's work ethic 24 Coping with the alleged fashion double standard 25 Affected Southern speech patterns 26 References

[edit] Wellesley thesis and suppression

In 1969 Hillary Rodham wrote a 92-page senior thesis for Wellesley College entitled "There Is Only The Fight...": An Analysis of the Alinsky Model. The subject was famed radical community organizer Saul Alinsky. Rodham, an honors student at Wellesley, received an A grade on the thesis.^[1] The work then went unnoticed until Hillary Rodham Clinton entered the White House as First Lady. Clinton researchers and political opponents sought out the thesis, thinking it contained evidence that Rodham had held strong radical or socialist views.

In early 1993, the White House requested that Wellesley not release the thesis to anyone, according to a report by MSNBC.com investigative reporter Bill Dedman.^[1] Wellesley complied, instating a rule that closed access to the thesis of any sitting U.S. president or First Lady, a rule that in practice applied only to Rodham.^[2] Clinton critics and several biographers seized upon this action as a sure sign that the thesis held politically explosive contents. In her memoirs, Clinton mentioned the thesis only briefly, saying she had agreed with some of Alinsky's ideas, but hadn't agreed with his belief that it was impossible to "change the system" from inside.^[3]

Well after the Clintons left the White House, the mystery thesis held its allure; for example, in 2005 Clinton critic Peggy Noonan wrote that it was "the Rosetta Stone of Hillary studies ... [which] Wellesley College obligingly continues to suppress on her request."^[4] In fact, however, the thesis had been unlocked after the Clintons left the White House in 2001 and is available — only at the Wellesley college archives.^[5] This was discovered in 2007 by MSNBC.com investigative reporter Bill Dedman, who read it. He found that the thesis did not discuss Rodham's own views much, other than describing Alinsky's appealing personality. The thesis sought to fit Alinsky into a line of American social activists, including Eugene Debs, Martin Luther King Jr. and Walt Whitman. Written in formal academic language, the thesis concluded that "[Alinsky's] power/conflict model is rendered inapplicable by existing social conflicts" and that Alinsky's model had not expanded nationally due to "the anachronistic nature of small autonomous conflict."^[1] Rodham's former professor and thesis adviser Alan Schechter told MSNBC.com that "There Is Only The Fight..." was a good thesis, and that its suppression by the Clinton White House "was a stupid political decision, obviously, at the time."^[2]

[edit] Black Panther Party

During the United States Senate elections, 2000, a widely circulated urban legend erroneously ascribed responsibility for "getting the defendants off" in the New Haven Black Panther trials of 1970 and "shutting down" Yale University to Hillary Rodham, as well as to future head of the Clinton U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Bill Lann Lee, who was a Yale undergraduate at the time. This claim has been debunked ^[6] ; along with other Yale Law School students, Rodham volunteered to monitor the trial for violations of civil rights for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Although both were much too junior to have had any role in the actual legal defense, according to John Elvin of Insight magazine, "Insight reviewed biographies of Hillary Clinton by Milton, [David] Brock and Roger Morris for this story and lengthy selections from such other biographies as Barbara Olson’s Hell to Pay. Together, relying on primary and other firsthand sources, they unquestionably back David Horowitz’s contention that Hillary was a campus leader during the Panther protests." ^[7] (Whether this means Rodham was a campus leader in general, or a campus leader specifically regarding Black Panther trial activity, is unclear.) In her memoirs, Clinton mentioned the trial but did not say anything about her involvement in it and in protests, other than that she joined a bucket brigade when the International Law Library was set on fire.^[8] Lee apparently played no prominent role in any protests.^[9]

While Yale went "on strike" from May Day until the end of the term, this was part of the nationwide American college student strike of May, 1970, and not attributable to the work of Hillary Rodham. Like most schools it was not actually "shut down", but classes were made "voluntarily optional" for the time and students were graded "Pass/Fail" for the work done up to then.

[edit] Alleged anti-Semitic comments

Several people have accused Clinton of making anti-Semitic comments in private. In the 2000 book State of a Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton by former National Enquirer reporter Jerry Oppenheimer, lawyer Paul Fray, who ran Bill Clinton's failed 1974 run for Congress, claimed that after that defeat, Hillary Rodham, then Clinton's girlfriend, raged that he (Fray) was a “Fucking Jew Bastard.” ^[10] Fray’s wife and businessman Neil McDonald both claim to have witnessed this slur. ^[11] Hillary Clinton denied that she ever made such a remark and released a 1997 letter in which Fray apologized regarding statements he had made about her over the years.^[12] In addition Fray had previously been disbarred for altering court documents and also suffered from a medical condition that caused erratic behavior and memory loss. ^[13] Moreover, Fray was only one-eighth Jewish, not one-half as the Oppenheimer book detailing the accusation had claimed. ^[14] However, Fray was reported to have passed a polygraph test regarding the allegation. According to the polygraph examiner, "There's no doubt in my mind that Mr. Fray is truthful." ^[15] Larry Patterson, a controversial former Arkansas state trooper and bodyguard to Bill and Hillary Clinton who related a series of lurid accusations about the couple as part of Troopergate, then said he heard the couple use anti-Semitic slurs “10 to 20” times. He asserts that he has heard Hillary use the term "Jew Bastard" and called President Clinton a "Jew Boy" and a "Mother Fucking Jew."^[16]

In a discussion of the Fray allegation, Dick Morris, a former political adviser to President Clinton, asserted that a couple of years previously, Hillary Clinton may have used a Jewish stereotype during an argument about consulting fees, stating “Money – that's all you people care about is money.” Morris conceded that it was unclear whether "you people" referred to Jews or to political consultants.^[17]

[edit] Retention of birth name after marriage

After marrying Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham retained her birth name for both professional and personal use. While she had done this to keep their professional lives separate and avoid seeming conflicts of interest, in her memoirs she said, "I learned the hard way that some voters in Arkansas were seriously offended by the fact that I kept my maiden name."^[18] This was thought by Bill Clinton's advisors to be one of the reasons behind his 1980 gubernatorial re-election loss, and, during the following winter, Vernon Jordan suggested to Hillary Rodham that she start using Clinton as her name.^[19] She did so publicly during Bill Clinton's February 1982 announcement of his campaign to regain the office, adopting Hillary Rodham Clinton as the name she would use, and during that campaign even being introduced, and sometimes referring to herself, as "Mrs. Bill Clinton".^[20] When she became First Lady of the United States, she reiterated to the White House press that Hillary Rodham Clinton was the name she would be known by ^[21] and she has remained under that name since then. Her announcement was parodied by the May 1993 film spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux, in which all the female characters were given the middle name "Rodham". ^[22]

[edit] Cattle futures

In 1979, Clinton's trades in cattle futures contracts generated criticism regarding conflict of interest and allegations of disguised bribery. ^[23] Her initial $1,000 investment generated $100,000 when she stopped trading ten months later. Furthermore, in his book Devil Take The Hindmost : A History Of Financial Speculation, Edward Chancellor noted that Clinton made her money by betting "on the short side at a time when cattle prices doubled." Marshall Magazine, a publication of the Marshall School of Business, found that "Two-thirds of her trades showed a profit by the end of the day she made them and 80 percent were ultimately profitable." According to the Washington Post, "[w]hile Clinton's account was wildly successful to an outsider, it was small compared to what others were making in the cattle futures market in the 1978-79 period." However, the Post's comparison was of absolute profits, not necessarily percentage rate of return. ^[24]

Chicago Mercantile Exchange records indicated that $40,000 of her profits came from larger trades initiated by Clinton's lawyer and friend, James Blair, an experienced futures trader and outside counsel to Tyson Foods, Arkansas' largest employer. According to exchange records, Robert L. "Red" Bone, the commodities broker that facilitated the trades on behalf of Ray E. Friedman and Co. (Refco), reportedly because Blair was a good client, allowed Clinton to maintain her positions even though she did not have enough money in her account to cover her activity. For example, she was allowed to order 10 cattle futures contracts, normally a $12,000 investment, in her first commodity trade in 1978 although she had only $1,000 in her account at the time. ^[24] Refco was fined for violating Chicago Mercantile Exchange rules governing margin trading. Leo Melamed, a former chairman of the Mercantile Exchange who reviewed the records for the White House, said in an interview that Clinton violated no rules in the course of her transactions.^[24]

[edit] Tammy Wynette; baking cookies

During the political damage control over the Gennifer Flowers episode during her husband's 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton said in a joint 60 Minutes interview, "I'm not sitting here as some little woman 'standing by my man' like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him and I respect him, and I honor what he's been through and what we've been through together." The seemingly sneering reference to country music provoked immediate criticism that Clinton was culturally tone-deaf, and Tammy Wynette herself did not like the remark because her classic song "Stand by Your Man" is not written in the first person. ^[25] Wynette further said that Clinton had "offended every true country music fan and every person who has 'made it on their own' with no one to take them to a White House." ^[26] A few days later, on Prime Time Live, Clinton apologized to Wynette. Clinton would later write that she had not been careful in her choice of words and that "the fallout from my reference to Tammy Wynette was instant — as it deserved to be — and brutal."^[27] The two women patched things up, with Wynette appearing later at a Clinton fund raiser.^[26]

Less than two months later in the same campaign, Hillary Clinton was facing questions about whether she could have avoided possible conflicts of interest between her Governor husband (Bill Clinton) and work given to the Rose Law Firm, when she remarked, "I've done the best I can to lead my life ... You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life."^[28] The "cookies and teas" part of this prompted even more culture-based criticism, objecting to Clinton's apparent distaste for women who had chosen a homemaker role in life. ^[29] Clinton subsequently offered up some cookie recipes as a way of making amends, and would later write of her chagrin: "Besides, I've done quite a lot of cookie baking in my life, and tea-pouring too!"^[30]

[edit] Whitewater

The Whitewater controversy was a series of events and actions that had its origins in 1978. While in Arkansas, the Clintons were partners with Jim and Susan McDougal in a real estate venture known as the Whitewater Development Corporation. According to reports, the Clintons lost their financial investment in the Whitewater business projects. At the time the McDougals operated a savings and loan that retained Hillary Clinton's legal services at Rose Law Firm. When the McDougals' savings and loan failed in 1994, federal investigators subpoenaed Clinton's legal billing records for auditing purposes. Hillary Clinton claimed to be unable to produce these records. After an extensive, two-year search, the records were found in the first lady's book room in the White House and delivered to investigators in 1996. The delayed appearance of the billing records sparked intense interest and another investigation about how they surfaced and where they had been; Clinton attributed the problem to disorganization that resulted from her move from the Arkansas Governor's Mansion to the White House as well as the effects of a White House renovation. [LH p. 331] After the discovery of the records, on January 26, 1996, Clinton made history by becoming the first First Lady to testify before a grand jury.^[31]

The Whitewater investigation was initiated by Independent Counsel Robert Fiske appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno. The case was later taken over by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, and concluded by Independent Counsel Robert Ray. Several other allegations were also investigated under the Whitewater umbrella. The investigations, which took place during Bill Clinton's presidency and cost an estimated $40 million, resulted in the McDougals being jailed and Webster Hubbell pleading guilty to felony charges of lying to federal investigators about Clinton's role in both Whitewater and the savings and loan failure. No criminal charges were brought against the Clintons themselves, as Robert Ray's final report on September 20, 2000 stated that there was insufficient evidence that either of them had engaged in criminal wrongdoing. ^[32]

[edit] Travel office firings

On May 19, 1993, several long-time employees of the White House Travel Office were fired for alleged incompetence or illegal activities. Accusations were made that Hillary Clinton was involved in the firings and that they were unjustified and were done in order to give the business to friends of the Clintons; she denied any role in the firings. Supporters said that the employees in question were officially political appointees (although they had served under Presidents of both parties) who served "at the President's pleasure" and could be fired or reassigned at any time. The affair became known as "Travelgate". On June 23, 2000, Whitewater Independent Counsel Robert Ray stated in a final report that while there was substantial evidence that she was involved in the firings, it could not be proved that she had deliberately lied about the matter, and so no charges would be brought.^[33]

[edit] Vince Foster

On July 20, 1993, White House Deputy Counsel Vince Foster died by suicide. The general Whitewater investigation included an examination of Foster's death and the circumstances around it. Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation, as well as investigations by the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the U.S. Park Police, all concluded that Foster's death was indeed a suicide.

In 1996 Hillary Clinton was accused by the Senate Special Whitewater Committee of ordering the removal of potentially damaging files (related to Whitewater or other matters) from Foster's office on the night of his death. ^[34] Independent Counsel Starr investigated this, and by 1999 Starr was reported to still be holding the investigation open, despite his staff having told him there was no case.^[35] When Starr's successor Robert Ray issued his final Whitewater reports in 2000, no claims were made against Hillary Clinton in this regard.

Other critics of the Clintons have made more lurid allegations: that Foster's death was not a suicide, that it was connected to Whitewater, and that Hillary Clinton was somehow involved by covering up activities together with Foster before his death ^[36] or in that her relationship with Foster was an intimate one.^[37] Other conspiracy theories claimed that she had killed Foster herself ^[38] or had him killed.^[39] No credible evidence or charges were ever brought forward in connection with any of these allegations.

[edit] Improper actions regarding FBI files

In June 1996, White House security head Craig Livingstone improperly asked for and received several hundred FBI background files, including ones on White House personnel from former Republican administrations. Accusations were made that Hillary Clinton had requested these files and that she had recommended hiring the supposedly unqualified Livingstone; she denied these charges. The affair became known as "Filegate". [1] [2] On July 28, 2000, Whitewater Independent Counsel Robert Ray stated in a final report that there was no substantial or credible evidence that Hillary Clinton had any role or showed any misconduct in the matter. [3]

[edit] Imaginary discussions with Eleanor Roosevelt

In 1996 Washington Post writer Bob Woodward reported [4] that from the beginning of her time as First Lady, Hillary Clinton had sometimes conducted "imaginary discussions" with the politically active former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, as a way of gaining inspiration. (Clinton discussed this practice in one of her weekly newspaper columns.) Following the Democrats' loss of congressional control in the 1994 elections, Clinton had engaged the services of self help expert Jean Houston, who allegedly sometimes dabbled in psychic experiences, spirits, trances, and hypnosis. Houston encouraged Clinton to pursue the Roosevelt connection, and while none of these psychic techniques were used with Clinton, critics and comics immediately suggested that Clinton was holding séances with Eleanor Roosevelt. The White House stated that this was merely a brainstorming exercise, and a private poll later indicated that most of the public believed these were indeed just imaginary conversations, with the remainder believing that communication with the dead was actually possible. [5]

[edit] Role in 1996 campaign finance controversy

The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy mostly touched on President Clinton, his campaign, and some Clinton Administration officials, rather than Hillary Clinton herself. However, a July 1998 report by the Justice Department's campaign finance task force head, Charles La Bella, recommending an independent counsel to investigate alleged fund-raising abuses by Democratic party officials^[40] included the statement that " [A] pattern [of events] suggests a level of knowledge within the White House—including the President's and First Lady's offices—concerning the injection of foreign funds into the reelection effort."^[41] No such counsel was appointed, and thus no formal determination was made of Hillary Clinton's or her office's role, if any, in the matter. In a related but hearsay 1998 charge, an assistant to the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown testified that Brown had told her that both Bill and Hillary Clinton had forced upon him a scheme to sell seats on international trade missions as part of raising contributions to the presidential campaign. ^[42]

[edit] Staying in marriage to Bill Clinton

Allegations and relevations of Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs, including ones he eventually admitted to with Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky, resulted in a mix of public reactions to Hillary Clinton. Some women admired her strength and poise in private matters made public, some sympathized with her as a victim of her husband's insensitive behavior, others criticized her as being an enabler to her husband's indiscretions by not obtaining a divorce, while still others accused her of cynically staying in a failed marriage as a way of maximizing her own political power.

In response, in her 2001 memoir Living History, Clinton explains that love is the reason she stays with her husband. "[N]o one understands me better and no one can make me laugh the way Bill does. Even after all these years, he is still the most interesting, energizing and fully alive person I have ever met. Bill and I started a conversation in the spring of 1971, and more than thirty years later we're still talking."^[43]

When Bill Clinton required immediate heart surgery in October 2004, Hillary Clinton canceled her public schedule to be at his side at the Columbia University Medical Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital. He actively campaigned for her Senate races and is considered her closest political advisor.^[44]

[edit] Kissing Suha Arafat

On November 11, 1999, at the dedication of a U.S.-funded health program in the West Bank, Hillary Clinton exchanged kisses with Suha Arafat, wife of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, after Suha Arafat had delivered a speech claiming that Israel had deliberately poisoned Palestinians through environmental degradation and the use of "poisonous gas". ^[45] This caused immediate controversy among some Israeli supporters, who said that Clinton never should have kissed the wife of a terrorist leader, especially after such inflammatory remarks. The following day, Clinton denounced Suha Arafat's allegations, and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Suha Arafat had been referring to 'tear gas' and not 'poison gas'.^[45] The kiss itself became a campaign issue the following year, but Clinton defended it as a formality akin to a handshake, saying that not to do so would have caused a diplomatic incident.^[46]

[edit] Changing sports affiliations

In a much-publicized move, at a Democratic Party rally during her successful 2000 campaign for the U.S. Senate, Clinton donned a New York Yankees baseball cap, even though she had also been a lifelong fan of the Chicago Cubs. [6] [7] This brought her much criticism; in Thomas Kuiper titled his anti-Clinton book I've Always Been a Yankees Fan: Hillary Clinton in Her Own Words to take advantage of this.

Clinton explained this cap-wearing by saying that she had to develop an American League rooting interest, since fans of the Cubs were not expected to root for the American League Chicago White Sox, and vice versa. [8] Then as now, the New York Yankees were a dominant team in the American League. In the photo section of her autobiography a photograph of Hillary with a New York Yankees cap on from the early nineties is shown.

[edit] Book contract

In December 2000, Simon & Schuster agreed to pay Hillary Clinton a reported $8 million advance for a memoir of her years as First Lady, which was later published in 2003 as Living History. Critics charged that the book deal, coming soon after her election to the U.S. Senate, but before being sworn into office, was not in adherence to the ethical standards required for members of the U.S. Senate. [9] However, in February 2001, the Senate Ethics Committee gave Clinton approval for the deal. [10]

[edit] Ghostwriters

Clinton has been criticized for not giving credit to the ghostwriters she uses to write her various published works.

For example, the 1996 book It Takes a Village, was largely written by ghostwriter Barbara Feinman [11]. Originally the publisher and the White House had indicated that Feinman would be assisting Clinton in preparing the manuscript, perhaps using audiotapes dictated by Clinton. Feinman spent seven months on the project and was paid $120,000 for her work [12]. However, Feinman was not mentioned anywhere in the book. Clinton's acknowledgment section began: "It takes a village to bring a book into the world, as everyone who has written one knows. Many people have helped me to complete this one, sometimes without even knowing it. They are so numerous that I will not even attempt to acknowledge them individually, for fear that I might leave one out." [It Takes a Village, p. 319]

This led Feinman to complain at the time to Capitol Style magazine over the lack of acknowledgement. [13] In 2001, The Wall Street Journal reported that "New York literary circles are buzzing with vitriol over Sen. Clinton's refusal, so far, to share credit with any writer who helps on her book." [14] Later, in a 2002 article for The Writer's Chronicle [15], Barbara Feinman Todd (now using her married name) related that the project with Clinton had gone smoothly, producing drafts in a round-robin style. Feinman denies that Clinton was uninvolved with the project, but also states that, "Like any first lady, Mrs. Clinton had an extremely hectic schedule and writing a book without assistance would have been logistically impossible." Feinman reiterates that her only objection to the whole process was the lack of any acknowledgement. As of 2005, a web page for Feinman states that It Takes a Village was one of "several high-profile books" that she has "assisted, as editor, writer and researcher." [16]

Clinton also reportedly used three ghostwriters for her 2003 Living History memoirs, veteran ghostwriter Maryanne Vollers, speechwriter Alison Muscatine, and researcher Ruby Shamir. [17]. This time, Clinton's acknowledgment section stated: "This book may not have taken a village to write, but it certainly took a superb team ... The smartest decision I made was to ask Lissa Muscatine, Maryanne Vollers and Ruby Shamir to spend two years of their lives working with me. Lissa [was] responsible for many of the words in my speeches as First Lady and in this book ... Maryanne [has] the rare gift of understanding how to help another's voice emerge ... Ruby [had the job of] amassing, reviewing and synthesizing millions of words written about me."^[47] However, the three women did not receive co-writing credit on the book's cover, unlike for example, the co-writing credit fellow Senator John Edwards gave to ghostwriter John Auchard on his book Four Trials [18] and fellow Senator John McCain gave to administrative assistant Mark Salter on his books Faith of My Fathers, Worth the Fighting For, Why Courage Matters, and Character is Destiny.

[edit] Hasidic pardons

In January 2001, two months after Clinton's election to the Senate, President Clinton pardoned four residents of the New Square Hasidic enclave in Rockland County, New York, who had been convicted of defrauding the federal government of $30 million by establishing a fictitious religious school. [19] [20] New Square had voted almost unanimously for Hillary Clinton in the New York Senate race. But, said a lawyer familiar with the case, even if Hillary had promised to lobby her husband for clemency in exchange for the town's votes (and there appears to be no proof of that), it would be tough to find a crime there. "Politicians make promises all the time," said the lawyer. "That's nothing new — or illegal." Hillary Clinton acknowledged sitting in on a post-election meeting discussing possible clemency for the four, but said she had played no part in her husband's decision. [21] A federal investigation launched to investigate various Clinton pardons [22], closed its investigation of the New Square matter in June 2002 by taking no action against Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, or any residents of New Square. [23]

[edit] Attendance at funerals after September 11

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Senator Clinton was criticized in November 2001 by commentator Bill O'Reilly, among others, who claimed that she "didn't go to one funeral or one memorial service of any of the regular folks killed at the World Trade Center" and that "the only events we know she attended were three highly publicized memorial services." [24] Clinton responded on an interview program that she did, in fact, attend several memorial services and funerals of people she knew, but that she did "not believe, after a long lifetime in and around politics, that people should thrust themselves into private grief just because they're politicians." [25]

[edit] Gandhi comment

Clinton came under criticism in 2004 after saying that Mahatma Gandhi "ran a gas station down in Saint Louis." This comment represented a stereotyped view of South Asians living in the United States. Clinton apologized, blamed "a lame attempt at humor," and claimed that she "admired the work and life of Mahatma Gandhi and had spoken publicly about that many times." ^[48] Michelle Naef, administrator of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence said she didn't think Clinton was trying to demean Mahatma Gandhi and credited both Clintons as long having supported the Gandhi message. However, Naef said that Clinton's remarks were offensive and could be "incredibly harmful." ^[49]

[edit] Hollywood fundraiser

Clinton's former finance director, David Rosen, was indicted on January 7, 2005 on campaign finance charges related to a fund-raising event produced by Peter F. Paul. Paul, a former felon who was convicted on stock fraud charges after being extradited from Brazil, stated that he spent $1.2 million to produce the Hollywood Gala Salute to President William Jefferson Clinton event, which was both a tribute to honor President Clinton and a fundraiser for Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign. The Justice Department indictment charged Rosen with filing false reports with the Federal Election Commission by reporting only $400,000 in contributions. On May 27, 2005, the jury acquitted Rosen on all counts.^[50] On January 5, 2006 it was reported that Clinton's campaign group agreed to pay a $35,000 fine related to the underreporting of the fundraiser's expenses. ^[51]

Peter Paul has also filed a civil suit in this matter.^[52] On April 10, 2006, the judge in charge of the case removed Hillary Clinton as a defendant, citing a lack of evidence. However, Hillary Clinton may still be called to testify as a witness in the case. ^[53]

[edit] 2006 Martin Luther King Day comments

During a speech at the Rev. Al Sharpton's annual Martin Luther King Day National Action Network conference at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem on January 16, 2006, Clinton sparked a modest political firestorm when she said: "When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about. It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary point of view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument." ^{[54] [55]}

Clinton's remarks drew immediate criticism from some politicians and commentators, exemplified by New York Representative Peter King's denunciation: "It's wrong to use the word 'plantation' in any political context because it's cheap racial politics. But to do it on Martin Luther King Day is really disgraceful." ^[56]

It subsequently emerged that in 2004, Clinton had made the same simile: "I mean they're running the House of Representatives like a fiefdom with Tom DeLay as, you know, in charge of the plantation." ^[57] Her comparison in this case to fiefdoms and thus feudalism made any racial connotation less obvious. As another example of the same simile (or in this case, metaphor), in a Washington Post article from October 1994, future Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said of the Democrats who at that time were in control of the House, "Since they think it is their job to run the plantation, it shocks them that I’m actually willing to lead the slave rebellion." ^[58]

[edit] Remarks on young people's work ethic

In May 2006, Hillary Clinton spoke at a gathering of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C. In her remarks, she criticized young people saying they have "a sense of entitlement after growing up in a culture that has a premium on instant gratification," and "that young people today think work is a four-letter word." ^[59]

Clinton later apologized on May 14, 2006 during a commencement address at Long Island University to 2,000 graduates. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to convey the impression that you don't work hard," Clinton said. "I just want to set the bar high, because we are in a competition for the future." Clinton said her own daughter called her to complain, after learning about the comments. "Chelsea called and she said, 'Mom, I do work hard and my friends work hard.'" ^[60] Chelsea Clinton obtained a master's degree from Oxford University after graduating from Stanford University in 2001.

[edit] Coping with the alleged fashion double standard

Hillary Rodham Clinton has at times allegedly been faced with the purported double standard that prominent women are judged more on their appearance than prominent men. In the 1970s, the issue of fashion raised initial tension between Rodham and her future mother-in-law, Virginia Kelly. During this time, Rodham wore little makeup, and paid little attention to current fashion. Kelly, by contrast, focused a great deal on appearance, even wearing a white skunk-stripe through her naturally black hair. Once Clinton reached the White House, friends prevailed upon her to drop her trademark headbands and try different clothes and hairstyles, and she discovered she enjoyed exploring new fashions.^[61]

The public fascination with Clinton's role as First Lady extended to her personal appearance. Clinton's experiments with different hairstyles were documented at a web site, now defunct, which was popular around 1996 during the early days of the World Wide Web.^[62] By 1998, First Lady Clinton appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine. ^[63] In her Senate career, Senator Clinton is often seen wearing a suit. However, twice in 2006, Clinton was criticized by National Review Online editor Kathryn Jean Lopez for showing cleavage while speaking in the Senate. ^[64][65] Lopez implored Clinton to be more modest.

In March 2006, high-voltage actress Sharon Stone expressed her doubt about Clinton's presidential chances, saying "Hillary still has sexual power, and I don't think people will accept that. It's too threatening." ^[66] On a similar topic, on August 9, 2006, the sculpture The Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton: The First Woman President of the United States of America ^[67] was unveiled at the Museum of Sex in New York. Sculptor Daniel Edwards hopes it will spark discussion about sex, politics and celebrity.^[68]

In October 2006, Clinton's New York Senate race opponent, John Spencer, was reported to have commented on how much better Clinton looked now compared to in the 1970s, and speculated that she had cosmetic surgery. ^{[69] [70]}

[edit] Affected Southern speech patterns

While speaking from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama on March 4, 2007, as part of ceremonies honoring the anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965, Hillary Clinton adopted a broad Southern Drawl during parts of her talk and used speech patterns common to the Southern United States. ^[71] Her normal speech is devoid of this accent. Defenders of Clinton pointed out that the most commonly circulated audio and video clips of her "Southern" speech focused a segment in which she was reciting the lyrics of a James Cleveland hymn and trying to reproduce its original cadences.^[72]

[edit] References