Clinton: '35 Years of Change'

Senator Clinton continues to misrepresent her lifework in the nonprofit sector. If you actually look into her history, it tells a different story.

To hear Hillary Clinton talk, she's spent her entire career putting her Yale Law School degree to work for the common good.

She routinely tells voters that she's "been working to bring positive change to people's lives for 35 years." She told a voter in New Hampshire: "I've spent so much of my life in the nonprofit sector." Speaking in South Carolina, Bill Clinton said his wife "could have taken a job with a firm ... Instead she went to work with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund."

The overall portrait is of a lifelong, selfless do-gooder. The whole story is more complicated — and less flattering.

Clinton worked at the Children's Defense Fund for less than a year, and that's the only full-time job in the nonprofit sector she's ever had. She also worked briefly as a law professor.

Clinton spent the bulk of her career — 15 of those 35 years — at one of Arkansas' most prestigious corporate law firms, where she represented big companies and served on corporate boards.

Top Five

A quick rundown of the posts I have read during my travels around the series of tubes.

- Think Progress: Republican Senator John McCain is horrible in the stump, especially when he is trying to be funny.

- Open Left: Democratic Congressman Dan Lipinski is full of it.

- Americablog: Can we stop calling Joe Lieberman a moderate or even a Democrat anymore?

- MyDD: Seriously, Gov. Bill Richardson should make up his mind already.

- Fan House: Wow. It was a great game. The New York Football Giants are the Champs.

Yes We Can!

Obama 08'

MoveOn Endorses Barack Obama

MoveOn’s Press Release:

In a resounding vote today, MoveOn.org Political Action's members nationwide voted to endorse Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President. The group, with 3.2 million members nation-wide and over 1.7 million members in Super Tuesday states, will immediately begin to mobilize on behalf of Senator Obama. The vote favored Senator Obama to Senator Clinton by 70.4% to 29.6%.

Senator Obama accepted the endorsement stating:

""In just a few years, the members of MoveOn have once again demonstrated that real change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up. From their principled opposition to the Iraq war - a war I also opposed from the start - to their strong support for a number of progressive causes, MoveOn shows what Americans can achieve when we come together in a grassroots movement for change. I thank them for their support and look forward to working with their members in the weeks and months ahead."

Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org's Executive Director, issued the following statement on the group's endorsement:

"Our members' endorsement of Senator Obama is a clear call for a new America at this critical moment in history. Seven years of the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration have left the country desperate for change. We need a President who will bring to bear the strong leadership and vision required to end the war in Iraq, provide health care to every American, deal with our climate crisis, and restore America's standing in the world. The enormity of the challenges require someone who knows how to inspire millions to get involved to change the direction of our country, and someone who will be willing to change business as usual in Washington. Senator Barack Obama has proved he can and will be that President."

McCain’s Democratic Flirtations

Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain is within days of winning the GOP nomination, but it’s never a good sign when your campaign has to deny that the candidate almost left the Party that he is about to lead heading into the 2008 elections.

Mark Salter, who in 2001 was McCain’s chief of staff and now works for the senator’s campaign, said McCain has not at any moment thought about leaving the Republican Party: “Never at any time. Never.”

The Hill reports Democratic Senators John Edwards, Edward Kennedy and Harry Reid were part of intense recruiting effort along with Senator Tom Daschle and Rep. Tom Downey to bring the Republican Senator to the Democratic side.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist. [..]

Other senators who played major roles in the intense recruiting effort, according to Democrats, were then-Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) as well as Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“John [Edwards] at that time was working with McCain on a couple things and there was a sense that because of his relationship that he might be a good person to talk to him,” Daschle said. “He was clearly one of those that we thought could be helpful.”

A source close to Edwards said Daschle’s comments are accurate.

Republicans did take notice of McCain flirtations with the Democratic Party. Former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert believes John McCain was more of an ally of the Democrats than Congressional Republicans.

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert questioned John McCain’s Republican credentials today, saying he was always known among the GOP as “the undependable vote” in the Senate and always “allied with Democrats.” [..]

The former House speaker has not had a lot of good to say about McCain in recent years. He contended that on agenda items under the Republican-controlled Congress, “it just seems like everything we did, John was someplace else.”

“It was McCain-Kennedy, it was McCain-Lieberman, it was McCain-Feingold on campaign finance reform,” Hastert said, noting Democratic co-sponsors. “He was against us on tax cuts and his form of immigration reform was to open the gates and let everybody in.”

Asked if he considered McCain a conservative, Hastert said, “In my opinion, he is not.”

To be fair, Dennis Hastert is a Mitt Romney supporter. The Illinois Republican does point to the Keating Five scandal and John McCain's presidential ambitious as the reason why John McCain changed his political ideology.

McCain was one of five senators implicated in the 1989 Keating Five, a congressional scandal alleging federal regulators were pressured against an investigation of Charles Keating, the former chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Assn.

McCain was cited by the Senate Ethics Committee for “poor judgment” but it recommended no further action.

Speaking later to the Tribune, Hastert, who retired from Congress in November of last year, said McCain changed after the Keating Five to become “more of a populist.”

“He was gearing up for a run for the presidency in 2000 so he had to change track and clean up his image, from my point of view,” Hastert said.

Wow, Maybe Rush Limbaugh is right. A John McCain presidential candidacy might tear apart the GOP. It’s going to be fun to watch.

Barack Obama Won the Debate

This is the moment where it happened.

Top Five

A quick rundown of the posts I have read during my travels around the series of tubes.

- Will Durst: Its funny because its true.

During George Bush's last State of the Union Address, he received his biggest response for announcing this was his last State of the Union Address.

- Think Progress: When did calling someone Juan become funny?

- Marc Ambinder: Who won last night Democratic debate?

I was tempted to call this encounter a draw but I am mindful that there are no zero sum debates in presidential politics.

And twenty minutes of Iraq happened. And so I’ll give Obama the edge. Clinton was forced, for about 20 minutes, to recapitulate her vote on Iraq, over and over again. It was tough for her. She seemed to mire herself in the details of history. [..]

Obama really gives a great answer on the war, talking about the mindset differences between himself and Clinton and stressing the need for a date certain. He’s found a way to create daylight between himself and Clinton on withdrawing from Iraq.

- Open Left: Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez does the right thing and by withdrawing his endorsement of Democratic Congressman Lipinski for the upcoming primary. Congressman Lipinski continues to vote like Republicans Sensenbrenner and Tancredo on immigration while supporting the Republican minority on Iraq. It’s time to send more and better Democrats to Congress. Vote for Mark Pera in the Illinois Democratic primary for the 3rd Congressional District.

- Fan House: There is no love lost between the New York Football Giants and Tiki Barber.