Born in Chicago on October 26, 1947, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton has been the junior U.S. Senator from New York since her election in 2000. Re-elected in 2006, she is currently a member of ten Senate Committees and Subcommittees.
Hillary Rodham grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, a solidly Republican suburb of Chicago. In 1964 she supported Republican conservative Barry Goldwater for U.S. President. The following year, she enrolled at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where her political views would undergo a radical transformation. In 1968 she worked on the campaigns of Democratic presidential hopefuls Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey.
In 1969 Hillary Rodham wrote her 92-page senior thesis on the theories of radical Chicago organizer Saul Alinsky, whose activist tactics and strategies she greatly admired. Ultimately, Hillary's investigation of Alinsky's methods and ideals led her to conclude that the Lyndon Johnson-era federal antipoverty programs did not go far enough in redistributing wealth among the American people, and did not give sufficient power to the poor.
When Hillary graduated from Wellesley in 1969, she was offered a job with Alinsky's new training institute in Chicago. She opted instead to enroll at Yale Law School, where she was strongly influenced by the radical theoretician Duncan Kennedy, founder of the pro-Marxist academic movement known as critical legal studies.
Hillary served as one of nine editors of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action, where she worked collaboratively with Mickey Kantor and Robert Reich (both of whom would later serve in President Bill Clinton's cabinet). The publication was replete with articles by or about such radicals as William Kunstler, Charles Reich, Jerry Rubin, and Charles Garry (the civil rights attorney who defended Black Panther members accused of murder).
One of Hillary's Yale professors, Thomas Emerson (known as "Tommy the Commie"), introduced her to Charles Garry, who helped her get personally involved in the defense of several Black Panthers, who were then being tried for the torture, murder, and mutilation of one of their own members. Hillary's work for the Panthers earned her a summer 1972 internship at the Berkeley, California office of the Stalinist attorney Robert Treuhaft.
During her time at Yale, Hillary became a prominent figure in the campus protest movement; she led numerous demonstrations against the Vietnam War. In 1972 she worked on George McGovern's presidential campaign.
Also in the early 1970s, Hillary developed a close acquaintanceship with Robert Borosage, who would later become a major figure in such leftist organizations as the Institute for Policy Studies, Campaign for America's Future, and Institute for America's Future.
Around this same time, Hillary started what would become her lifelong friendship with Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF). After graduating from Yale Law School in 1973, Hillary moved to Washington and took a full-time position as a staff lawyer with CDF.
In 1973 Hillary became one of the key inside members of a legal team consisting of more than forty attorneys working for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
In October 1975 Hillary married Bill Clinton, who she had met during her student days at Yale Law School.
Left out here is Hillary's failure to pass the DC bar exam, which threw a wrench into her likely plans for a career in Washington law. She did pass the bar in Arkansas though.
In 1976 Mrs. Clinton worked for Jimmy Carter's successful presidential campaign. Soon thereafter, she found employment as an attorney with the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she would continue to work until 1992.
In 1978 President Carter appointed Mrs. Clinton to the board of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), a federally funded nonprofit organization that functioned primarily as a vehicle for broadening the mandate for social welfare spending.
Bill Clinton served as Governor of Arkansas from 1978 to 1980, and again from 1982 to 1992. During those years, Hillary continued her legal practice and became a partner in the Rose Law Firm. In 1978 she became a Board member of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), and from 1986 to 1992 she served as Chair of the CDF Board. From 1982 to 1988 Hillary also chaired the New World Foundation.
When Bill Clinton became U.S. President in 1993, the Clintons asked Wellesley College to hide Hillary Rodham's aforementioned senior thesis (about Saul Alinsky) from the public. Wellesley President N.O. Keohane complied.
During her early years as America's First Lady (a title she held from 1993-2001), Mrs. Clinton was put in charge of the 500-member Health Care Task Force which tried, in secret meetings and by stealth, to socialize the health-care sector of the U.S. economy. This modus operandi was in violation of so-called "sunshine laws," which forbid such secret meetings from taking place when non-government employees are present. Hillary was sued by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons for these violations. The trial judge, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, ultimately ruled against Hillary and the Clinton administration, condemning as "reprehensible" the duplicity exhibited by Mrs. Clinton's Task Force.
A few days after rumors of Bill Clinton's extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky first made headlines in January 1998, Hillary made a January 27 appearance on NBC's Today Show, where she told interviewer Matt Lauer that the charges had been fabricated by "this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced [that he would run] for President." Hillary would echo this theme numerous times thereafter.
After New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1998 announcement that he planned to retire from public life in 2000, Hillary prepared to run for the seat Moynihan would be vacating.
In 2000 Hillary Clinton defeated Republican Rick Lazio in the New York Senate race by a 55 percent to 43 percent margin.
In 2001 Senator Clinton voted for the anti-terrorism measure known as the USA Patriot Act. Four years later, when the Act was up for renewal, she expressed concerns over its possible infringements on civil liberties and voted against it in December 2005. Ultimately, in March 2006 she voted in favor of renewal after some compromises had been made on the wording of the bill.
As a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Senator Clinton strongly supported President Bush's decision to authorize military action in Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
On May 16, 2002, however, she went to the Senate floor to charge that Bush had known in advance about a possible 9/11-type plot but had done nothing to prevent it.
On October 10, 2002, Senator Clinton voted in favor of the Iraq Resolution which authorized President Bush to use military force, if necessary, to force Saddam Hussein to comply with a United Nations Security Council Resolution to disarm. Firm in her belief that Saddam posed a serious threat to American national security, she cast her vote "with conviction."
In September 2003, six months after the U.S. had routed Saddam's forces on the battlefield, Hillary proudly defended her vote for the Iraq Resolution. According to a Washington Times report: "she said the intelligence she saw leading up to the war was consistent with intelligence from previous administrations and she checked out information with trusted Clinton administration officials." Moreover, Hillary credited her husband for having bequeathed to President Bush the military that had so swiftly deposed Saddam Hussein.
But a month later, as the U.S. struggled to suppress a fierce insurgency in Iraq, Senator Clinton condemned George W. Bush's foreign policy as "aggressive unilateralism" that the President had carried out "as a first resort against perceived threats and not as a necessary final resort." With ever-increasing stridency, she began to charge that Bush had misled the Congress and the American people about the extent of the threat posed by Saddam. In November 2005 she wrote an open letter to her constituents, which stated: "Based on the information that we have today, Congress never would have ... agreed" to authorize the use of force against Iraq.
In June 2007, New York Times reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta, Jr. wrote that Mrs. Clinton refused to say whether she had ever read the complete 90-page classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report, which had been made available to all 100 senators ten days before the Senate vote, and which included caveats about Saddam's weaponry and doubts about any alliance he may have had with al Qaeda.
During her years in the Senate, Mrs. Clinton has consistently voted against the income tax cuts introduced by President Bush -- most notably the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 -- depicting them as fiscally irresponsible measures that were designed to help only the wealthy. She has also repeatedly opposed cuts in capital gains taxes.
Since the passage of Bush's tax cuts in 2001, Senator Clinton has often stated that they harmed the U.S. economy. In April 2003, for example, she claimed, "there is no escaping the wrongheaded, very destructive economic policies that this administration has chosen to inflict on our country."
During her years in the Senate, Mrs. Clinton has cast numerous important votes on the issue of immigration:
• In March 2002 she co-sponsored a bill to extend the deadlines by which illegal aliens living in the United States would be required to obtain visas.
• In October 2003 she favored granting temporary protected status to illegal Haitian immigrants.
• In September 2004 she co-sponsored an agricultural jobs bill offering illegal farm workers a speedy path to citizenship.
• In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, she co-signed a September 2005 letter asking Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to prevent the deportation of any illegal aliens whose immigration status came to the government's attention "after they [had] sought assistance" from the American taxpayers.
• In 2005 she opposed the REAL ID Act, which stipulated that all driver's license and photo ID applicants must be able to verify they are legal residents of the United States. It also contained provisions to prevent terrorists from abusing asylum laws, and to streamline the deportation of immigrants convicted of terrorism-related offenses.
• In June 2007, she voted against a bill that would have prohibited illegal aliens convicted of serious crimes from gaining legal status.
• That same month, she voted in favor of the Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which would have provided a path to legalization for all illegal aliens residing in the United States.
In 2005 Senator Clinton gave a speech to members of the National Council of La Raza, an organization that advocates open borders as well as expanded rights and amnesty for illegal aliens. She told them: "You are doing your part to make sure that every child in every American family has access to the tools necessary to live out their dreams, to have a piece of the American dream." She further expressed her support for the Dream Act, legislation that would allow illegal aliens to attend college at in-state tuition rates -- which are much lower than those paid by out-of-state U.S. citizens. "We need to open the doors of college to immigrant children who came here did well and deserved to go on with their education," she said.
On issues other than immigration, two particular votes cast by Mrs. Clinton during her first Senate term give insight into her agendas and values:
• In 2001 she voted in favor of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, more commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Act, which opened the floodgates for "soft-money" campaign contributions to so-called "527 organizations" engaged in stealth electioneering on behalf of Democrats.
• In October 2003 she voted against the Partial Birth Abortion Act, which bans that procedure in all cases except when the mother's life would be endangered by not performing it. In 2007 she condemned a Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the 2003 Act.
Mrs. Clinton has often characterized Republicans and conservatives as being inclined toward racism and discrimination. At a Martin Luther King Day celebration in January 2006, she told a black audience at Harlem's Canaan Baptist Church: "When you look at the way the [Republican-controlled] 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 view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard." She went on to condemn Republicans' "constant exploitation of race."
Throughout her adult life, Mrs. Clinton has embraced the worldviews and ideals of radical feminism. Following the February 2006 death of Betty Friedan, the longtime communist who co-founded the National Organization for Women, Mrs. Clinton said that Friedan's activism and writing had "opened doors and minds, breaking down barriers for women and enlarging opportunities for women and men for generations to come. We are all the beneficiaries of her vision."
Also in February 2006, Senator Clinton spoke at the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, where she criticized the concept of school vouchers.
As November 2006 approached, Senator Clinton campaigned for re-election to the U.S. Senate. During her 2000 campaign, she had pledged to bring 200,000 new jobs to New York State. By late 2006, however, New York had lost 112,000 jobs and its jobless rate had risen by 0.7 percent. Nonetheless, Mrs. Clinton won the 2006 election by a wide margin over a weak Republican opponent, John Spencer.
In January 2007, two months after her re-election to a six-year term in the Senate, Mrs. Clinton announced that she would run for U.S. President in 2008.
On the campaign trail, candidate Clinton said that in order to restore "fiscal responsibility to government," she would like to return "high-income tax rates to the 1990s levels."
In April 2007 Mrs. Clinton spoke at an event held by Al Sharpton's National Action Network, where she specifically lauded the work of Jesse Jackson and Marian Wright Edelman. "I have enjoyed a long and positive relationship with Reverend Al Sharpton and National Action Network," said Mrs. Clinton, "and I don't ever remember saying 'no' to them and I intend to remain their partner in civil rights as I clean the dirt from under the carpet in the Oval Office when I am elected President."
That same month, Senator Clinton appointed Raul Yzaguirre, who served as President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza from 1974 to 2004, to co-chair her 2008 presidential campaign and to direct her outreach efforts to Hispanic voters.
In May 2007, Mrs. Clinton outlined an economic vision that sought to replace the notion of an "ownership society" with one based on "shared prosperity" -- focusing on the redistribution of wealth by raising the incomes of, and benefits for, lower earners.
At a June 4, 2007 event hosted by Sojouners, the Jim Wallis-founded evangelical Christian ministry has long championed communist causes, Mrs. Clinton said, "…I certainly think the free market has failed. We've all failed." She further said she would repeal the Bush tax cuts to help finance universal, government-funded health care.
In July 2007, Senator Clinton voiced her opposition to a new Supreme Court ruling that public school systems must refrain from seeking to achieve or preserve racial integration through measures -- such as busing or quotas -- that take explicit account of students' racial backgrounds. According to Clinton, this decision represented "a setback for all of us who are on the long march toward racial equality and the building of a stronger, more unified America."
Hillary Clinton is endorsed by the Working Families Party (WFP), which is a front group for the organization ACORN. "[T]here have been few candidates in history more supportive of our issues than Al Gore and Hillary Clinton," said WFP campaign literature in 2000.
Mrs. Clinton has close ideological ties to the billionaire financier George Soros and his so-called "Shadow Democratic Party," or Shadow Party, which was conceived and organized principally by Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Harold McEwan Ickes. Other key players included Morton H. Halperin, John Podesta, Jeremy Rosner, Robert Boorstin, Carl Pope, Steve Rosenthal, Peter Lewis, Rob Glaser, Ellen Malcolm, Rob McKay, and Lewis and Dorothy Cullman.
Mrs. Clinton also has particularly close ties to the Center for American Progress (CAP), which was founded jointly by George Soros, Morton Halperin, and John Podesta. As an inside source told reporter Christian Bourge of United Press International, CAP is "the official Hillary Clinton think tank."
Another key ally of Mrs. Clinton is the organization Media Matters for America, headed by David Brock. Media Matters is financed, in part, by the Soros-funded Democracy Alliance.
Like Media Matters, Hillary Clinton supports the so-called Fairness Doctrine (which was repealed by Congress in 1987), just as she did during her years as First Lady. This Doctrine would dilute, restrict, or limit the message of influential conservative broadcasters and, consequently, influence the thinking and the voting decisions of the American people.
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