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Politics : Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator from New York? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cody andre who wrote (1834)	1/11/2000 6:09:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3389

SHE CAN'T DODGE ANYMORE By DICK MORRIS NOW that our newest New Yorker, Hillary Clinton, has made the transition from first lady to Senate candidate, the rules of press engagement must, inevitably, begin to change. As first lady, Mrs. Clinton has assiduously avoided any spontaneous press contact, living in a protective bubble, safely shielded from annoying questions by the press. But as a Senate candidate, Hillary will have to take her chances in the rough and tumble, in your face press interface with which we screen those who want to hold elected office. New Yorkers expect their Senate candidates to be accessible, to be able to take the heat, to engage in a constant repartee with the press. We' ll forgive mistakes made in off-the-cuff remarks, but we won't tolerate transparent manipulation. We also want the answers to any questions about a candidate's integrity. And there are plenty of them about Hillary. Yet the press seems to still linger at the edge of consciousness of this change, with many still reluctant to cross the line and engage Hillary as they would any other candidate. Last week, when the Senate candidate and her husband moved into their first New York home, Hillary imperiously brushed aside an inquiry about her use of soft money, claiming: "We're here to talk about the house." She dismisses questions about her role in many scandals by insisting that her focus is on the future, not the past. But the past of a Senate candidate should determine her future. Inquiries which the media limited out of respect for the first lady, it must now pursue. The stage-managing it accepted, it now must refuse. The reasons for Hillary's refusal to speak to the press are fairly simple: First, she is not especially good at impromptu answers. Second, there are many questions that she simply does not want to ever answer. Those unanswered questions have piled up outside of the first lady's East Wing lair throughout the past decade. Had she gracefully retired from public life next year, they could have remained there to be moved back to Arkansas with other memorabilia. But the detour to New York makes these questions obligatory, and their answers crucial to how we judge her candidacy: 1. Will Hillary disclose the names of those who have given her personal gifts as first lady, with a description of each gift and its value? Though the president reveals this information, Hillary refuses, citing a loophole which allows this information to remain secret if the gift was given without regard to her status as first lady. Now that she is a Senate candidate, that information is relevant regardless of her characterization of why a gift was given. For example, the president has disclosed that top Democratic patron Walter Kaye gave him a cashmere blanket. And the White House disclosed that Kaye gave Chelsea Clinton coca-cola stock worth $1,000. But Hillary has kept quiet. Kaye is the guy who arranged for Monica Lewinsky to become a White House intern. According to Monica, Kaye was providing designer clothing and other gifts to Hillary, though he never knew her before she became first lady. He is still welcome at the White House -- he was a guest at Hillary's $10-million millennium party. The names of all of the gift-givers should be released. 2. Will the president and first lady disclose the names of the donors to the Clinton Presidential Library? Although this money is being raised by a sitting president, who obviously can make decisions favorable to donors, the president has refused to reveal any names. Clinton has stated that the library will be his home -- and presumably his wife's -- when they are in Little Rock. Moreover, the library will also likely deal with the history of the first lady of the Clinton Administration. All the donors' names should be made public. 3. How did the Rose Law Firm billing records land in the White House (with only the fingerprints of Hillary, Vince Foster and Carolyn Huber, the woman who found them)? Hillary owes us an explanation. 4. What role did Hillary play in the Castle Grande matter, in which there was a fraudulent transfer of property in order to deceive regulators? There has been no credible statement about this mess. 5. How did she parlay a $1,000 investment in cattle futures into $100,000? Although she claimed that she learned the futures market by reading the Wall Street Journal, the newspaper didn't even cover the futures market back then. 6. Did she order the Travel Office firings and then lie about it to the FBI? 7. Did she know about the scrutiny of FBI files of political opponents by White House operatives, and did she urge the hiring of Craig Livingstone, who did the snooping? These questions are not old, raked-over embers. They are a cold trail of evidence which has never been explained. When politicians run for office, they put their backgrounds on display for scrutiny and review. She is no exception. The key question for the New York media is this: Will it roll over and play dead or will it demand answers? nypost.com