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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (2182)	1/21/2002 10:56:48 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Sen. Clinton Marks 1st Year of Term Monday January 21 3:06 PM ET Sen. Clinton Marks 1st Year of Term By SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press Writer HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) - When Hillary Rodham Clinton decided to try the Senate after eight years in the White House, she was dismissed as a carpetbagger and besieged by questions about presidential pardons and her ability to work with Republicans. Yet after a year transformed by the Sept. 11 attacks, she has emerged with mostly high marks from colleagues and constituents for her low-key approach and strong work ethic. Many New Yorkers seemed to feel she proved her mettle by helping to secure from President Bush a promise of $20 billion in aid for lower Manhattan two days after the World Trade Center was destroyed. In early October, voters gave Clinton an approval rating of 59 percent, her highest ever. ``OK, so we were wrong,'' the conservative New York Post said in a Dec. 27 editorial. ``We're pleasantly surprised in many respects by the former first lady's performance so far.'' Clinton, 54, acknowledged that her first term will be judged in large part on her ability to deliver after the terrorist attack. ``I feel like I have a job that has grown exponentially,'' Clinton said in an interview with The Associated Press during a weekend swing through New York. ``It was a big job before Sept. 11. Now it's a huge one. There's a lot of pressure because the needs are just so great.'' Political observers echo the sentiment. Sept. 11 ``will define her term, no doubt about it,'' said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. ``The year started about as badly as it could for her. She experienced one of the steepest declines in public opinion ever for a new senator,'' Sabato said. ``But Sept. 11 gave her a fresh start and she's generally used that opportunity very well.'' With the Senate set to return this week, Clinton said, ``we've got to roll up our sleeves again because there's an awful lot we need to do.'' That means ensuring delivery of the money promised by the president. The White House budget office says New York will get the entire amount in installments over time. The state has received $10.7 billion so far. While many freshman use their first year in the Senate to learn the ropes, Clinton waded right in, introducing a record 70 bills and amendments. She counts among her largest accomplishments amendments to the education bill that promote recruitment of teachers and principals. She also points to several pieces of trade center legislation, including a bill to extend unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to one year for some workers affected by the attacks. The bill must still pass the House. Before Sept. 11, Clinton loudly bashed President Bush's budget and tax cuts, worrying they would bring a return to deficit spending. She said she will continue to do so, seeing nothing inconsistent in supporting the administration's war effort while attacking its economic policies. Clinton, who has promised to be ``a workhorse not a showhorse,'' is still treated like a rock star outside Capitol Hill. Over the weekend, a dozen librarians at the Hempstead Public Library on Long Island crowded around with cameras to capture her arrival. At the Long Island Jewish Hospital in New Hyde Park, nurses shrieked her name. Rep. John Sweeney , R-N.Y., said Clinton has proved ``very skillful.'' But he also said the state's case for federal aid has been hurt by not having a Republican in the Senate. ``I would suspect some of the resistance is because it's Hillary,'' he said. ``It can be an obstacle.'' Her term could also be clouded by a grand jury probe of her husband's last-minute pardons - including commuting the sentences of four men from a Hasidic community that voted overwhelmingly for her 2000 Senate bid. Rep. Dan Burton , chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, is scheduled to release a report on the pardons early this year. Mrs. Clinton has said she had no role in her husband's pardon decisions. - On The Net: clinton.senate.gov