Hillary Clinton and My Visa Bill
By Paul Rogat Loeb

I just got my Visa bill for my final election donations-all those
click-and-donate appeals in my email box and on the Web. I gave more than I
thought I had, more than I'd intended to spend, and more than I'd ever given
before. You make enough $25 to $50 contributions, and soon you're talking
real money, almost a tenth of my annual income just in the election season.

But I feel just fine about my giving. I'm proud to have helped support
Dean's 50-state strategy by donating to the Democratic National Committee
early enough to help build key infrastructure, and then again and again as
new opportunities emerged. I felt great about giving to Montana
Senator-elect Jon Tester six times, including for his final election week
push. Between my donations and my volunteering with MoveOn's CallforChange
program, I felt like I'd personally helped elect Tester, Senators Jim Webb,
Claire McCaskill, Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, and Sheldon Whitehouse,
plus half the Congressional candidates from the NetRoots Act Blue page,
including victory in the December 12 special election by Texas progressive
Ciro Rodriguez. I'd have felt proud to do my part even if the close races
had gone the other way.

What doesn't please me, in fact disturbs me immensely, is discovering that
Hillary Clinton raised $52 million for her Senate campaign and allied
leadership PAC, HILLPAC. She spent $36 million of it on a race that she
could have won staying home in her pajamas, not spending a dime. Now she's
sitting on a $13.5-million-dollar war chest, which she'll roll over to her
presidential campaign. I know political money is hard to raise,
particularly with the new contribution limits, and that Hillary's spending
went in part to build a grassroots donors' list that she'll tap in the
future. I know she traveled throughout the country, raising money and
helping secure publicity for an array of worthy candidates, many of whom
won.

But according to the wonderful site of the Center for Responsive Politics,
the entire Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised only $107
million, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $103 million.
Hillary spent a third as much as either of these, more than any candidate in
America, for a race that was never in doubt. She did distribute $2.5
million to various Democratic institutions and candidates, and helped raise
far more with her celebrity star power. But imagine if she'd transferred $20
million into the dozen Congressional campaigns that Democrats lost by
margins as close as a few hundred votes. Or into Harold Ford's Senatorial
campaign, to close the gap between the $10 million spent by Ford and the $15
million that Republican Bob Corker spent. Or given it to the Democratic
Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees. Hindsight's always easy,
but by late summer it was clear that the Democrats had a huge opportunity
and were scrambling for the funds to respond to it. A few more ads would
almost certainly have tipped the balance for some of the under-funded
candidates who came heartbreakingly close. That's why so many of us were
digging deep to contribute, and then digging deeper, even when it hurt.
Evidently Hillary had other priorities.

When Bill Clinton first surfaced as a leading Presidential contender, I
asked a mutual friend what he thought. "He's smart," said my friend. "He
reads good books. He wants to do the right thing." Then he paused and said,
"But he won't go to the mat for anything except his own political future."
To me, that was Bill's core flaw (even more than his pursuit of Monica
Lewinsky). Hillary seems to share Bill's hunger for power. You can always
rationalize dubious choices by the good you'll do when you gain just a
little more clout, and I'm sure she truly believes her candidacy will
benefit the United States. But she had a chance to make a major difference
in this critical election--and she blew it.

Hillary is far from the only Democrat vulnerable to the charge of hoarding
scarce resources: As of mid-October, John Kerry with $13.8 million in his
campaign account, and Evan Bayh, who's since decided not to run, had $10.6
million. But Kerry transferred over $3.5 million to Democratic candidates
and used his networks to raise almost $10 million more. Between his inept
2004 campaign and the damage done by his foot-in-the-mouth military
joke-telling, I don't want him as a Presidential candidate; but compared to
the amount that Hillary transferred from five times the resources, Kerry
definitely dug deeper to help. I have even more respect for potential
contenders like John Edwards and Wesley Clark, who campaigned throughout the
country to support Democratic candidates, but did relatively little
fundraising for their own campaign committees and PACs--Edwards enters the
2008 race actually in debt from his 2004 campaign. Their top priority really
did seem to be helping other Democrats win this 2006 election, more than
building their own careers.

I'm sure Hillary would say she did all she could, and then some, through all
the Democratic fundraisers and rallies that she headlined. But I think about
all the ordinary citizens who gave more time and money than anyone would
have expected and as a result made a critical difference. In comparison,
Hillary falls short. The money she spent may have gained her a few extra
points of electoral margin in a race she won by 36 points, and buttressed
her already massive frontrunner status. But it did nothing to increase the
Democratic victory. Those of us at the grassroots aren't going to stop
volunteering and donating merely because some of our most prominent
political leaders fall short. But it's a measure of their character that I
hope we'll remember when the Presidential primaries begin.

Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A
Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of
2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. His previous
books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time.
See www.paulloeb.org To receive his monthly articles email
sympa@lists.onenw.org with the subject line: subscribe paulloeb-articles

For a version with reference links see
http://www.paulloeb.org/articles/Clintonandmyvisa.html

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson