early and often

AP Puts Cart Before Horse in Clinton Donor Story

On the morning that Hillary Clinton is set to start confirmation hearings with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Drudge Report is blaring a headline that says “CLINTON ACTED ON CONCERNS OF HUSBAND’S DONORS.” And it’s true, in a way. The AP reports that Hillary Clinton, as senator from New York, did push for legislation that aided a half dozen of the hundreds of donors to her husband’s Clinton Global Foundation. But, in each case that the report cites, Hillary’s helpful measures occurred before — often years before — the organizations or companies ever got involved with the foundation. So even if there was some level of impropriety (say, Bubba pressured the groups to join up because they’d been helped by his wife), it’s not the pay-to-play kind of relationship implied by the headline.

Anyway, now that we’ve dealt with that, Hillary can get on with her morning. Now she’s just got to go into that Foreign Relations meeting, maybe give a tug on Joe Biden’s hair plugs for good luck, and do what she does best: talk in a hypnotic monotone about foreign-policy minutiae until she gets her way.

Clinton acted on concerns of husband’s donors [AP]

AP Puts Cart Before Horse in Clinton Donor Story