Update: A waitress causes a stir on the political blogs. The waitress at a Maid-Rite restaurant in Iowa says she did not get a tip after serving presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, a Democrat from New York. But the Clinton campaign says a $100 tip was left at the diner. More

Remember back in 2000 when Hillary stiffed that waitress - is this a pattern for Hillary?

I followed Clinton during a recent bus tour across Iowa, when she and her entourage pulled into a Maid-Rite, a greasy spoon famous for its loose-meat sandwich. Clinton settled into a red stool at the counter, ate a sandwich, chatted with her waitress and then was on her way.

The scene gave Clinton perfect fodder for her next few stump speeches. It turns out her waitress was a single, working mom — just the kind of voter Democrats are courting aggressively this year.

Clinton recalled the meeting for an audience up the road in Boone. "The woman waiting on us — it was her first day," she said, adding, "She was a little nervous. Single mom, raised two boys, works at a nursing home and always has a second job."

If she’s elected president, Clinton promised, people like her waitress will have it better.

The way Clinton eased the waitress into her rhetoric is something repeated day after day, by all the campaigns. But in the process, people like the waitress don’t always have their stories told.

‘Nobody Got Left a Tip’

"I wished I would have been asked first," the waitress, Anita Esterday, said of Clinton’s decision to insert her in a speech. "I wish she would have asked if she could talk about me later. I didn’t like it when someone called me up and said Hillary Clinton is talking about you. It’s like, what’d I do now? What’s she saying?"

When I returned to the Maid-Rite a few weeks later, Esterday said the senator had caught her off guard. But once they got talking, she was honest with Clinton about her need to work two to three jobs.

"I’ve been doing it all my life. Why should it change now that I’m old," Esterday said.

Esterday does not think Clinton got it. "I don’t think she understood at all what I was saying," Esterday said. "I mean, nobody got left a tip that day."

Clinton may have decided not to tip. She was also never given a bill — her meal was on the house. Still, Esterday said Clinton might have left her something: "Maybe they don’t carry money. I don’t know."

The visit hurt Esterday in another way. The local paper ran photos of her with Clinton. She said her supervisor at the nursing home isn’t a big Hillary Clinton fan and she thinks that may be related to why her hours were almost totally cut.

Now, Esterday is looking for a different second job. However, she said she’s not upset that Clinton visited the restaurant.

"I got my 15 minutes of fame out of the world," Esterday said. "There you go. I got her autograph. That’s something I’ll treasure forever."

But as far as the attention she’s received? "It hasn’t helped me. It’s made things worse."

Still, Esterday doesn’t blame Clinton; she says she may even vote for the former first lady. She’s also considering voting for Barack Obama.

Source: NPR

February 11, 2000
Hillary stiffs a single mom
By Barbara J. Saffir
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

ALBION, N.Y. Maybe it’s no big deal elsewhere, but it’s all the buzz in Albion.

Hillary Rodham Clinton dropped into the Village House, a favorite diner in this upstate farming town, and ordered two orders of scrambled eggs, home fries and rye toast. So far, so good. The locals appreciate a hearty appetite.

Her breakfast was on the house, and when she left the waitress, a single mom, found not a penny at her plate.

The locals have been talking about little else since Tuesday, when she stopped for breakfast after making a speech about how New York’s farmers "are really hurting these days."

Says Linda Ellis, a regular who voted for President Clinton and says she might vote for the first lady: "It’s the little things you have to look at in a political campaign.

"She is the first lady, but it doesn’t feed her son," she said. The waitress, who makes less than the minimum wage and pays for her own health insurance, deserved a tip, she said.

Mrs. Clinton, who once declared a 15-cent income-tax deduction for a pair of her husband’s undershorts that she had donated to charity, had dropped into the diner, halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, along with a dozen reporters in her motorcade.

It was her first public event since beginning her "official" candidacy Sunday at Purchase, N.Y., near her new $1.7 million Westchester County home. Mrs. Clinton, the beneficiary of extensive contributions from unions, is pushing to raise the minimum wage and make health insurance affordable.

"She had two servings of eggs," said restaurant owner Alex Mitrousis. At first, she just ordered oatmeal to go but then she ordered scrambled eggs, home fries and rye toast. After she ate that, she ordered "two scrambled eggs with cheese," he said. "We’re going to call it the first lady’s special," he said.

One order of "two large fresh eggs" with toast and ham, bacon or sausage costs $2.75.

Mr. Mitrousis, who emigrated to the United States from Greece decades ago, says the first lady’s failure to leave a tip does not bother him and that it was "an honor" to have the first lady stop there.

He also noted that he enjoyed the publicity because many customers now ask for the table where Mrs. Clinton sat. He said he lost money during her visit, however, because regular patrons could not get in to the packed parking lot near the intersection of routes 31 and 98.

Mr. Mitrousis said he did not charge Mrs. Clinton for the food she ordered herself during her visit with more than a dozen reporters and photographers in tow.

Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson had no comment.