Hillary Rodham Clinton was home in the White House on a half dozen days when her husband had sexual encounters there with intern Monica Lewinsky, according to Sen. Clinton’s schedule, released Wednesday among 11,000 pages of papers from her years as first lady.

The words of the schedules are dry, but they take on emotional weight when coupled with revelations about the sex scandal that eventually came to light. A year later, the first lady’s schedules show her pressing ahead with public events and showing her face as revelations about the scandal upended her life and threatened Bill Clinton’s presidency.

The papers also shed light on her struggle for health care reform early in the Clinton administration, her scaling back when that effort failed, her travels abroad and the legal woes that dogged the Clintons in the White House.

It’s unlikely she would be surprised at this late date to learn that the president was cheating on her while she was at home in the White House. But the release of the documents reminds voters anew about Bill Clinton’s affair and the impeachment proceedings that brought Washington to a halt for a year.

The private crisis came at the most public of times for the first lady.

She had speeches scheduled, at home and abroad. She appeared by President Clinton’s side at an education event where he angrily dismissed the reports of having sex with Lewinsky.

Her schedule has her choosing flowers for a black-tie dinner, congratulating "Guns Aren’t Cool" award winners and reading to kids in the week in January 1998 when allegations of the scandal begin coming out. She denounced a "vast right-wing conspiracy" in a TV interview.

Almost a year earlier, the schedules show, she was home on Feb. 28, 1997, the day when the Kenneth Starr report says Bill Clinton had a sexual encounter with Lewinsky in an Oval Office bathroom in the early evening, staining her blue dress.

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Hmm I wonder if the morning of the Waco Branch Davidian Fire will be accounted for? Many people have concluded that Hillary might have been the one to force the confrontation - and Reno took the wrap.

The National Archives announced on Tuesday that 11,046 pages of Senator Hillary Rodham’s White House schedules will be released on Wednesday.

The records were the subject of a legal fight between Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, and the National Archives, which has been slow to comply with a request to release the records, arguing that the vetting process takes time.

Mrs. Clinton’s schedules have attracted close attention throughout the campaign, partly because Mrs. Clinton has frequently held up her eight years as first lady as evidence of her experience.

Judicial Watch announced on March 4 that the National Archives promised to release at least 10,000 pages of the records by March 20.

The Archives said in a statement on Tuesday that the schedules are from the staff files of Patti Solis Doyle, Mrs. Clinton’s former campaign manager who was her chief scheduler in the White House.

“Arranged chronologically, these records document in detail the activities of the First Lady, including meetings, trips, speaking engagements and social activities for the eight years of the Clinton Administration,” the statement said.

Of the more than 11,000 pages to be released, 4,746 pages have redactions, mostly relating to “the privacy interests of third parties,” including Social Security numbers, telephone numbers and home addresses, the Archives said.

Source: Times

African Americans liked Bill Clinton so much that he was once dubbed "the first black president," but perceptions that his wife’s campaigning has been racially tinged have taken a toll on Hillary Clinton’s White House bid.

Some accuse Clinton’s campaign of trying to cast her rival Barack Obama as a candidate of limited appeal in order to marginalize his candidacy and enhance her chances of winning the Democratic Party nomination.

Sen. Obama would be the first black president if he won the nomination and then defeated Republican John McCain in the November 4 national election. Obama is leading Sen. Clinton in the fight for delegates to the August convention.

Clinton would be the first woman president. But some black Americans have grown mistrustful of her campaign because of statements by her, her husband and other surrogates. African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Her suggestion of a "dream" ticket with Obama as her vice presidential running mate reminded some of the days when blacks, regarded as second-class citizens, were ordered to sit at the back of buses.

"No offense, but that is typical of a white person to offer you second place and say they’ll take first place," trucker Jasper Clark, 53, said at a recent Obama rally in Jackson, Mississippi.

The mere mention of Clinton’s name drew boos from that mostly black audience.

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it was a double whammy of a day for Hillary Clinton, who got pounded at the polls in Mississippi as Gov. Spitzer’s mushrooming sex scandal brought ugly headlines reminiscent of her husband’s philandering.

Barack Obama cleaned up in the Magnolia State, 60% to 38%, with 95% of precincts reporting. He was declared the winner by TV networks moments after the polls closed, likely giving him the majority of the state’s 33 delegates to extend his lead.

"It’s just another win in our column, and we are getting more delegates," Obama told CNN.

The win was the latest in a string of racially divided matches, with Obama grabbing about 90% of the black vote, according to exit polls.

"I’m confident that once we decide on a nominee and we go through the convention, that, in fact, the party’s going to be unified," Obama added.

Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams issued a statement congratulating Obama, saying, "Now we look forward to campaigning in Pennsylvania" - which votes next on April 22.

Back in the loss column after big wins in Texas and Ohio on March 4, the cloud over her home-state governor seemed to hang over Clinton’s campaign as she stumped earlier yesterday in Pennsylvania.

Clinton already had to sidestep questions about Spitzer Monday. "Let’s wait and see what comes out of the next few days," she said. "Right now I don’t have any comment."

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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton _ no stranger to political sex scandals _ sounded a short, sympathetic note Wednesday for disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer, saying she is thinking of his family.

"I’m deeply saddened by this turn of events and my thoughts are with Governor Spitzer’s family during this painful time," Clinton said in a statement.

The Democratic senator from New York went on to say she looks forward to working with the incoming governor, David Paterson.

Clinton issued her statement through her Senate office, but the scandal has ramifications for her campaign.

When Spitzer steps down Monday, she will lose one of her superdelegates, those party officials whose support may end up deciding the Democratic presidential nomination if neither she nor Sen. Barack Obama show large gains in the remaining primaries ahead.

Spitzer, like the rest of New York’s Democratic Party establishment, had been an outspoken booster of Clinton’s campaign.

At a joint appearance last year in Washington, Clinton praised Spitzer for trying to "break some of the political pottery" in the New York capital of Albany.

Source: Seattle Times

Sen. Barack Obama claimed victory by a wide margin over Sen. Hillary Clinton in Mississippi’s Democratic primary Tuesday.

"What we’ve tried to do is steadily make sure that in each state we are making the case about the need for change in this country. Obviously the people in Mississippi responded," Obama told CNN after his win.

Mississippi had 33 pledged delegates up for grabs, which will be allocated proportionally.

With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Obama had 61 percent of the vote, compared with Clinton’s 37 percent.

The state’s Democratic voters were sharply divided among racial lines, exit polls indicated. 

As has been the case in many primary states, Obama won overwhelming support from African-American voters. They went for him over Clinton 91-9 percent. See the results

The state has a larger proportion of African-Americans (36 percent, according to the 2000 census) than any other state in the country. And black voters make up nearly 70 percent of registered Democrats.

But Mississippi white voters overwhelmingly backed the New York senator, supporting her over Obama 72 percent to 21 percent.

According to The Associated Press, only two other primary states were as racially polarized — neighboring Alabama, and Clinton’s former home state of Arkansas.

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No one doubts that Hillary Clinton is playing for all the marbles this year.  But what if she fails to undercut Barak Obama’s lead and loses her party’s nomination?  And what if the Illinois senator goes on to capture the presidency this November?  What does the future hold for Senator Clinton?

Well, not much, not by Clintonian standards, and that’s why she has begun laying the groundwork to help John McCain defeat Senator Obama in a General Election matchup.  Absent her own presidency, a McCain presidency may better serve her interests.
If she loses her fight with Barak Obama, it is hard to see Senator Clinton satisfied with a consolation prize.  Given her vaunting ambition and oversized ego, the vice presidency would not suit her.  She’s never made a good second banana, anyway; her tenure as First Lady proves it.  Her fingerprints were all over policy during her husband’s administration, starting with the infamous attempt at government control of the nation’s healthcare.  She was meddlesome in personnel decisions — Janet Reno, among others.  For her, the Presidency of William Jefferson Clinton was a co-presidency.  That her name wasn’t right alongside her husband’s on the marquee must still chafe.   
And what would the vice presidency avail her?  Would she see it as a steppingstone to the presidency eight years hence?  Not likely, given that she’d be in her late sixties then, and after two terms of a Democrat in the White House, voters may well be ready to elect a Republican. 
What about one of the high profile cabinet portfolios — State, Defense, Attorney General?  In terms of a path to the presidency, none leads directly; all are contingent on direction from the White House.  And her success, to some measure, would become a President Obama’s success.
And, lest we forget, Barak Obama would have something to say about bringing Senator Clinton into his administration.  As someone with a well-earned reputation as brassy, overbearing and experienced at in-fighting, Senator Clinton would be a millstone around the Illinoisan’s neck.  Bringing Senator Clinton on board is something Barak Obama is not likely to do unless his back is to the wall.  
A seat on the Supreme Court?  Legislating from the bench may intrigue Senator Clinton, but how often are justices in the news?  How many monuments around Washington are dedicated to Supreme Court Justices? 
Or might Senator Clinton settle for status as the Grand Old Lady of the United States Senate?  Not realistic, since every corpuscle in Hillary Clinton’s body exudes "executive."  For someone who has a hunger to lead, collegiality goes only so far.
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Her Governor’s In Trouble, But Clinton’s Not Talking

Aussie feminist Greer brands Hillary ‘cold, bossy’

Obama backer revives Clinton sex scandals

Clinton-backer Ferraro: Obama Where He Is Because He’s Black

Greg Craig Former Clinton Loyalist: Don’t Believe Hillary’s Claims - OUCH!

Clinton link in Brazil ethanol probe

Team Obama Hits Clinton on Experience Claims

Hillary Clinton’s Spitzer Problem

Hide and Seek - Bill and Hillary

The Red Phone in Black and White - Oh Brother! The 3 a.m. ad is racist?

SHE’LL NEVER RELENT

Will Obama Blink?