Chicago Sun Times
10-25-07
Clinton: 'It's more important what you stand for and what you voted for'
BY JENNIFER HUNTER
Sun-Times Columnist/jhunter@suntimes.com
AMES, Iowa -- Asked about her willingness to take campaign money from special
interest groups and lobbyists, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) said her colleagues
who accuse her of this are being disingenuous.
"It's artifical for someone to say they don't take money from lobbyists or PACs but
take money from people who employ lobbyists and set up PACs," she said at
Iowa State University on Wednesday.
"I know some of my opponents make this a big issue, but I think it's more
important what you stand for and what you voted for," she said, adding she has
fought battles against the health insurance industry and big oil "and I am going to
continue to take on big interests."
Clinton, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, made these
comments following a speech on women's issues.
She was visiting Iowa State as the Fall 2007 Mary Louise Smith Chair in
Women and Politics. (Smith was the only woman to chair the Republican
National Committee.)
"It's almost hard to explain to young women today how much things have
changed," Clinton said. "Growing up there were sports we couldn't play, schools
we could not attend, jobs that had a 'men only' sign on them."
As a young lawyer, Clinton told a colleague she was thinking of practicing court
room law. "He said that was impossible because I didn't have a wife," Clinton
recalled. "'When you are in court, and you're busy' [he said] 'who will make sure
you have clean socks for court?'"
Today, while there are more women in Congress, Nancy Pelosi reigns as
Speaker of the House, Harvard University has a woman president and there are
women astronauts, women still face disparities, Clinton said. They only earn 77
cents for each $1 earned by a man.
And workplaces need to be family friendly.
"No one should have to worry if they have to take a couple of hours to take their
child to the doctor ... or care for an aging parent," she said.
She said if she becomes president she will experiment with state funding for paid
leave. (California already has paid leave.)
"We need to adopt policies that truly value families," she insisted. That means
universal pre-kindergarten, quality affordable healthcare, retirement security, paid
family leave and flexible work places.