KA-CHING: Clintons top $100 million giving speeches...
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Just a few months after leaving the State Department, Hillary Rodham Clinton has plunged into the lucrative world of paid speechmaking, joining a branch of the family business that has brought the Clintons more than $100 million since her husband left the White House in 2001.
For about $200,000, Mrs. Clinton will offer pithy reflections and Mitch Albom-style lessons from her time as the nation’s top diplomat. (“Leadership is a team sport.” “You can’t win if you don’t show up.” “A whisper can be louder than a shout.”)
She sticks around for handshakes and picture-taking, but the cost of travel, and whether a private jet is provided, must be negotiated as part of her fee.
The $200,000 she commands appears to be comparable to what Bill Clinton receives for speeches delivered in this country, though Mr. Clinton — who earned $17 million from speeches last year — has collected much more outside the United States, including the $700,000 he was paid when he spoke to a company in Lagos, Nigeria.
Convention organizers are eager to pay Mrs. Clinton, and, since leaving office in February, she has embarked on a packed schedule of events for groups like the American Society of Travel Agents and the National Association of Realtors.
But joining what is known in Washington as the buckraking circuit carries risks for Mrs. Clinton, who prides herself on a long career in public office and could be diminished by the free-flowing money as she considers a run for president in 2016.
The senators who may face off against her in three years are barred from taking such honorariums. Past presidential candidates, including former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, have drawn scrutiny for the practice; Mr. Huckabee memorably left the presidential campaign trail in 2008 to deliver an address in the Cayman Islands. “I’m not independently wealthy,” Mr. Huckabee said at the time. “I wish I was. I have to make a living.”
The events are also giving Mrs. Clinton large captive crowds as she considers a run for president. She shows a personal side, according to several people who have attended her speeches this summer. Along with reminisces about her mother, Dorothy Rodham, she gushes about her daughter, Chelsea, and tells the oft-shared story of the first time she heard her husband’s Southern drawl as he described “the size of watermelons in Arkansas.”
But she does not shy away from policy. Last month, about 17,000 people filed into McCormick Place, a convention center in Chicago, where Mrs. Clinton, in prepared remarks, talked about health care changes, as well as border security and immigration. “I hope it’s heading to a new law that will resolve a lot of these issues,” she told the crowd. “It’s way overdue.”
She praised the human resource managers gathered for their conference. “You know what it takes to provide workers the flexibility and benefits that they need to care for their children,” she said.
At a time when almost everything Mrs. Clinton publicly says feeds presidential speculation, she has also used the speeches to address issues like the Arab Spring, the conflict in Syria and the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden.
Mrs. Clinton does not make her speechmaking schedule public, but the trade groups typically publicize the events. A spokesman for the former first lady declined to comment.
But her political rivals have already started to keep tabs on her speaking schedule, looking for any hint of a conflict of interest. (So far, Mrs. Clinton’s staff appears to have carefully chosen where she has given speeches, avoiding paid talks to potentially controversial groups.)
“We’re starting immediately to monitor both Hillary and the other Democratic rising stars and collect, tag and characterize their speeches so we can hold them accountable when the campaign begins in earnest,” said Tim Miller, the executive director of America Rising, a conservative political action committee.
Mr. Miller said that it was too early to send operatives to covertly buy tickets to Mrs. Clinton’s speeches, but that the group was watching from a distance “to monitor whether she’s hobnobbing with investment bankers in New York City that might seem like favoritism down the line.”
For about $200,000, Mrs. Clinton will offer pithy reflections and Mitch Albom-style lessons from her time as the nation’s top diplomat. (“Leadership is a team sport.” “You can’t win if you don’t show up.” “A whisper can be louder than a shout.”)
She sticks around for handshakes and picture-taking, but the cost of travel, and whether a private jet is provided, must be negotiated as part of her fee.
The $200,000 she commands appears to be comparable to what Bill Clinton receives for speeches delivered in this country, though Mr. Clinton — who earned $17 million from speeches last year — has collected much more outside the United States, including the $700,000 he was paid when he spoke to a company in Lagos, Nigeria.
Convention organizers are eager to pay Mrs. Clinton, and, since leaving office in February, she has embarked on a packed schedule of events for groups like the American Society of Travel Agents and the National Association of Realtors.
But joining what is known in Washington as the buckraking circuit carries risks for Mrs. Clinton, who prides herself on a long career in public office and could be diminished by the free-flowing money as she considers a run for president in 2016.
The senators who may face off against her in three years are barred from taking such honorariums. Past presidential candidates, including former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, have drawn scrutiny for the practice; Mr. Huckabee memorably left the presidential campaign trail in 2008 to deliver an address in the Cayman Islands. “I’m not independently wealthy,” Mr. Huckabee said at the time. “I wish I was. I have to make a living.”
The events are also giving Mrs. Clinton large captive crowds as she considers a run for president. She shows a personal side, according to several people who have attended her speeches this summer. Along with reminisces about her mother, Dorothy Rodham, she gushes about her daughter, Chelsea, and tells the oft-shared story of the first time she heard her husband’s Southern drawl as he described “the size of watermelons in Arkansas.”
But she does not shy away from policy. Last month, about 17,000 people filed into McCormick Place, a convention center in Chicago, where Mrs. Clinton, in prepared remarks, talked about health care changes, as well as border security and immigration. “I hope it’s heading to a new law that will resolve a lot of these issues,” she told the crowd. “It’s way overdue.”
She praised the human resource managers gathered for their conference. “You know what it takes to provide workers the flexibility and benefits that they need to care for their children,” she said.
At a time when almost everything Mrs. Clinton publicly says feeds presidential speculation, she has also used the speeches to address issues like the Arab Spring, the conflict in Syria and the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden.
Mrs. Clinton does not make her speechmaking schedule public, but the trade groups typically publicize the events. A spokesman for the former first lady declined to comment.
But her political rivals have already started to keep tabs on her speaking schedule, looking for any hint of a conflict of interest. (So far, Mrs. Clinton’s staff appears to have carefully chosen where she has given speeches, avoiding paid talks to potentially controversial groups.)
“We’re starting immediately to monitor both Hillary and the other Democratic rising stars and collect, tag and characterize their speeches so we can hold them accountable when the campaign begins in earnest,” said Tim Miller, the executive director of America Rising, a conservative political action committee.
Mr. Miller said that it was too early to send operatives to covertly buy tickets to Mrs. Clinton’s speeches, but that the group was watching from a distance “to monitor whether she’s hobnobbing with investment bankers in New York City that might seem like favoritism down the line.”
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Now Hillary can afford to run on behalf of the 99%...
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