HILLPAC will morph

Senator and potential Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is 'double-dipping.' According to Newday.com's evaluation of Senator Clinton's FEC (Federal Election Commission) quarterly reports, the New York senator has been paying eight full-time Senate staffers (that's government workers who receive a paycheck from the U.S. Senate) to work overtime for her 2006 Senate campaign. The money is coming from Friends of Hillary—her Senate re-election committee—and HILLPAC—her leadership committee which has been charged with being nothing more than the caterpillar that will soon morph into a full-fledged Presidential campaign according to Human Events Online. There is certainly nothing illegal about what the Senator is doing. In fact, many senators participate in the practice. However, what is significant about Hillary's overtime workers is that there are eight of them and they are being paid by two political action committees. Generally, a senator will have one or two of their staffers moonlight for the campaign, but the fact that Hillary has eight burning the midnight oil suggests that something bigger is going on. For example, Tamera Luzzatto, Clinton's Washington chief-of-staff has her $135,000 Senate salary augmented at $1,700 a month by the two PACs (September totals).

HILLPAC is not an incredibly well-funded PAC, boasting only about $3,000 in the bank after donating some money to other politicians affiliated with the PAC and paying the senator's overtime workers. Friends of Hillary, however, reports a $14M war-chest. (FEC report)

I don't think there is anything unfair about what Hillary Clinton is doing here. It is perfectly legal to pay your Senate office workers extra money from your war-chest if they are doing political consulting on the side. According to the FEC, there is nothing wrong with it as long as you report where that money is coming from. The point is that while she is concerning herself with her Senate re-election campaign (which Friends of Hillary is dedicated to), she is also building a shell for her presidential bid in 2008 (HILLPAC). It is obvious that HILLPAC is not actually a committee dedicated to “[helping] candidates who support a cleaner environment, better schools, quality health care and a strong homeland defense” because it donates little money and provides no services to the politicians it supports. She is building an organization that will allow her to store her endorsements, political masterminds, and war-chest until the appropriate time arrives to apply them to the 2008 horserace. The fact is that Hillary, and Bill, are political geniuses—regardless of their politics. They know where the loopholes are, and they're going to need every loophole they can get if they want to defeat whatever political powerhouse the GOP puts up in 2008.

Editor's Note: I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. The ECS is on the way.