What's up with Hillary and Wal-Mart? The NYT explores...

[jefferson_dem]

NYT story offers some clues about her relationship with Wal-Mart, the relationship she rarely discusses....

Clinton Moved Wal-Mart Board, but Only So Far
By MICHAEL BARBARO

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Mrs. Clinton’s six-year tenure as a director of Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest company, remains a little known chapter in her closely scrutinized career. And it is little known for a reason. Mrs. Clinton rarely, if ever, discusses it, leaving her board membership out of her speeches and off her campaign Web site.

Fellow board members and company executives, who have not spoken publicly about her role at Wal-Mart, say Mrs. Clinton used her position to champion personal causes, like the need for more women in management and a comprehensive environmental program, despite being Wal-Mart’s only female director, the youngest and arguably the least experienced in business. On other topics, like Wal-Mart’s vehement anti-unionism, for example, she was largely silent, they said.

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So rather than promote her board membership, Mrs. Clinton is now running from it, even returning a $5,000 campaign donation from the giant discount chain in 2005, citing “serious differences” with its practices. But disentangling herself from the company is harder than it may seem.

Despite her criticism, Mrs. Clinton maintains close ties to Wal-Mart executives through the Democratic Party and the tightly knit Arkansas business community. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, speaks frequently to Wal-Mart’s current chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr., about issues like health care and even played host to Mr. Scott at the Clintons’ home in New York last July for a private dinner.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/us/politics/20walmart.html?ei=5090&en=fafaac090e276942&ex=1337313600&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

[liberalnurse]

1. She's not going to burn any bridges.

She was Arkansas's First Lady for years! She is playing it smart....What if "she", as President of the United State, could have Wal-Mart become her model company/corporation for employee healthcare....Yea, think about that. :smoke:

[iconocrastic]

8. Triangulation befuddles the NY Times

They'll never figure it out.

[mloutre]

2. Yup. And already posted in GD-P...

...here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3271787&mesg_id=3271787

[wakeme2008]

3. left in 92 after Sam died. nt

[SaveOurDemocracy]

4. Is this #5 on this subject today? ... or have I missed a couple/few?

Pleeze ... don't make me take off my socks to keep count.:popcorn:

[Kagemusha]

6. I'm seeing a repeat post plague lately.

Or maybe it's just me and I'm glancing at DU more at different hours in the day.. at which time I see the same things posted, just in case I missed them the last 3 times.

Ah well. Hard to miss stuff that way.

[pinto]

5. She was on the Board of Directors of an Arkansas company,

as the Arkansas Governor's wife and an astute lawyer in her own right. Worked to expand representation for women and minorities in the company, from what I've heard.

The corporation, at that time, seems different than the one we speak of now. As noted, she left the board in 1992.

Regardless of our individual choices for the 2008 nomination, this is a straw man slam, imo.

That's what I think is up with that.

[jefferson_dem]

7. I wouldn't necessarily quarrel with your assessment. And sorry for the dupe.

;)