Hillary: Buying Endorsements?

UPDATE: Tim Grieve at Salon made basically the same points as Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson.
So I Posted my comments, below, to Salon as well.

TLC
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A Debt of Gratitude? An Endorsement, Followed by $400,000

I know Tom Vilsack and Hillary Clinton are buds, but this is ridiculous.

Following the Iowa governor’s Monday endorsement of Hillary, Hillary’s campaign announced today that their candidate would be raising $400,000 for Vilsack to retire his campaign debt.

Reminds me of that line from Wimpy of the Popeye cartoons: ‘I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today.’

“There was no quid pro quo,” a Clinton spokesman told AP.

Maybe not, but that’s a hell of a way to repay a debt of gratitude.

--Tim Dickinson

Source: Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, March 28, 2007

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My comment, Posted at Rolling Stone:

Any other candidate would have done the same thing. And it gets Hillary in front of Iowa voters, which she certainly will be doing anyhow, and solidified her standing with Iowa voters. I'm no fan of Hillary--far from it--but this one is a good example of how the media creates non-issues.

TLC