Bill Clinton Rakes In Big Bucks
Former President Is Doing Gangbusters On The Lecture Circuit, The Washington Post Reveals
-
Play CBS Video Video Obama, Clinton Trade Barbs Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama began a bitter war of words over comments made by one-time Bill Clinton backer David Geffen about the former first lady. Gloria Borger has more details.
-
Video Clintons Vote, Give Autographs CBS News RAW: Former president Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hilary Clinton, D-N.Y., voted in Chappaqua, N.Y., this morning. They chatted with volunteers and signed copies of their books.
-
Video Clinton, Bush Honored In Philadelphia, former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush were jointly awarded the Liberty Medal. Susan McGinnis reports they were honored for raising more than $1 billion for disaster relief.
-
Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the National Council of La Raza annual conference Saturday, July 8, 2006, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo)
-
Interactive William Jefferson Clinton Follow the ups and downs of President Clinton's years in office, see photos and learn about his life before and after the presidency.
-
Photo Essay Hillary Rodham Clinton The Democratic Senator from New York and former first lady sets her sights on the White House.
The Washington Post's front page has some fun with Sen. Hillary Clinton's recently filed financial disclosure statements, required under Senate ethics rules.
According to those statements and interviews with speech organizers, it appears that Bill Clinton has been doing gangbusters with speeches in the past six years, raking in nearly $40 million during that time period, according to the Post, which notes that Clinton "came to the White House with modest means and left deeply in debt."
Last year was particularly lucrative, earning the former president $9 to $10 million for lectures, averaging almost a speech a day, "but only about 20 percent were for personal income."
Two speeches on the same day in Canada earned Clinton $475,000 – "more than double his annual salary as president."
While we're on the subject of Clintons, Hillary's dramatic, scandalous, remarkable feud with Barack Obama for some reason takes up space once again on the New York Times front page. In an interview with the Times, Obama "seemed to acknowledge that he may have been outmaneuvered."
U.S. Warns Iran. Again.
The International Atomic Energy Agency released a report yesterday that confirmed Iran continues to operate a uranium-enrichment program and is expanding efforts to build a facility large enough to potentially produce a nuclear bomb.
Iran's moves are "in open defiance" of the United Nations, writes the New York Times. That Iran was now "operating or about to switch on roughly 1,000 centrifuges, the high-speed devices that enrich uranium," at one facility came as "a mild surprise" to experts, the Times adds.
Iran, for its part, "says it has no intention of producing bomb-grade uranium and will use the facility to produce nuclear fuel for energy," says the Washington Post's front page.
Nonetheless, Iran's move "triggered a fresh U.S. push for further sanctions,", says the Wall Street Journal. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns is being dispatched to London to meet with the rest of the Security Council and Germany to toss around some ideas about that.
The inevitable question, of course, is whether we're invading Iran anytime soon. The Times writes that "senior administration officials" have "dismissed the idea that Mr. Bush is considering an attack."
"Enough Of 'Nonbinding'"
Meanwhile, in real news, Senate Democrats (after a weeklong recess) will present a plan to repeal the 2002 Iraq war authorization "in favor of narrower authority that restricts the military's role and begins withdrawals of combat troops," writes the Post. Past suggestions of a plan to link war funding to "strict troop readiness standards" are coming under "withering fire" from Democratic moderates and Republicans.
Sen. John Kerry is supporting the proposal because he has "had enough of 'nonbinding,'" as he put it to the paper.
Another Political Reincarnation
Remember Ahmed Chalabi? He's baaaack. In what the Journal describes as a "remarkable political reincarnation," Chalabi has taken on a newly created post as an "intermediary between Baghdad residents and the Iraqi and U.S. security forces mounting an aggressive counterinsurgency campaign across the city."
He is answering directly to Prime Minister Maliki and the position is intended to generate support for the new troop surge among Iraqis. While the job is supposed to be restricted to security matters, Chalabi is "already speaking ambitiously" about taking on other economic, health and reconstruction roles in the government.
Hunting Al-Qaeda In Africa
The New York Times gets word from anonymous "American officials" that the U.S. military "quietly waged a campaign from Ethiopia last month to capture or kill top leaders of Al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa."
While it's been known that American Special Forces have operated inside Somalia, "the extent of American cooperation with the recent Ethiopian invasion into Somalia and the fact that the Pentagon secretly used an airstrip in Ethiopia to carry out attacks have not been previously reported," writes the Times.
The officials said the mission was a "qualified success" that disrupted some terrorist networks in Somalia and resulted in the death or capture of "several Islamic militants."
A NOTE TO READERS: The Skinny is now available via e-mail for those of you umbilically attached to your blackberries and whatnot. Click here and follow the directions to register to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- For Mr. Clinton to make that kind of money just for him to talk....he must have something worthwhile to say.
- Reply to this comment
- Lying about a blowejob was the best the repubs could do. lets see hmm domestically he created a budget surplus, he created programs to reduce welfare rolls through workfare, prosecuted the 93'wtc bombers(you can visit them at supermax). Internationally stopped the genocide in bosnia, helped stabilize haiti.
- Reply to this comment
- The Bush-Clinton crime family sure is getting rich selling off america. They all belong in jail.
- Reply to this comment
- hey USA last 20 years, Bush, Clinton Bush Clinton? wake up America! Stupid is as stupid does...
- Reply to this comment
- "Harry S Truman: "The buck stops here"
Bill Clinton: "Show me the bucks"
....
Posted by processor2 at 01:29 PM : Feb 23, 2007"
George W Bush: "Just back that treasury truck up to the back door, me and ***'ll take it from there" - Reply to this comment
- "And they say it doesn't pay to be a crook..$4o millions worth..HHHHHMMMMMMMM
Posted by FARTKNOCKER2 at 03:40 PM : Feb 23, 2007"
Your right, Cheney only made 39 million off his Haliburton stock since starting his little war...what's that been about 4 years...so he's about on par or a little over for Bill. Nothing like starting your own war to line your pockets huh. - Reply to this comment
- In politics, it pays to be a prostitute.
- Reply to this comment
- Hey bigwhtpony: we are "neocons" they are "paleiolibs"
- Reply to this comment
- Don't all those who contributed to the Clinton defense fund feal really foolish now? Just another scam perpetrated by the Clintons.
- Reply to this comment
- BBB = Big Bucks Bill LOL
- Reply to this comment
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.




