Diner Manager Defends Clinton's Tipping

Let the record show: Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign knows how to leave a good tip.

The Democratic front-runner's tipping skills were called into question Thursday, after National Public Radio aired an interview with an Iowa waitress who served a sandwich to Clinton during a campaign visit last month.

Anita Esterday waited on the New York senator and her entourage at a Maid-Rite restaurant in Toledo, Iowa. Esterday posed for photos with Clinton and spoke of her plight as a single mother forced to work two jobs to make ends meet.

Clinton later incorporated Esterday's story into her campaign stump speech. Pictures of their meeting appeared in newspapers and on TV newscasts.

In the NPR interview, Esterday said that while she had enjoyed meeting Clinton, she hadn't gotten much out of her 15 minutes of fame.

"I mean, nobody got left a tip that day," Esterday said, adding "I don't think she understood at all what I was saying."

Esterday's comments were potentially harmful, undermining Clinton's appeal to working class voters, especially women. Rival campaigns quickly e-mailed the story to reporters, as did the Republican National Committee.

But Brad Crawford, manager of the Toledo Maid-Rite, said Clinton's campaign aides paid the bill for lunch and left a tip to be divided among the servers.

"They all paid their bill and they left a tip. They paid it all that same day when they left and everything was good," he said.

Crawford said he didn't know why Esterday may not have received any of the money.

"If she got left out it wasn't because they meant to leave her out," Crawford said of Esterday. "If something happened with the disbursement, it's probably my fault."

A call to Esterday's home was not immediately returned.

Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer said the campaign paid $157 for lunch and left another $100 for the tip.

During her 2000 Senate race, Clinton failed to tip a server at the Village House Restaurant in Albion, N.Y. Two weeks later, after some negative media attention, Clinton phoned the server to apologize. Her campaign also sent a $100 savings bond.