A Clinton Story, Disinterred

I learned Monday, before an appearance on Fox News, of a story on their network’s website I hadn’t seen anywhere else — that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign manager, Maggie Williams, was working until December of 2007 for Delta Financial Corporation, a predatory lender. Not only that, but Williams sat on the board of what was once one of the largest (but is now bankrupt) sub-prime mortgage lenders as one of its directors for seven years.

The Fox News story included the proverbial quotes from Clinton about the damaging effects of the sub-prime crisis and how lenders share most of the blame for the mortgage mess. “I am reminded every day as I meet with families and listen to their stories that the effective functioning of our financial markets isn’t just about Wall Street. It’s about Main Street,” she said recently.

Clinton, who has proposed a “$30 billion lifeline to avoid a crisis for Wall Street banks,” invited Williams back to her campaign just weeks after Delta went bust. It was following Clinton’s third-place showing in the Iowa caucuses that Williams was “layered over” Patti Solis Doyle, a longtime aide Clinton had promoted to campaign manager over the objections of many longtime advisers, including Terry McAuliffe. Weeks later Williams officially replaced Solis Doyle as campaign manager, another loyal aide who had never run or even watched someone run a presidential campaign.

It has been more than 24 hours since I first saw it, and where has this story gone? Nowhere. After their assault on the media in February, let’s hope the Clintons are grateful.

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