Hillary Clinton's "Experience"

Hillary Clinton repeatedly touts her "experience", saying that for 35 years she's been fighting for change. But what she doesn't mention is that the longest portion of that period - 15 years - was spent at Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, representing Arkansas' biggest and most powerful businesses, including Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods. At The American Lawyer, Susan Lehman interestingly reflects on Clinton's legal career and why she's not exactly inspiring the passion amongst voters that Barack Obama is.

This anecdote is particularly telling:

Hillary's ability to assert moral residency on different ideological sides of an issue showed itself soon after she joined the Rose firm. The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, a group that works on behalf of the poor, had helped pass a local ballot initiative that gave low-income residents a break on utility bills and increased rates for businesses. Wanting to put a quick stop to this handout, the business community called upon its lawyers at the Rose Law Firm and asked them to defeat the ordinance in court.

Hillary soon found herself battling ACORN's founder -- and her close friend -- Wade Rathke in court. Deftly marshaling constitutional theory, she convinced the judge that the ordinance constituted an unlawful taking of property. The law was nullified. Wade Rathke never spoke to Hillary again. For Hillary, though, the matter seemed entirely impersonal: She has maintained strong connections with ACORN and works with them today on minimum wage and election reform issues. She fought with and defeated a friend in court. That's business. That's what lawyers do.

Oh, she's got experience, alright. Experience in helping the establishment gain even more power. Which is not at all the kind of experience we need to overturn the plutocracy and corporation-coddling of the past eight years.