My Dinner With Hillary ...

Even for her, Hillary Clinton showed tremendous skill at batting aside questions asked of her on the Sunday shows this past weekend and giving, instead, her standard talking points. Pinning this lady down is admittedly not easy. Two of the best interviewers on political TV — Chris Wallace and Tim Russert — asked tough questions but got scripted and memorized retorts for their pains. But here are some questions (along with follow-ups) that I suggest they ask during the next round of Sunday shows, if she ever goes back on the circuit.

— Bill Clinton refused to accept PAC contributions in his campaigns of 1992 and 1996. Barack Obama and John Edwards are following his example. Why aren't you?

— After all the bad experiences you had with Johnnie Chung and Charlie Trie and their campaign donations in the 1996 election cycle, why were you not more careful in vetting the donations generated by Norman Hsu? Didn't you learn your lesson in 1996?

— (Follow-up) After you found that you had to return almost a million dollars to the donors bundled by Hsu, you said you would be more vigilant in examining the backgrounds of donors. Why didn't you come to that conclusion before the Hsu scandal, based on your 1996 experiences?

Norman Hsu was no ordinary donor. He was the biggest bundler in your campaign, and he gave funds to the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton School of Government in Arkansas, and took Patti Solis Doyle, your campaign manager, and other aides on an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas. He also donated to Gov. Vilsack of Iowa, whose campaign debt you agreed to help repay. In view of his high profile in your campaign, why didn't you check him out more thoroughly, and what does this say about your ability to make quality appointments?

— You base your health care proposal on the need to cover 47 million "uninsured Americans." Since about a third of them are illegal immigrants and another third are eligible for Medicaid right now and just don't apply for it, aren't you overstating the problem?

— (Follow-up) In 2005, you co-sponsored legislation to provide health insurance to the children of illegal immigrants who have lived in this country for five years. In other words, their children would get subsidized health care under the State Children's Health Insurance Program as a reward for dodging the cops for five years.

Do you still support that proposal?

— You say that your health care proposal will leave alone those who are happy with their current insurance. But providing health benefits for close to 50 million new people — thereby generating huge new demand for medical care without any increase in the supply of doctors, nurses or hospitals — will drive up prices radically. Won't that force you to institute cost controls by limiting the care those now on health insurance can receive?

— You speak of the need to bring our troops home from Iraq. But you told The New York Times in March of this year that you felt we needed to keep troops there for intelligence, logistical and training support, to police the border with Iran, and to hunt for al-Qaida in the provinces. Do you still believe we need to perform those missions, and how many troops would you leave in Iraq to do so?

— (Follow up, after she says she "won't answer hypothetical questions") But you have articulated these missions as necessary on an ongoing basis. Are you doing so in ignorance of how many troops will be required? Don't you know, and didn't you make it your business to know before you proposed that they continue to execute these missions?

— In Arkansas, you achieved fame by urging mandatory testing for teachers and demanded that those who failed the competency tests be dismissed. You and your husband did this and implemented this policy. As a result, he was denied the endorsement by the Arkansas Teachers Union during his time as governor. Do you still support your proposal of 1983 and 1984 for mandatory teacher competency tests for current teachers — not just for new ones?

— In Arkansas, you pioneered the idea of testing students to ascertain their progress and holding schools accountable for any shortcomings in their test scores. Now Democratic Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education Committee, wants to change the No Child Left Behind Act to substitute graduation rates for test scores as a measure of a school's performance. Opponents say this is injecting a non-objective standard and undercuts the whole purpose of the legislation. Do you support Miller's proposal?

There's more, but we've run out of time! I hope that the journalists who next have her in their sights read this column, take notes and act on it. The answers to these questions would be nice to have before we elect her president.

To find out more about Dick Morris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007 DICK MORRIS AND EILEEN MCGANN

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