Kass: Hillary On Being Poor

The Chicago Tribune's John Kass has a spot-on column discussing Hillary Clinton's sob story during her interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer about her family's impoverished condition at the completion of her husband's two terms as president:

. . . She proved that she finally stands for something.

Hillary stands for people who are "dead broke" but also have multiple homes.

She bragged about it to a purring Diane Sawyer of ABC News, saying she really knows what it's like to struggle. It happened when her husband, former President Bill Clinton, left the White House.

Will someone have the decency to please cue the sad violin as Hillary recounts the ordeal of the multiple homes?

"We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt," she said. "We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education.

"You know, it was not easy."

What's frightening is that she could talk like that without even blushing. The woman has all the shame of a tree.

And I guess you could say that wealthy Democrats who declare class warfare are different from you and me.

They're worth millions upon millions of dollars. They didn't do anything for the money except talk and play politics. That's the Clintons' special talent. They talk and talk and millions come to them and they feel our pain. And they don't blush . . .

Hers is the true politician's gift, to use a voice and get your vote. Of course, she has to feel your pain, too.

Except, what pain, exactly, Hillary, did you feel?

When the Clintons left the White House, there were millions upon millions of dollars waiting for them. Yes, there were legal bills from all the times Bill put his hands on women and lied about it, and when they were investigated for lying about the lies.

But their so-called friends raised millions and millions in legal defense funds.

The woman standing on her feet at the checkout counter, or rushing out to try to sell real estate part time after the kids have been fed, or the woman working as a teacher's aide doesn't have such friends.

How tough a life Hillary must have had, starting with that $1,000 cattle futures investment that grew to $100,000 as if by magic years ago.

And when she left the White House, there was an $8 million book advance waiting for her. Bill had an even larger advance. It's been estimated he's made more than $100 million in speeches since they left their co-presidency in 2001.

She's made dozens and dozens of speeches herself, some for as much as $200,000.

Are they paying her for her brilliance and that honest laugh? Or are they paying for another kind of future, one in which she's president and they get their phone calls returned the Chicago Way? . . .

After years of hard but accurate knocks on Clinton, Daley, Emanuel, Obama et al., I'm surprised Kass is still alive, let alone still working for a major daily newspaper in this country.