I'm not sure what Hillary! gained from leading the charge against the Dubai port deal whose scuttling may have violated the WTO rules, cost us in lost business and  overseas investment, and diminished the ties to a critical ally. I doubt the far  left will change its disdain for her because of this stand and the right is hardly likely to consider this an indication of her willingness to  break from the Democrats' decades long appeasement stance and actually defend national security and interests.

I do know that it has exposed her once again as a hypocrite whose joint account has been enriched by Dubai's lavish payments to her husband as she attacked the deal and a liar who claimed she hadn't realized the fattening of her coffers by Dubai's largesse.

In any event, her attacks on Abramaoff and "sweat shops" also appear to be of a piece with her mandacious behavior in the Dubai deal:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has accepted campaign contributions from a Saipan garment—industry tycoon, sometimes described as a sweatshop operator, whose ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff have been part of the lobbying scandal investigation. Newly filed Federal Election Commission records show that the businessman, Willie Tan, last year gave $2,000 to Friends of Hillary, one of the senator's political action committees. Friends of Hillary also accepted $2,000 contributions from Raymond Tan and Siu Lin Tan, family members who are top executives in Willie Tan's businesses. All three contributions were received on September 30, 2005, according to FEC records. Another family member, Josie Tan, who listed her occupation as homemaker, made a $2,000 contribution received on October 2, 2005.

Together, the Tans contributed more to Friends of Hillary than the senator's PAC received, separately, from residents of the states of Hawaii, Mississippi, Nebraska, Vermont, Utah, Kansas, Wyoming, Alaska, Idaho, South Dakota, Montana, or North Dakota, according to the nonpartisan website PoliticalMoneyLine.com

Clarice Feldman  3 10 06