US Diary: go, Hillary, go

Nice to know Hillary is beavering away, burnishing her rightwing credentials by backing ant-flag burning shit. Hey, I don't care how she does it -- whatever symbolic issues she hypes to get the independent vote and establish herself as dead center -- as long as she makes it in 2008. I firmly believe that Hillary will leave this country much improved after 8 years in the White House. It will be interesting to compare her presidency with her husband's.

Sen. Clinton on Big Money Tour

NEW YORK — Sen. Hillary Clinton has launched a pre-Christmas national fundraising tour to pad her already sizeable campaign war chest for the 2006 election.

But some say the New York Democrat is collecting donations for larger political ambitions.

About 2,000 Clinton supporters packed into a Manhattan nightclub recently. Former President Bill Clinton attended on behalf of his wife, who was at another fundraiser in upstate New York. The former president told the crowd that Sen. Clinton can help reduce the nation's budget deficit without cutting critical programs.

"That's why you ought to re-elect Hillary to the Senate and why you ought to demand a different direction for the United States," Clinton told supporters.

The fundraising efforts are part of a two-week, six-state tour taking place during a usually quiet time on the campaign trail.

While helping other Democratic candidates raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for their campaigns, she is making a point to add to her own $14 million campaign chest.

Any money left over from her Senate re-election campaign can be used for a possible run for the White House. Though she has not yet tipped her hand, her recent speeches sound like the deliverings of a presidential candidate.

"We are ready to go for it and fight to take back our country, starting at the courthouse, going to the statehouse, going to the Congress, going to the White House because we love this country and we want it back on the right track," Clinton said at her Louisville event.