Editor’s Note: Leslie Sanchez is a former adviser to President Bush and CEO of Impacto Group, which specializes in market research about women and Hispanics for its corporate and nonprofit clients.
Leslie Sanchez | Bio
CNN Political Contributor
Republican Strategist
While Hillary Clinton's nomination to be secretary of state has dominated coverage of the transition, the nation's attention hasn't yet focused on the thorny thicket of potential conflicts of interest involving Bill Clinton's fundraising (both for himself and for his foundation) across the globe.
It should. The man has been a globe-trotting vacuum cleaner, virtually sucking up cash wherever it can be found.
True, Clinton has finally agreed to make public the 208,000 donors to the Clinton foundation, and he's agreed to submit future business enterprises and speeches for further scrutiny.
"If she is going to be secretary of state and I operate globally and I have people who contribute to these efforts globally," the former president told CNN, "I think that it's important to make it totally transparent."
Nevertheless, Clinton's jet-set moneymaking has already presented ethics lawyers with a confounding thicket, and his future endeavors may prove even more troublesome in the years to come.
Sure, a lot of the money Bill Clinton has raised may go to worthy causes, and there's no indication his wife will personally profit from it. Still, his global fundraising will create at least the appearance of serious conflicts when Hillary Clinton meets with leaders of countries in which he's been active.
| Alex |
December 4th, 2008 9:59 pm ET Leslie, |
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| rhutch |
December 4th, 2008 11:10 pm ET How is this any different than the conflict of interest with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld or anyone else that has done business all over the world? It looks like the powers that be are look to start a problem where there isn't one. |
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| J.V.Hodgson |
December 5th, 2008 12:54 am ET Contibutor, your comments are nauseating. You have identified a non existent and POTENTIAL only POSSIBLE issue. Like it or not sir, governments have to deal with the people in POWER, and Bill will not be there. If he publicly or privately steps out of line in future Obama can squash them both by syaing that is not the policy of this government and fir Hilary if necessary. ( Very unlikely events in both cases). |
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| Jaime Mesa,AZ |
December 5th, 2008 1:38 am ET Please Ms. Sanchez, |
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| KSuzanne |
December 5th, 2008 5:16 am ET Thank you Leslie! I am really hoping this is a time in our American politics when we get past partisanship and move toward working together to heal our nation! Economically we are bleeding, our education system is failing our children, our health care is failing our children, the poor, and the aged. It is time to get together and go forward not falling for the divisive KSuzanne from San Leandro, CA |
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