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Xazy · 04-03-2008, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Clinton Foundation donors remain shrouded in secrecy

Thu Apr 3, 12:22 AM ET

Since he left the White House in 2001, Bill Clinton has led quite the life. He has jetted around the globe for both humanitarian causes and personal enrichment. He has befriended foreign leaders, partnered with billionaires and built a $165 million presidential library in Little Rock.

Under normal circumstances, this might elicit only a modest reaction. But with his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, running for president, his circumstances are hardly normal. The people he deals with for both business and charity look at him not only as a former president, but also as a potential entree into the next administration.

Donors have pledged more than $500 million for construction of the library and for the Clinton Foundation, which administers the library as well as his global anti-AIDS and sustainable development campaigns.

That is an enormous amount for someone to be raising from friends, business partners, foreign governments and interested parties who are either barred from making campaign contributions or limited to the $2,300 maximum. Because of the former president's unusual position and the sheer size of this conduit into a potential presidential administration, the complete list of donors should be made public.

Some donors volunteered their names at the time of their gifts or when asked by reporters. What little is known about the others suggests that a good number are as interested in influencing public policy, or benefiting from the Clintons' worldwide ties, as they are in supporting presidential scholarship or economic development.

The Saudi royal family gave $10 million, according to The Washington Post, and numerous foreign governments have given $1 million. The largest contributors appear to include Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helü, Canadian mining entrepreneur Frank Giustra and the Lundin Group, a Canadian oil and gas company. Each has publicly pledged $100 million for development projects.

These gifts raise a number of questions, particularly in the case of Giustra, who in 2005 flew with Clinton to Kazakhstan, where his connections to the former president impressed officials enough to win him a lucrative uranium mining contract. They also raise the question of what favors might be sought by other donors who don't want to be identified.

Clinton argues that the confidentiality he promised his donors should take precedence over calls for transparency, and that he should not be judged by a different standard from other former presidents who have been allowed to keep their library donors secret.

Some philanthropic organizations go even further. Paulette Maehara, president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, says that "if donors cannot trust charities to respect their wishes, then philanthropy simply cannot happen."

These arguments would be valid in most contexts. But given Clinton's unusual circumstances, gifts to his foundation could rightly be seen as a back door into the good graces of someone who could be a key adviser to the next president. The stakes are simply too high not to have principles of open government take precedence over common fundraising practices.

This is actually quite interesting to me. Personally I think they should have to fully disclose the list of donors, and the sums of money given to the clintons (well to Bill for his foundation) by certain individuals may make him impartial, in his advice to Hilary if she would get elected. Even now in her Senate position any advice from her husband is now bias. Personally this to me would now affect any election that Hilary would be a part of.