Clinton cash needs scrutiny

Former President Bill Clinton should be congratulated on the charitable work done by his foundation. Among its many good works, the HIV/AIDS Initiative has helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world gain access to life-prolonging medicine, and its focus on climate change has engaged 40 of the world's largest cities in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the way you hope a former president would choose to spend his time.

Still, a caution flag has to be raised. With his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, running for president, there will undoubtedly be generous foundation donors looking to purchase a little friendly influence. Even Bill Clinton admits that there are bound to be "questions about whether people would try to win favor with her by giving money to me."

Those types of questions have a little more urgency now that the New York Times has documented how a big donor to the William J. Clinton Foundation seemed to use the former president's access to world leaders to advance his business interests with a foreign government. It's a cautionary tale suggesting that Bill Clinton needs to be far more transparent regarding his fundraising activities and donor relationships. Clinton says that he'll disclose the donors to his foundation during Hillary Clinton's presidency (if that comes to pass). But the information on really big donors of seven figures or more is important for voters to have now.

The New York Times describes how Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining financier, was able to snag a prize uranium mining investment deal with the state-owned uranium agency of Kazakhstan. The company Giustra established was little more than a start-up competing with highly established uranium producers for access to a country with one- fifth of the world's uranium reserves. But in 2005, after Giustra was introduced to Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's president, by Bill Clinton -and Clinton publicly lauded Nazarbayev in a way that ignored the leader's documented tyranny - the contracts fell Giustra's way.

Months after the deal between Giustra and the Kazakhs was finalized, Bill Clinton's foundation received a donation of $31.3-million from Giustra, who has since made a public pledge to the foundation for an additional $100-million.

Certainly Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton are allowed their own independent careers and endeavors. But the spouse of a president, or even the spouse of a contending presidential candidate, has special responsibilities to the interests of the office. Even the perception of conflicts of interest should be scrupulously avoided.

In the meantime, Bill Clinton would do his wife's campaign a tremendous favor if he disclosed the list of donors, particularly the most generous, who collectively gave $500-million to his foundation.

[Last modified February 14, 2008, 21:58:02]