ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross broke the story of Hillary Clinton’s silent acceptance of the Wal-Mart board of directors’ anti-union activity. Quite an inconvenient truth for Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who courts the union vote.

In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.

Clinton has been endorsed for president by more than a dozen unions, according to her campaign Web site, which omits any reference to her role at Wal-Mart in its detailed biography of her.

Wal-Mart’s anti-union efforts were headed by one of Clinton’s fellow board members, John Tate, a Wal-Mart executive vice president who also served on the board with Clinton for four of her six years.

Tate was fond of repeating, as he did at a managers meeting in 2004 after his retirement, what he said was his favorite phrase, “Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living.”

Wal-Mart says Tate’s comments “were his own and do not reflect Wal-Mart’s views.”

But Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and other company officials often recounted how they relied on Tate to lead the company’s successful anti-union efforts.

An ABC News analysis of the videotapes of at least four stockholder meetings where Clinton appeared shows she never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions.

The tapes, broadcast this morning on “Good Morning America,” were provided to ABC News from the archives of Flagler Productions, a Lenexa, Kan., company hired by Wal-Mart to record its meetings and events.

A former board member told ABCNews.com that he had no recollection of Clinton defending unions during more than 20 board meetings held in private.

The article continues. Here is the ABC News “Good Morning America” story featuring footage of Hillary Clinton at Wal-Mart board of directors meetings.

As The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza notes, the news already seemed like old news when former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced that he was leaving the Presidential race.

It’s a testament to how fast-moving this election cycle has become that even before former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is scheduled to end his campaign and endorse Sen. John McCain (R) later today, the development already feels like old news.

But it would be a mistake to gloss over the Giuliani endorsement without weighing the impact it will have on the race. And since we don’t like to make mistakes here at The Fix, we’ve spent the last few hours talking to party operatives in an attempt to understand what Giuliani’s support for McCain means and what it doesn’t.

As with any high-profile endorsement, Giuliani’s decision to back McCain works on both a symbolic and a practical level.

The symbolic is more important in the larger fight for the nomination, so let’s start there.

Although it’s easy to forget given the utter collapse of his campaign over the past month, Giuliani spent the majority of the Republican presidential race as its leader — thanks to sky-high name recognition and favorability ratings due at least in part to his handling of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In the months and years leading up to his presidential bid, Giuliani was among the most coveted Republican surrogates on the campaign trail. Senate, gubernatorial and House candidates all clamored for an event with Hizzoner, knowing that not only would it bring in scads of campaign cash but also that it would identify them with Giuliani’s sterling brand.

That brand has been tarnished somewhat by Giuliani’s lackluster presidential bid, but for the average Republican he remains an American hero and a symbol of what is good about the Republican Party.

Thus, by scoring Giuliani’s endorsement, McCain can bask in the goodwill that most GOP faithful still hold to Giuliani while also using Hizzoner’s backing to suggest that the party is starting to rally behind him.

In his concession speech last night, in the aftermath of losing the Florida Republican primary, Giuliani reflected upon his campaign as one of ideas and not personal attacks.

Did you miss President Bush’s final State of the Union address? Thanks to Mahalo Daily, you can watch the 60 second condensed version.



For those who want to know what the pundits thought of what President George W. Bush had to say in the 2008 State of the Union Address, USA Today provides an excellent roundup.

For those who want the State of the Union Address straight, with no pundits, it is here.