Not on the front page of today’s Washington Post, but on page A05, was scandalous news about fundraising during Hillary Clinton’s 2000 senatorial campaign. According to the Post:

A campaign fundraising group for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has agreed to a $35,000 fine for underreporting hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on a Hollywood fundraiser in 2000.

The organization, New York Senate 2000, agreed to a federal finding that it failed to report $721,895 spent on the fundraiser to boost the former first lady’s campaign for the Senate, according to paperwork provided by Peter F. Paul, who helped finance the star-studded gala that drew Cher, Diana Ross, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

Oh, what’s a mere $3/4 million? Just chump change? But who’s worried about Hillary? She means well… really…

But hot off the wires, and at one point on the Post’s front-page, was an AP article which seems to belittle the U.S. economy’s outstanding performance:

President Bush shrugged off a report showing weaker-than-expected job growth on Friday and declared that “the American economy heads into 2006 with a full head of steam.”

Bush rattled off a string of recent government reports suggesting a growing U.S. economy, and he used his speech to the Chicago Economic Club to prod Congress to extend his administration’s tax cuts that are due to expire. …

By highlighting recent economic advances, Bush took an opportunity to turn attention away from the conflict in Iraq.

(Note that this AP story was on the front-page of the Post, but was then replaced with another article by one of its own writers. A search on the WayBackMachine shows that the Post blocks historical archiving of its articles.)

“Shrugged off?” “Rattled off?” “Took an opportunity to turn attention away from the conflict in Iraq?” My, my, isn’t the AP testy today.

Here’s a more balanced view, from CNNMoney:

Hiring slumped in December though the economy created 2 million jobs for the second straight year, the government said Friday, in a reading that was mostly weaker than Wall Street had expected.

The economy created 108,000 jobs last month, compared with a revised gain of 305,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department reported. …

Also, the November payroll gain was revised up by 90,000 so taking the two months together, the number of Americans on payrolls at year-end was roughly in line with economists’ forecasts going into this report.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.9 percent from 5 percent rate in November. Economists had forecast the rate would hold steady.

The average hourly wage rose 0.3 percent in the month to $16.34. That’s steeper than the 0.2 percent increase forecast by economists.

Four million jobs created in two years, but that’s not even mentioned by the AP.

Bloomberg states:

U.S. Stocks Rise on Jobs Report; Nasdaq at Highest Since 2001…

U.S. stocks resumed the New Year’s rally after a December jobs report suggested the economy is growing at a pace that will allow the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates soon.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index headed for their best yearly starts since 2003 and rose to four-and-a-half year highs.

Oh, stocks are just for rich people, right? Wrong. At least 52% of Americans directly own stock, or own shares through a pension plan, insurance, annuities, etc.

The good economic news doesn’t pertain only to stocks: our GDP is on fire; home sales are soaring; orders for manufactured durable goods are steadily increasing; consumer confidence is very high; and, inflation is under control.

But who cares about Bush’s economic achievements while in office (e.g., improved wealth and hiring because of his tax cuts), when you can sweep Hillary’s indiscretions under the rug, and hype up all sorts of conspiracy theories about “blood-for-oil,” “Plamegate,” privacy, wiretaps, etc., etc., etc?

---

---

Related: Economy

---