NewsMax.com
Monday, March 19, 2001

Before all that, it was the White House in Washington and before that the governor's mansion in Little Rock, but she had to share those with a spouse.

Now she's her own woman, not merely the first lady of Arkansas or of all 50 states.

She's what some unbashful boosters are already calling America's senator, confined only temporarily to casting half of New York's senatorial vote.

And there are even those who are betting Hillary Rodham Clinton is setting her cap for a return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, to take up tenancy of her own in the Oval Office, where husband Bill once made news.

Wherever she's headed, the junior senator from New York's latest stepping-stone is on the 26th floor of a pink Italian-marble office building in a tony East Side section of Midtown Manhattan.

At Third Avenue and 49th Street, it's a handy block away from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, three blocks up the street from the United Nations and six over from Grand Central Terminal.

It's also a long, not altogether safe, hike to the less-elegant neighborhoods of the Democratic senator's voter base of minority constituents.

Since they along with taxpayers all across the country are footing the bill for her, they may be interested in learning it is costing them, each year, $514,149 for this spread of 7,900 square feet (at $65 per, including electricity).

One way to measure that is to look at it as a space equivalent to a swath about 10 yards wide running down the length of a football field, goal line to goal line.

Another way is to compare Hillary's New York office space with that of her Senate colleagues.

It is the costliest, by far, of all the 50 home-state offices.

According to the New York Post, which tries as best it can to keep up with its newest senator's latest real-estate adventures:

Hillary's space is 21 percent more expensive than what taxpayers are shelling out for Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office digs in drop-dead expensive San Francisco. The California Democrat is paying a pale $424,632 a year rent, nearly $90,000 less than Hillary's lease.

Perhaps more to the point, at least for New Yorkers, is that Sen. Charles Schumer, who used to be the junior New York Democratic senator until Hillary's more-recent election elevated him to the status of senior senator, receives his local constituents in far-less impressive facilities just across the street and a block away on Third Avenue.

All Schumer seems to need to do his job while in Manhattan is 3,900 square feet, compared with Hillary's 7,900 square feet.

Schumer's space leases at $51 per square foot (also including electricity), to her $65.

His annual rent: $209,532, which is also on the high end for U.S. senators.

Hers: $514,149, or $394,617 more.

That did it for David Keating, who works for the National Taxpayers Union analyzing congressional expenses.

"It's inconceivable to me that somebody can spend almost two and a half times more and be from the same state, representing the same constituents," said the stunned Keating.

"That's a lot of extra money to spend for getting the same job done."

Hillary's aides don't think so. They say the boss got a "real good deal" that meets her needs.

"Given New York's real-estate prices, it would be surprising if a New York senator wasn't at or near the top," said one Clinton spokesman, Jim Kennedy.

The same attitude was expressed, albeit more candidly, by Mitch Arkin of Cushman & Wakefield, one of the world's largest real-estate companies:

"I don't think she's paying too high a rent for the type of building a U.S. senator should be in.

"She's like royalty. She's the ex-president's wife. She lived in the White House for eight years, for crying out loud."

Which is possibly what some taxpayers may be doing this very moment.

One more thing:

That's just bare-bones, as-is space the senator from New York-Washington-Little Rock is branching into. She has yet to send the tab for furnishing and decorating to the General Services Administration.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Clinton Scandals
Sen. Hillary Clinton

Related Products:
Have an Opinion About This? Send a PriorityGram Today