IPA makes Hillary's 'shadiest' list

The liberal New Republic has a new list out of Hillary Clinton's shadiest donors. Near the top: International Profit Associates of suburban Buffalo Grove. Although the capsule omits some of the fraud allegations and the criminal past of company founder John Burgess, it captures the sexual harassment angle.

 
THE DONORS
International Profit Associates (IPA), an Illinois-based management consulting and business development company.

 
THE GREEN
Bill Clinton pocketed $125,000 for addressing IPA workers in December 2001. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that firm employees have forked over nearly $130,000 in contributions to Hillary's Senate campaigns since 2000.

 
THE SCANDAL
IPA has faced a string of scandals--most notably, a widely reported sexual harassment suit involving 113 former female employees. Two of them told their stories on a 2005 episode of "Oprah Winfrey Show."

 
THE SLEAZE FACTOR
8.5. The harassment suit included accusations that the CEO offered money to a female employee in exchange for sex and that a sales manager would pin female employees up against the wall and ask if they enjoyed intercourse.

 
THE DAMAGE TO THE CLINTONS
3. Though never a large-scale national scandal, it doesn't look good that Hillary has, in effect, shrugged off what the lead attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the federal agency leading the investigation) called one of the "most egregious case of sex harassment that the Chicago district office has seen." Senator Clinton--unlike other politicians who received campaign donations from IPA employees, such as Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle--has opted not to return the contributions.

 

Expect this issue to emerge more fully as Hillary and Barack claw their way to the convention.

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