Murdoch's aid to Clinton has political world abuzz

NEW YORK — Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox News Channel and other conservative news outlets have been skewering Hillary Rodham Clinton for years, will host a summer fundraiser for the Democratic senator, mystifying some observers and enraging others.

Especially incensed are liberal activists, who for months have decried what's seen as a shift to a right on Clinton's part as she contemplates a run for president in 2008. They are stunned she is associating with a man viewed as a cornerstone of the "vast right-wing conspiracy," the term Clinton herself coined.

"Hillary, help us. Who the hell are you?" thundered Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen.

Liberal blogger David Sirota complained: "The brazenness of this move is almost too much to stomach."

Neither Clinton nor Murdoch has had much to say about the fundraiser since The Financial Times first reported it last week.

"I think this is about New York. It's about the kind of job that I'm doing as a senator from New York," Clinton said Friday.

Murdoch dismissed the event as "no big deal," adding, "We think that she has been effective on state issues and local issues here in New York."

The Clinton-Murdoch alliance is not entirely new. The two have been moving toward a détente since 2000, when she won her Senate seat after a campaign that included a series of not-so-flattering Clinton headlines in another Murdoch property, the New York Post. The Post even ran a pleading headline, "Don't Run!" before Clinton formally joined the race.

Murdoch also has developed a relationship with former President Clinton, a prime target of criticism from Fox and the New York Post during his presidency. Murdoch participated in a conference of the Clinton Global Initiative last fall, and the former president is scheduled to address a gathering of News Corp. executives in California later this year.

Murdoch, whose $60 billion empire is a major presence in New York, is more shrewd businessman than ideologue, and friendly relations with a powerful New York senator would seem to be in his best interest. Murdoch also organized a fundraiser for New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, during his re-election campaign in 2004.

Clinton's motive for accepting a Murdoch-sponsored fundraiser is not quite as clear. She faces minimal opposition in her Senate race, and with at least $20 million in her campaign account — a figure that dwarfs that of all her potential rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination — Clinton doesn't really need the money.

But Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said the arrangement suits Clinton and Murdoch equally well.

"She's reaching out to a guy who's on the right side of the spectrum, and she needs some friends there," Carroll said.

And Murdoch?

"That's simple: Hillary's going to run for president, and she might win," Carroll said.