Former first daughter feeds speech fees into gaping maw of Clinton Inc

Chelsea Clinton never acted out during the eight years she came of age as America's first daughter. No ditching of her Secret Service detail. No fake IDs for underage tippling. No drug scandal. No court appearance in tank top and toe ring. Not even any dirty dancing. Despite a tough role as the go-between in the highly public and embarrassing marital contretemps of her parents, Chelsea stayed classy. So it's strange to see her acting out in a sense now, joining her parents in cashing in to help feed the rapacious, gaping maw of Clinton Inc. With her mother under fire for disingenuously calling herself "dead broke" when she left the White House, why would Chelsea want to open herself up to criticism that she is gobbling whopping pay cheques not commensurate with her skills, experience or role in life?

As the 34-year-old tries to wean some of the cronies from the Clinton Foundation – which is, like the Clintons themselves, well-intended, wasteful and disorganised – Chelsea is making speeches that go into foundation coffers. She is commanding, as The Times's Amy Chozick reported, up to $75,000 per appearance.

Chozick wrote: “Ms Clinton’s speeches focus on causes like eradicating waterborne diseases. (‘I’m obsessed with diarrhea’ is a favorite line.)” There’s something unseemly about it, making one wonder: Why on earth is she worth that much money? Why, given her dabbling in management consulting, hedge-funding and coattail-riding, is an hour of her time valued at an amount that most Americans her age don’t make in a year? (Median US household income is $53,046.)

Speak for free

If she really wants to be altruistic, let her contribute the money to some independent charity not designed to burnish the Clinton name as her mother ramps up to return to the White House and as she herself drops a handkerchief about getting into politics.

Or let her speak for free. After all, she is in effect going to candidate school. No need to get paid for it, too. There was disgust over Politico's revelation that before she switched to a month-to-month contract, Chelsea was getting wildly overpaid at $600,000 annually – or more than $25,000 per minute on air – for a nepotistic job as a soft-focus correspondent for NBC News. Chelsea is still learning the answer to a question she asked when she interviewed cartoon character Geico gecko: "Is there a downside to all this fame?"

The Clintons keep acting as though all they care about is selfless public service. So why does it keep coming back to gross money grabs? It's gone from two-for-the-price-of-one to three-for-the-price-of-20. Hillary's book is drooping because it was more about the estimated $13 million advance and the campaign ramp-up than the sort of intriguing self-examination and political excavations found in the memoirs of Timothy Geithner and Bob Gates. If she had had something to say, the book might have been shorter.

Hillary doesn't see the disconnect between expressing grave concern about student loan debt while scarfing six- figure sums from at least eight colleges, and counting. She says she's passing the university money to the foundation but, never Ms Transparency, has refused to provide documentation of that. (She's still pocketing other huge fees for speeches like her April talk in Las Vegas to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.)

Speechmaking

Chozick estimated that the lucrative family speechmaking business has generated more than $100 million for the former president and first lady, whose fees range from $200,000 to $700,000 per appearance. Bill alone earned $17 million last year doing what he likes to do best – talking.

"The issue is that the philanthropic beneficiary of the speeches is a foundation, structured as a public foundation but clearly synonymous with and controlled by the Clinton family," Rick Cohen writes in the National Philanthropy Quarterly, adding: "Donors and institutions that are paying them and their daughter huge sums for their speeches may very well be buying recognition and face time with powerful political leaders who they hope will be able to deliver political favours in the future."

The Clintons were fiercely protective of Chelsea when she was a teenager, insisting on respect from the media and getting it. They need to protect her again, this time from their wanton acquisitiveness. – (New York Times service)