Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's book deal paid her $1.1 million last year, but
that pales in comparison with the more than $9 million her husband, Bill
Clinton, earned from dozens of speeches around the world.
The former president, who left office in 2001 with millions in legal debts
stemming largely from his impeachment battle, often earned more for one speech
than his wife did for her whole year as a Democratic senator from New York, the
senator's financial disclosure report showed on Friday.
In addition to her Senate salary of $150,000 for 2002, the former first lady
was paid more than $1.1 million for her autobiography, the just-published
"Living History," which sold 200,000 copies on its first day of release.
Industry insiders have estimated her total advance for the book at $8 million.
But the former president's speech to Group Vivendi Universal -- which owns
Universal Studios and Universal Television Group -- at Sundance, Utah, netted
$150,000 in one day.
Clinton, known to love travel and public speaking during his eight years as
president, stayed true to form on the lecture circuit, ranging around the world
making some 61 paid speeches, with the most expensive in Japan, where the Mito
City Political Research Group paid him $400,000.
A typical Bill Clinton speech cost $125,000, such as those delivered to such
disparate audiences as the University of Judaism in Universal City, California,
and the Women and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, Australia.
Some groups paid more, including the Dabbagh Group, which offered $300,000
each for speeches to the Jeddah Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia and to STARS at
Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
FROM SYDNEY TO STOCKHOLM
Other speeches were delivered at that price in Sydney, Australia, to the
Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, and to
a World Celebrity Golf gathering in Stockholm, Sweden.
Hunter College Foundation in New York got a comparative bargain, with a
speech from the former president costing $35,000, the lowest amount listed on
his wife's disclosure form.
The form lists a total of 61 speeches by the former president, along with
just two earned-income items for New York's junior senator beyond her salary:
the payment for her memoirs and a royalty of $1,237 for her earlier book, "It
Takes A Village." The form noted those royalties were donated to charity.
The Clintons' legal bills were listed, with no exact amounts but with a range
of expenses owed to four law firms, most dating back to 1998 and 1999, the years
of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and Clinton's impeachment and subsequent
acquittal.
The former first couple owe Washington law firm Williams & Connolly
between $1 million and $5 million, according to the form. The Washington office
of New York-based Skadden Arps was owed between $500,000 and $1 million, the
form showed. Two other firms -- Mayer Brown & Platt and Wright Lindsey &
Jennings -- were listed as liabilities in the range of $100,000 to $250,000.
The Clintons' assets include shares of such telecommunications firms as
Verizon Communications Inc., BellSouth Corp., AT&T Corp. and Lucent
Technologies Inc.
The Clintons have two homes, one in New York state and one in Washington, but
home mortgages are not required on the Senate disclosure form.
