I’m not the biggest fan of Hillary Clinton but she just did make a politically brilliant move (via Sat. She’s introduced a bill to increase the minimum wage and minimum wage increases to congressional pay increases. Why is this smart:

• Minimum wage increases are popular even in red states (Florida passed a minimum wage increase on the ballot in 2004 by a large majority, but also elected GW Bush by a comfortable majority)
• Because it ties the increases to congressional pay, it has an anti-Washington, “outsider” sheen to it during a time when all nationally known politicians are polling in the gutter
• Voting against the bill makes opponents look bad. Basically they’re saying Congress deserves a pay increase but the working poor don’t with a “no” vote.

Brilliant.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 10:23 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.