The Cover Photo is of President Obama, Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher and the team
The Cover Photo is of President Obama, Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher and the team negotiating START with the Russians in 2010. Secretary of State Clinton is to the left of the President
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I've known Hillary Clinton for many years. I've had close and direct experience with her since Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992. It was after I ran for Congress in 1996, beating a two term Republic an incumbent, that our friendship really started.
As I arrived in Washington for my first term, preoccupied with moving my family into a new home and finding a school for my 5-year-old daughter, Hillary Clinton was the first to reach out and offer support and a warm welcome. As the mother of a young daughter who had had to balance a demanding work life with family life, she knew what I was going through.
Hillary also understood that I was a Democrat representing a Republican swing district, and that I would be most vulnerable in my first re-election. That is why she offered to come out and campaign for me in 1998. This was the first trip by either Clinton to the East Bay and folks were ebullient. Given her dedication to children's issues, we decided to visit two of the excellent schools in my district, St. Isidore's in Danville and a local public school. Hillary made herself available for about four hours, which is unheard of in White House scheduling tradition - usually it's 30 minutes and the principal is "wheels up."
It was so moving to see friends and neighbors lining the street as the First Lady's motorcade approached. And, as I stood in the courtyard to greet her, out of the car came the distinguished First Lady, carrying a huge smile, with her arms out-stretched. The crowd of parents, teachers and students cheered. Her genuine warmth, affection, and enthusiasm were on display for all to see.
After Hillary won her Senate seat in 2000, we often collaborated together in our roles in the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. When the world as we know it changed forever on September 11, 2001, Hillary's compassion and leadership on behalf of the fallen in New York at Ground Zero were visible to all. Those of us around her saw the pain she carried on behalf of her constituents and the energy she expended day after day to persuade her House and Senate colleagues to fund desperately needed treatment for first responders at Ground Zero.
This haunting image of Hillary fighting for first responders stays in many people's minds.
When Barack Obama won his historic race for President in 2008, I encouraged Hillary to accept his offer to be his Secretary of State. We talked one day for over 40 minutes about Russia and looming expiration of the Start Treaty, which is critical to our regulation of the US and Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles. Eventually, Hillary asked me to join her at the State Department to oversee the START negotiations and much of the same portfolio I managed on the Armed Services Committee. We accomplished a lot of hard work for the country and the world together at the State Department.
Under Secretary Ellen Tauscher (center) and Assistant Secretary Rose Gottemoeller (right) meet with their Russian negotiating counterpart during the New START Treaty negotiations, March 22, 2010.
But truly no one day meant more to me than the morning I walked into her office in July of 2010 to tell her that I had Stage 3 esophageal cancer. Her warmth and empathy in that moment and her support throughout my ultimately successful treatment will always mean the world to me.
As I watch this presidential race unfold, with so much negativity and irresponsible rhetoric from the other side, I am grateful that my friend Hillary Clinton is maintaining her dignity, her warmth, and her compassion. It is those qualities that matter as much in a President as the qualifications and smarts that make her the best person for the job.
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August 17, 2016
April 30, 2019.
Voices4America Post Script. Hillary's friend and colleague Ellen Tauscher wrote the article above for Voices4Hillary in 2016. The media wasn't writing about @HillaryClinton the person, so we had to. Ellen died yesterday. It seems a good time to repost what she said, as a tribute both to the writer and the subject.
LOS ANGELES — Former California Rep. Ellen O'Kane Tauscher — a centrist Democrat whose career took her from the New York Stock Exchange to Congress and then to negotiating major international nuclear arms treaties for the Obama administration — died Monday [April 29] of complications from pneumonia at Stanford University Medical Center. She was 67. - from Politico.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/30/ellen-ta...
Hillary posted this about her friend on Twitter.
