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Hillary appeal features Laura Bush

BY GLENN THRUSH | WASHINGTON BUREAU

February 23, 2006

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is enlisting an unusual fundraising partner: Laura Bush.

The current first lady is a prominent part of a Friends of Hillary pitch letter sent to supporters yesterday by former Bill Clinton adviser and cable-show chatterbox Paul Begala.

The missive, distributed to people who sign up for Clinton's campaign e-mails, includes an increasingly popular cash-grabbing ploy for candidates: a request that donors sign up for a monthly contribution of up to $250 to be deducted from their credit cards.

"Laura Bush says Hillary is 'out of bounds'; and now her latest opponent makes outrageous charges that she 'aids and abets our enemies' - this is just the beginning of their campaign," writes Begala ominously.

"We must be prepared to counter," he adds, near a link for the monthly payment plan.

A spokeswoman for Bush didn't return calls for comment.

Clinton's allies have attempted to invoke the ghosts of past anti-Hillary crusades, even though a recent nationwide anti-Hillary fundraising effort by Richard Nixon's son-in-law and onetime GOP Senate hopeful Ed Cox barely made a cent - even though Cox enlisted Karl Rove's former direct mail company.

Republican Senate frontrunner John Spencer has raised a little more than $1 million, compared to Clinton's $17.1 million.