Clarion Content

This item was noted and sent in by one of our crack readers...who spotted this story from NPR.

Was the Clinton campaign really dumb enough to stiff the Iowa waitress who served Hillary?

Here's the summary of how they, NPR, originally had it going down...

Hillary ate at a Maid-Rite diner in central Iowa earlier this month. She used the campaign stop as fodder for her stump speech. Her server, Anita Esterday, Clinton repeated empathetically in the days and speeches that followed, told her about working multiple jobs to raise her family as a single mother. Clinton mentioned the woman over and again, drawing applause for her apparent feeling for the low wage earner in central Iowa.

But the waitress, it turned out, was not so touched. The Clinton team failed to leave a tip. Esterday told NPR's David Greene, "Maybe they don't carry money, I don't know."

Ahhh, but it there is a Paul Harvey moment here, an intriguing twist that quite possibly exonerates Hillary and her campaign, and indicts a baser human being. Here is the rest of the story.

Turns out, it was waitress, Anita Esterday's first day on the job. As some of the Clarion's readers might know from their own waiting experiences, often servers in training don't get to keep their tips, the trainer does. Well, well, NPR is now printing that the Clinton campaign isn't stupid, they emailed NPR that day, insisting they did indeed leave a tip, a fat tip. They say a $100 bill was left on the table where Esterday was serving Clinton. Esterday is reportedly shocked. She can't believe one of the other long time servers, some of whom she has known for her much of her life, would have pocketed the money and without saying anything.

Now it has become big news.

Maid-Rite's manager is quoted by NPR in the follow-up piece as saying that he believed three of the six servers working that day received tips from people he thought were working for or affiliated with the Clinton campaign. He thinks where Hillary was sitting no tip was left. He wasn't sure if the other tips were meant to be shared. A Clinton staffer returned after the story aired on NPR with another $20 for Anita and an apology.

The story of who did what that day will likely be debated in little Toledo, Iowa long after the campaigns leave town.

Labels: 2008's President, Politics, Pop Culture