Sen. Clinton came to the Trib anyway and, for 90 minutes, answered questions.

Her meeting and her remarks during it changed my mind about her.

Walking into our conference room, not knowing what to expect (or even, perhaps, expecting the worst), took courage and confidence. Not many politicians have political or personal courage today, so it was refreshing to see her exhibit both.

Sen. Clinton also exhibited an impressive command of many of today's most pressing domestic and international issues. . . .

I have a very different impression of Hillary Clinton today than before last Tuesday's meeting -- and it's a very favorable one indeed.

Over the past several decades Richard Mellon Scaife has been, almost certainly, one of the top funders of far-right organizations in America. The industrial fortune heir and owner of the Pittburgh Tribune Review provided the lion's share of the initial funding which created the Heritage Foundation and has given key finding to The American Spectator, the pro-war Neoconservative Foundation For The Defense Of Democracies, the Heartland Institute, the Institute On Religion and Democracy, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the Free Congress Foundation

As Bill Berkowitz, for Media Transparency, describes the role of the Scaife funded Heritage Foundation,

The creation of the influential Heritage Foundation was probably the single most important event in the development of a national network of conservative policy-oriented institutions. Heritage was founded in 1973 by the anti-labor, racist, homophobic brewery magnate Joseph Coors together with prominent right-wing activist Paul Weyrich and wealthy right-wingers Richard Scaife and Edward Noble. The initial funding came from Coors ($250,000), Scaife ($900,000), and "significant sums" from Noble. Large corporations, including Gulf Oil, also made early contributions. In the early 1980s, Heritage reported that "87 top corporations" were supporters. By 1995, it had an annual budget of $25 million.

In 1980, Heritage published a 3,000 page, 20-volume set of policy recommendations called "Mandate for Leadership" that proved to be the intellectual blueprint for the so-called "Reagan Revolution," including trickle-down economics, massive cutbacks in social programs and the Star Wars Defense Strategy, the gargantuan feeding trough for the military-industrial complex that even the Pentagon admitted was militarily useless.

More recently, the Heritage Foundation had substantial input into the writing of Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America."