Quote Originally Posted by April15 View Post
Maybe the seat was too hard or the tabasco used by the next table ruined her meal or it could be she just didn't like the service. These are all reasons I have stiffed waiters/waitresses.
Now the Clinton war room is full damage control. I love the excuse they are giving


ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Rule number one when campaigning at a diner: always leave a good tip -- and, apparently, make sure it gets properly 'disbursed'.

In early October, Sen. Hillary Clinton's 'Middle Class Express' made a pit stop at the Maid Rite diner in Marshalltown, Iowa.

The New York senator, joined by local political luminaries Christie Vilsack and Ruth Harkin, enjoyed a famous loose meat sandwich and attempted to hand caucus cards to the Iowans inside.

Clinton also spoke to one of the diner's waitresses, Anita Esterday. It was her first day on the job and she and Clinton shared a short exchange. Esterday, who has three jobs and works 12 hour shifts, said to Clinton "both of my sons have worked since they were 14 years old"; Clinton told her, "I'm proud of you."

But, according to Esterday, that's where Clinton's gratitude ended as the campaign crew left with nary a gratuity for any of the hard working Maid-Riters.

"I mean, nobody got left a tip that day," Esterday said in an interview with NPR after a visit by Senator Clinton.

UPDATE: The Clinton campaign contacted ABC News to assert that they did, contrary to Esterday's claim to NPR, pay $157 for food at Maid-Rite and left a $100 tip to be split among the staff.

Sensing the story was reaching the tipping point, ABC News' Eloise Harper contacted Brad Crawford, manager of Maid-Rite caught in the political mixer, who said the senator's staff did pay a tip but "it might have not been disbursed properly."

The NPR report claimed the meal was on the house. And even the Emily Post Institute doesn't have anything to say on the etiquette of presidential campaign tipping. (Post does, however, have something so say about the National Anthem -- a sore subject in the Obama camp these days).

"I don't think she understood at all what I was saying," Esterday continued to tell NPR. "Afterwards it was like do you guys live in the real world, maybe they don't carry money, I don't know."

Esterday's assertion may be a bipartisan one: earlier this year, former Governor Mitt Romney, R-Mass., who holds a fortune estimated between $190-$250 million found himself sans wallet and without the means to pay for his vanilla steamer at a campaign stop in DeWitt, Iowa.

But an allegedly tip-less visit wasn't Esterday's only complaint.

"As for all of this attention on me, it hasn't helped my life, its made my life worse," added the Maid-Rite waitress.

Esterday's picture with the Senator also landed in a local newspaper. Her employer at the nursing home is not a Clinton fan and, since the photo appeared, the waitress claims her shifts have been reduced; she suspects the picture in the paper was the reason.

Despite everything, Esterday did take Clinton's pitch to heart: she's still deciding whether to support Clinton or Obama.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalra...n-stiffs-.html