Iowa Waitress Speaks Out: Clinton Didn't Leave Tip, Media has Misplaced Priorities

Iowa Waitress Speaks Out: Clinton Didn't Leave Tip, Media Has Misplaced Priorities

November 13, 2007 01:40 PM


For the past week, Anita Esterday's life has been turned upside down. A single mother of two, she found herself in the middle of a media circus when it was reported that Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign failed to leave her a tip after they were waited on at a Maid-Rite in Toledo, Iowa. In the ensuing frenzy, the Maid-Rite manager insisted that a tip was, in fact, left. But Esterday says the manager just told a fib to make the attention go away. And the press, she adds, needs to get a perspective on what actually matters. Esterday took time out of her day on Tuesday to answer questions from the Huffington Post.

Huffington Post: What is it like to be in the middle of a campaign-related media frenzy?
Esterday: It is nuts. Even going on the web for anything. There was a website in Cedar Rapids that said I had committed suicide. I understand that whoever wrote this meant it as a joke, but I have family in Cedar Rapids and I know people in Cedar Rapids and my mother committed suicide. So it wasn't a joke to me... It's taking it to an extreme and I guess in America now that's what people like and it's a shame that the media ran with this.

Does the press have misplaced priorities?
In this country, look at how many homeless people there are. There are millions. There are people just like me. I'm not the only parent who has had to raise two kids and barely makes $20,000 a year... This is supposed to be the United States of America, the strongest nation in the world, and we can't even provide places for our homeless. The media should be focusing on that.

Point taken. But could you set the record straight about the tip? Your manager says they left something but you contend it never happened.
If your phone is ringing from six in the morning till four in the afternoon and customers are saying what's wrong, the telephone lines are down, and it's because reporters are trying to get through, you say whatever you have to say . I don't know if they left a $100 tip or not but I haven't seen it yet. And none of the other waitresses have said they got the tip. .



-snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/13/iowa-waitress-speaks-out_n_72437.html

Seems she as a better perspective than many.

:eyes:

It's an excellent article on how innocent people can get wrapped up in a media driven political story.

I hope it all settles down for her soon, so her life can return to normal.

"If your phone is ringing from six in the morning till four in the afternoon and customers are saying what's wrong, the telephone lines are down, and it's because reporters are trying to get through, you say whatever you have to say ."

Most disturbing. I'd say, tell the truth and then hang up, not just "say whatever".

saying a tip had been given and distributed, I think.

I have thought from the git that that manager initially pocketed the hundred, because he has changed his story a number of times. But then, I have worked with some shady managers over the years, so I am predisposed to mistrust the breed.

I hope you're right, and that part of her comments wound up on the cutting room floor.

"In the ensuing frenzy, the Maid-Rite manager insisted that a tip was, in fact, left. But Esterday says the manager just told a fib to make the attention go away."

I thought that was pretty clear. Am I nuts? (don't answer) :)

The manager wasn't there when Clinton's party was. The next day he, according to Ms. Esterday, told a fib about a tip to get the reporters to stop calling.

If 1) he wasn't there and 2) he was fibbing about the tip, then there was no tip for him to pocket, as some Clinton supporters have claimed he must have done.

Ms. Esterday sounds like a reasonable person who'd like to be left alone and I hope the media gets over it.

It would be nice if the Clinton campaign coughed up a tip, though.

about worrying about the homeless and working poor, I think.

Her heart's in the right place.

much less that they're "born liars."

She's got guts and a good perspective.

:P

Fact Check: Bill Paid, Tip Left At Iowa Maid-Rite
11/8/2007 3:23:09 PM

Today, NPR reported that when Hillary and the campaign visited a Maid-Rite diner in Iowa, no one left a tip:

Clinton may have decided not to tip. She was also never given a bill — her meal was on the house.
Both of those claims are false. Here's the manager of Maid-Rite:

The manager of the of the restaurant tells First Read the Clinton campaign did, in fact, tip. "They paid their bill, and they left a tip," said Brad Crawford, manager of the Maid Rite restaurant in Toledo, Iowa. "Everybody was satisfied. No question about it."
The bill was about $157 and the tip was $100.

http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=4103

they'll lie about anything just to bring down the goddess of peace. have they no dignity?

k&r for the people who did indeed shit all over this woman. hillary did show how well she relates to the common person. :eyes:

Pass the barf bag.

Goddesses tip generously.

Non-Goddesses don't have a clue how the other half lives.

There are some folks here who actually are promoting hillary as a goddess of peace and it is really getting on my nerves. My apologies.

This would have been a nonissue had they just copped to it and remedied it.

Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations.