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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Colleagues applaud Clinton’s Senate return


Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., waves as she returns to Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
 (AP / The Spokesman-Review)
Devlin Barrett Associated Press

WASHINGTON – She came, she saw, she hugged.

Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to Congress Tuesday for the first time since suspending her presidential campaign, to a loud round of applause and hugs from Democrats as they try to repair the rifts left by a long, bruising presidential primary.

The New York senator’s return had been much anticipated since Barack Obama won the delegates he needed to secure the party’s nomination earlier this month.

Cheerful if not triumphant, she walked up the Capitol steps amid a crowd of supporters.

“Glad to be here, my friends, glad to be here,” she said as she entered the building, adding later: “We have a lot ahead of us and I am rolling up my sleeves and getting back to work.”

She was immediately surrounded and hugged by three of her closest supporters: Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

Mikulski, who minutes earlier had been impatiently tapping her watch and peering out the door as she waited for Clinton, declared: “We need you! We need your vote!”

Schumer, a major party fundraiser, immediately answered, “We need more than your vote!”

The group then entered the weekly lunch for Democratic senators, where the applause and clinking of silverware carried into the hallway where reporters had gathered.

Inside, Clinton gave a short speech saying she was glad to be back and planned to do everything she could to help Obama win the White House and Democrats win races across the country.

“It was the kind of pumped up talk that you would expect,” said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., with Clinton telling them “we should all join forces.”

She emerged from the meeting about an hour later with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Schumer.

Reid called it “one of the most emotional caucuses that I’ve attended.”