Clinton to visit Philadelphia for Friday fundraiser

Clinton will appear with Phila. Mayor Ed Rendell to aid the Democratic National Committee. Start saving your lunch money -- President Clinton is coming to town. For $10,000, you and a friend can join Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell and the embattled president for dinner at City Hall Friday night. Rendell hopes the event will raise up to $500,000 for the Democratic National Committee. The fundraiser comes at a time when Clinton is under attack from all sides -- media, political pundits, even prominent members of his own party -- for his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his subsequent attempts to cover-it up. But Rendell, who says the president's actions are nothing "any of us would commend," has nonetheless stood by his long-time political ally and friend. The mayor has repeatedly reminded the media that a disjoint exists between their calls for the president to resign and public-opinion polls that continue to show strong support for the president. And in a city as staunchly Democratic as Philadelphia -- 77 percent of the Philadelphians who voted in the 1996 presidential election cast ballots for Clinton -- the political risk may be minimal for the mayor. Furthermore, Philadelphia is a finalist to host the Democratic National Convention in 2000. The city's chances stand to be improved by a strong demonstration of support for a president in need of friends. But perhaps most importantly, Rendell and Philadelphia have benefited tremendously from close ties with the Clinton administration. "[Clinton] has been good to us as a city," Rendell said recently in announcing the visit. "He's been good to me as a political leader." The numbers certainly bear Rendell out: A $25 million federal grant to rebuild South Philadelphia's notorious Martin Luther King housing project is the most recent example. A year ago, when Philadelphia's Naval Shipyard seemed certain to close, taking thousands of jobs with it, the administration pumped in $80 million in aid. The funding allowed Philadelphia to bring a Norwegian shipbuilding company, Kvaerner, to town. The move saved at least some of the shipyard's jobs. Another $100 million accrued to the city's coffers when the Clinton administration labeled Philadelphia and neighboring Camden, N.J., a federal empowerment zone in 1994.