Scots get Clinton library work

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — While Democratic presidential candidates complain that too many jobs are going overseas, the last Democrat to hold the office is having a Scottish firm build nearly $1 million worth of cabinets for his presidential library.

The foundation building the $160 million Bill Clinton Presidential Library says limited choices forced it to look overseas for the specialized museum cases.

Skip Rutherford, the foundation’s president, told the Associated Press yesterday that he and others involved in the project have “worked hard to make sure that Arkansans and then Americans received the work.”

Nonetheless, exhibit fabricators Maltbie Associates of Mount Laurel, N.J., subcontracted the manufacturing of 85 glass display cases to Netherfield Visuals of Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland. The contract was worth about $936,000.

Mr. Rutherford and library construction manager Jonathan Semans said they were not aware of any other foreign subcontractors, but they said they had not compiled a list and could not be sure.

They downplayed the significance of hiring a foreign-based company for what they called a small part of a project that employs 1,500 people. Mr. Rutherford said it was “a stretch” to suggest that hiring the Scottish firm contradicts promises by Mr. Clinton’s fellow Democrats to combat President Bush’s free-trade policies, which they say have allowed too many jobs to go overseas.

“I don’t think a subcontract on a major museum project is setting international trade policy,” Mr. Rutherford said.

But Lindsay Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said if Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina want to criticize Mr. Bush, they can’t ignore the Clinton library subcontract.

“Call me crazy, but something tells me [they] won’t be highlighting the Clinton library giving jobs to Scotland during their campaign speeches,” Miss Taylor said.