Clinton returns to Senate, eases back to work

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By S.A. Miller

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - three weeks after the loss of the Democratic presidential nomination that once seemed hers for the taking - eased slowly back into the workaday world of the U.S. Senate Tuesday, much like most Americans do after a long absence from the job.

She skipped the morning business of voting on a housing bill, but arrived in time for lunch with her Democratic colleagues.

"We have a lot ahead of us, and I am rolling up my sleeves and getting back to work," Mrs. Clinton of New York said as she strolled into the weekly Democratic luncheon.

But the race wasn't completely in the past. Her former rival and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama on Tuesday asked his top donors on the national finance committee to help Mrs. Clinton retire about $10 million of her campaign debt to unpaid vendors.

Sen. Obama made the request - first reported by ABC News - in a conference call with his fundraisers.

Some Democrats were irritated the request took so long after Mrs. Clinton endorsed her rival because he has a massive donor network and he recently has penned fundraising notes for the party's congressional committees.

Mrs. Clinton's support of Mr. Obama continued Tuesday on the Hill. She reportedly gave a brief speech at the closed-door luncheon, in which she vowed to go all out to get Mr. Obama of Illinois elected president.

Democrats gave Mrs. Clinton a pass on the late start and the missed procedural vote on a $300 billion mortgage aid package, which advanced toward final passage with an 83-9 vote.

Mrs. Clinton was among eight senators who did not vote, but one of just three Democrats to miss the vote. Mr. Obama and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, were the other two.

Fellow New York Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer described Mrs. Clinton as being "back and raring to go."