Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has taken a few lumps for her flattering endorsement of (and donation to) California GOP Enemy No. 1 Barbara Boxer during her 2004 re-election bid.
But go back a couple more years, and it was Boxer heaping her own measure of praise upon the former eBay CEO.
In a 2002 Senate subcommittee hearing about women in the science and technology fields, Boxer singled out Whitman as a shining example of a female executive excelling at the helm of a technology company:
"There are some notable women who are proving that once given the opportunity, women can lead, and I want to just talk about one of them, Meg Whitman, listed the second most powerful woman in business," Boxer said.
"She is at eBay, and Fortune Magazine did a story on her. They said, 'Whitman, who at times took heat for not managing aggressively enough’ – in parentheses I say, "good girl, Meg" – 'she never overpromised investors. Instead, she has diligently delivered above-target profits every single quarter.'
"So here is a woman who stepped out and did it in a little bit of a different way, and is doing well."
She's also doing well in the polls, recently showing a healthy lead over fellow Republican candidates Steve Poizner and Tom Campbell. But who knows? Only in politics can a years-old compliment from a long-time U.S. senator come back to bite you.
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