On Aug. 21, The Times scolded Mrs. Clinton for ignoring Mr. Tasini, an eye-opening editorial that came just a few days after the New York Post weighed in in favor of a position-clarifying debate between the two.
Like Mr. Tasini, the two ideologically divergent editorial boards professed to have grown frustrated with Mrs. Clinton’s parsimoniously articulated explanations of her position on Iraq, and with her reluctance to allow her views to be challenged in a public debate.
And in Mr. Tasini, an anti-war candidate short on cash, charm and mass appeal, they have found a willing and eager instrument to pry some answers out of the often inscrutable and ever more untouchable Mrs. Clinton.
For the candidate himself, their motive—to use him to get Mrs. Clinton to answer their questions—is immaterial. He is, he says, only too happy to be used.
http://www.observer.com/20060828/20060828_Jason_Horowitz_pageone_newsstory1.asp