When Hillary Clinton was first elected to the Senate in 2000, she set a record: No senator had ever been elected with as much money in contributions from the finance sector as she had — $2.98 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Her $1.18 million from the "securities and investment" industry within finance was the second-highest a successful Senate candidate had ever raised — just behind Democrat Chuck Schumer who was elected two years before. Citigroup was her No. 1 source of money in the 2000 election. Goldman Sachs was No. 3.

Clinton's opponent Rick Lazio raised even more from Wall Street, but it's still a stretch for her to imply that Wall Street only got cozy with her after 9/11, as she implied during Saturday night's debate.

Wall Street was also funnelling money into Sen. Clinton's family before 9/11, as David Sirota and Andrew Perez report at the International Business Times:

In the months between Clinton's election and the 9/11 attacks, her family benefited from big speaking fees from major Wall Street banks. According to federal disclosure forms, Bill Clinton was paid $125,000 by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in February 2001 — just weeks after leaving the White House — and was paid another $125,000 by Credit Suisse First Boston later that same month.

Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner's senior political columnist, can be contacted at tcarney@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.