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TIME Politics Congress How Barb Mikulski Paved the Way for Hillary Clintons Pantsuits 12:08 PM ET Updated: 12:16 PM ET Paul MorigiGetty Images U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) make a few remarks at FORTUNE Most Powerful Women Dinner at U.S Department Of State's Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Room on April 30, 2012 in Washington, D.C. The retiring Maryland Democrat was one of the first women to wear pants in the Senate.

The legislative legacy of six-term Sen. Barb Mikulski, who announced Monday she would retire in 2016, is long. The longest-serving woman in Congress, the Maryland Democrat has had a hand in everything from health care to the budget, sponsored the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and helped bring female senators to work together.

But one of her signature achievements is also so mundane today that its hard to appreciate: Thanks to Mikulski and former Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, women can wear pants in the Senate.

Heres how it unfolded, according to a 2011 story from Capitol Hill publication Roll Call:

On weekends, men would often wear more casual togs, like khakis and blazers, yet still, women were expected to don skirts (and the requisite hosiery that go with them). The chambers two women at the time, Sens. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), finally devised a protest of sorts. They planned to wear trousers one weekend and told all the female staffers who might come to the floor to do the same.

No man said a word about it, and since then, pantsuits for women are as much a staple of Senate life (see Clinton, Hillary Rodham) as quorum calls and cloture votes.

Mikulski later told CNN that the pants-wearing was a seismographic event.

The Senate parliamentarian had looked at the rules to see if it was OK, she recalled. So, I walk on that day and you would have thought I was walking on the moon. It caused a big stir.

These days, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is able to joke about her sisterhood of the traveling pantsuit, its hard to appreciate the importance of Mikulskis rebellion. But as Clinton herself noted testily once, male politicians are rarely asked which fashion designers they wear.

Pantsuits are practical, theyre apolitical and they save time and mental energy. President Obama once told Vanity Fair that he only wears either blue or gray suits so that he can save his decision-making for weightier matters.

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How Barb Mikulski Paved the Way for Hillary Clintons Pantsuits

Washington Hillary Rodham Clinton is reportedly planning to announce her 2016 presidential race in April, not in July.

The report in The Wall Street Journal, citing close associates of Mrs. Clinton, represents a shift in direction. In late January, Team Clinton was putting out word that she may wait until July. After all, the argument went, shes the prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination, and the longer she stayed out as an announced candidate, the longer she could stave off the inevitable attacks. And raising money wouldnt be a problem, no matter when she announced.

Now that thinking is apparently changing. Fundraising is a concern after all, in a race where the two major-party candidates alone are expected to raise well over $1 billion each.

Jumping in sooner would help the Democratic field take shape, reassuring party leaders and donors that the former first lady, senator, and secretary of state is running, the Journal reports. A super PAC loyal to Mrs. Clinton has faced hesitation from donors who dont want to make big pledges until she is a candidate. Such concerns would evaporate after she announces.

Also at issue is her ability or willingness to respond to negative stories. News reports about the Clintons foundation taking donations from foreign governments have brought heaps of criticism onto the former first family, including from some prominent Democrats. So far, Clinton has not responded personally.

The Clinton Foundation acknowledged last week that it had failed to submit a donation from the Algerian government to the State Department for approval in accordance with the foundations ethics rules.

If Clinton wasnt planning to run for president, the donations would not create the appearance of foreign governments trying to curry favor with a secretary of State and possible future president. But as an all-but-certain candidate, Clinton faces just that problem.

Clintons unannounced status has also hardly spared her harsh criticism from the big field of likely Republican contenders. At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week, one candidate after another went after Clinton.

Businesswoman Carly Fiorina, the only woman in the likely GOP field, has positioned herself as the anti-Hillary.

"She tweets about womens rights in this country and takes money from governments that deny women the most basic human rights, Ms. Fiorina said at CPAC. "She tweets about equal pay for women but wont answer basic questions about her own offices pay standards and neither will our president. Hillary likes hashtags. But she doesnt know what leadership means."

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Why Hillary Clinton may jump into presidential race soon

NEW ORLEANS Jerry Crawford, Hillary Rodham Clintons once and future main man in Iowa, was in his element: sorting through a pile of illegible notes, one eye tracking the latest reports on a mini-TV and another on an iPad stuffed with data. Weve Obamaed it up a little, he said with a smirk.

Crawford scribbled what looked like hieroglyphics his wife sometimes calls him Rain Man on a sheet of paper. Then he adjusted his prescription Oakleys and picked up his phone. So, ready to run?

Moments later Crawfords contender emerged, looking like a champion: Eager eyes. Thick skin under a brown coat. Quite literally champing at the bit.*

Keen Ice, his 3-year-old colt.

Its true: One of the major players in the quadrennial political horse race is an actual racehorse owner, too.

Soon Crawford will apply his Rain Man skills yet again to Clinton and the Iowa caucus. But today was all about Keen Ice and his mercifully shorter gallop around the New Orleans Fairgrounds track. If Crawford fails to send one horse to the White House, he at least hopes to send another to the Kentucky Derby.

A lawyer with white hair mowed like a golf-course fairway, Crawford is something of a kingmaker back home in Des Moines. He has shepherded every Democratic presidential nominee in the most important caucus state going back to 1980 every nominee except for one, that is. Crawford, 65, still blames himself for Clintons 2008 third-place finish in the Hawkeye State, from which her campaign never really recovered. He vows that 2016 will be his year to make it right for her. Im trying to make amends, he said.

[In Iowa, its steaks and high stakes for Hillary Clinton]

The same year Clinton lost, Crawford bought eight horses and started a racing partnership. The thing about both politics and racing, Crawford told me, is that both of them are really about trying to see the future.

As it happens, the two horses he has already taken to the Kentucky Derby came in third as well. For a man as competitive as Crawford, the next couple of years will be all about changing that storyline.

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Jerry Crawford has two goals: Delivering Iowa for Hillary Clinton and winning the Kentucky Derby

Hillary Clinton definitely wants Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) liberal stamp of approval.

But how does Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who actually might run for the White House, figure in her thinking?

Sanders and Warren have both recently said that they aren't sure how Clinton fits in with the populist wing.

[Elizabeth Warrens answer on Hillary Clintons liberal credentials wasnt convincing at all]

Asked if she is going to "carry the water" of all the issues on income inequality that animate the left, Sanders offered this on a recent episode of Tavis Smiley's PBS show:

"I don't know what she is going to be campaigning on. I do know that we need candidates who will make it very clear that we cannot have government policy dominated by the top 1 percent for the 1 percent, that's wrong," he said. "If Hillary Clinton decides to run, [and] I decide to run we are going to have very good debates about the role of Wall Street in our society, about trade policy, about foreign policy and these are the kind of debates that need to take place."

He also said that people "can make a decision on how good or not good Hillary Clinton is."

So the gloves aren't exactly off, but they are starting to come off. Should Clinton make steps towards a run in the coming weeks, then the rhetoric from Warren and Sanders might get a bit more direct.

Sanders wouldn't be a match for Clinton on the campaign trail, but there is always room for someone to run a grassroots, free-media driven campaign-- the Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum campaigns come to mind.

[Fact Checker: Bernie Sanderss claim that 99 percent of new income is going to top 1 percent of Americans]

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The Fix: Bernie Sanders is still waiting on that meeting with Hillary Clinton

A handful of prominent Democrats not named Hillary Clinton are talking seriously about running for president.

None of them seem to want it badly enough that theyre willing to criticize Mrs. Clinton, distinguish themselves from her, explain why theyd be a better choice for the party nomination or, heck, even speak her name.

These prospective candidates may have practical reasons for going easy on Mrs. Clinton. Some might not be serious about running and would just as soon not damage the partys likely nominee.Others might be angling for a spot on Mrs. Clintons ticket.

Last week while in New Hampshire to give a speech, Vice President Joe Biden, who is also considering a presidential bid, was asked by a reporter what he thought offoreign governments giving substantial donations to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.The story had been in the national news over a week;other Democratshave said theyreuneasy with the foundations fundraising.

Mr. Biden has a heavy foreign-policy portfolio and might have an interesting perspective on whether these sorts of fundraising practices could compromise a presidential candidate. Hes alsothe nearest potential challenger for the Democratic nomination to Mrs. Clinton, according to most polls.

But he chose to say nothing.I dont know enough about it, he said.

Former Virginia Democratic senator Jim Webbset up a presidential exploratory committee four months ago.Has he offered any criticism of Mrs. Clinton yet?

Nope, saidWebbspokesman Craig Crawford.We dont know if Secretary Clinton will run or what shell run on.

Former Maryland Gov.Martin OMalleyseemed to take a swipeat Mrs. Clintonover the weekend while giving a speech in South Carolina,although he didnt mention her by name.The jab was so oblique and subtle that anyone who hasnt been obsessively thinking about national politics for the last quarter century would be forgiven if they missed it.

Triangulation is not a strategy that will move America forward, he said.

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2016: Democrats Refrain From Criticizing Hillary Clinton