This is an interesting little scuffle.

On the campaign trail today, Hillary repeated a tale she often tells on the stump: It concerns an American company in Indiana that laid off all its workers after it was sold to the Chinese government.

Listen to Hillary tell the story...

The kicker of the tale, as told here by Hillary, is that President Bush could have stopped the move, but he didn't. "The President has the authority to veto that kind of a move," Hillary said today.

Today, however, McClatchy reported that the sale was approved by the Clinton administration. McClatchy quoted several Indiana residents griping about the Clinton administration's role in letting these jobs get away. It's the sort of tale that could have resonance among struggling working class voters in the state.

But the Hillary campaign responds that the sale was approved by the Clinton administration "on the condition that the production and the technology to produce neo-magnets would stay in the U.S."

The Hillary camp also argues that the investors behind the deal backed out of that promise in 2003, after Bill left office, and that President Bush didn't enforce the deal -- their point being that while it's true that the Clinton administration approved the deal, it's not responsible for the job loss that ensued.

Late Update: Jake Tapper has a nuanced look at this whole affair, including this:

A memo prepared for Bayh by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service earlier this year stated that the Clinton administration could have objected to the sale under CFIUS, but it did not, and that the consortium promised to keep those Anderson, Ind., jobs in the U.S. only until 2005.