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Schedules show Clinton plunged into health care quickly

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  • NEW: Sen. Hillary Clinton scheduled health care meeting just days after inauguration
  • NEW: Conservative group says records show Clinton was "co-president"
  • Archives releases Clinton's schedule when she was first lady
  • More than 11,000 documents are being released covering nearly 2,900 days
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton got to work on health care reform within days of her arrival at the White House as first lady in 1993, newly released documents show.

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The National Archives on Wednesday released 11,000 pages of Hillary Clinton's schedule as first lady.

Her first meeting on the subject came on January 23, 1993, only three days after her husband Bill Clinton's inauguration as president, and dozens of related events followed.

Despite her efforts, the Clinton health care reform foundered in Congress.

The National Archives on Wednesday released more than 11,000 pages of Sen. Hillary Clinton's schedule when she was first lady.

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign pushed for the documents' release, arguing that their review is necessary to make a full evaluation of Clinton's experience as first lady.

The documents cover nearly 2,900 days. An additional 27 days will be posted in the near future, the archives said.

The documents are among those at the center of a legal battle between the archives and Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group that has long urged a speedier release of files from the Clinton White House years.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the trove of documents "shows she was a co-president," revealing an "extraordinary extent of meetings for an unelected official to be meeting with cabinet officials."

In a court motion this month, the archives promised to release the schedules by the end of the month but said it will need "one to two years" to process remaining documents, including more than 20,000 pages of call logs -- well after the November 4 presidential election.

According to the archives statement, 4,746 of the schedules have redactions, information removed before being released, that largely relate to privacy concerns including Social Security and telephone numbers and home addresses.

"We'll look them over, and may ask the court for relief if it looks like something important is missing," Fitton said of the redacted information. He said Judicial Watch continues to demand phone logs from Clinton's time in the White House.

The papers show Hillary Clinton had no public schedule on the day independent counsel Kenneth Starr was appointed to investigate Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, or on the day Bill Clinton was deposed in the case.

On the day the affair began, Hillary Clinton had a private meeting and a meet-and-greet with then-Vice-President Al Gore and Nobel Prize winners. She kept up a busy schedule as the affair spiraled into impeachment.

Some events on the schedule might prompt a chuckle, such as a note on the day when the House of Representatives voted to impeach Clinton over the Lewinsky affair that a holiday party dance between the president and first lady was "optional."

The documents are from the files of Patti Solis Doyle, director of Clinton's scheduling as first lady, the archives said in a statement.

Doyle stepped down as Clinton's presidential campaign manager in February after a string of poor showings in primaries.

"Arranged chronologically, these records document in detail the activities of the first lady, including meetings, trips, speaking engagements and social activities for the eight years of the Clinton administration," the archives said.

The records were simultaneously released on CD-ROM at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, and at the archives in Washington.

The documents will be available for view on the Clinton Library's Web site. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

CNN's Alexander Mooney and Robert Yoon contributed to this report.

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