PrintFebruary 10, 2008
Clinton Amnesia
A form of collective amnesia, powered by media bent on forgetting inconvenient truths, continues to shield the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. Despite setbacks and surprising obstacles to the cause of the inevitable one, the Clinton Teflon retained its remarkable durability in the weeks prior to Super Tuesday. The campaign that shall not engage in the mean-spirited politics of personal destruction discovered that Barak Obama worked with a slumlord in Chicago. The Clinton's were shocked! Shocked! To discover that the "remarkable candidate" they always refer to in public, you know, the quasi-Muslim, cocaine snorting, uppity Barak Hussein Obama, may have had dealings with a shady character in his past!
But damning photos of the righteous pair smiling happily with Barak's criminal friend were unearthed, and so the whole episode was dismissed.
Lesson: The colossal Clinton gall is matched only by the sure hand with which they manipulate events masterfully, in the face of the knowing contempt of the news media, the Democratic Party and lastly, of course, the American people.
Try and recall the actual Clinton Administration that seems to have disappeared from the collective memory. Bill blessedly closed his sordid time in power with an appropriate and delightful flourish, pardoning one hundred and forty convicted felons at the last hour while Hillary and her minions stole White House furnishings and property. They were, and are, beyond parody.
Yet today, with everything that has come to pass they are still frighteningly close to a second act. How can this be? Is it all the fault of a complicit and corrupt news media aligned to a left-wing agenda unconcerned by the means to power? Mostly. But not all.
A little history: In early 2001, focused on a new administration and amidst the turmoil of Florida chads still unsettling the political waters, Washingtonians and the political elite of both parties were understandably content to let the past malfeasance of Clinton and company go unpunished (and largely unexamined.) Remember also that there were FBI files, known to have been perused by who-knew-what Clinton operatives, and the considered opinion of the conscience-challenged was to live and let live.
And so the most corrupt administration in history fell into a vague pre-9/11 memory hole of carefree times and a booming tech bubble. Little wonder the sins of Bubba look amusing when viewed through the prism of Bin Laden, Al Queda and five years of war.
Bill was allowed to move on to give his expensive speeches and write his fictitious memoirs in tony Chappaqua, far from his white trash origins. Here, he imagined, a Nixon-like rehabilitation could occur. Meanwhile, his wife moved in on Patrick Moynihan's turf and wrested a secure Senate seat in liberal New York. (I find it charming that Hillary chose the home of Boss Tweed Tammany Hall as the destination of her carpet bag.)
With the coming of the new media, the 24-hour news cycle, and ubiquitous cable news operations, ample time and resources are now available to seriously consider the history and meaning of the recent past. Hillary's History is available for review.
Here is a list of the most popular Golden Oldies:
- Whitewater,
- Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan,
- Rose Law Firm,
- 1000% profit Cattle Futures,
- Castle Grande,
- The McDougals,
- Web Hubbell,
- Tyson Foods,
- Lippo Group,
- Vince Foster,
- Travel Office firings,
- David Hale,
- Paula Jones,
- Jim Guy Tucker,
- Chinagate,
- James Riady,
- Mike Espy,
- Billy Dale,
- Monica Lewinsky,
- John Huang,
- Ron Brown,
- Gore Buddhist fund-raising,
- "No controlling legal authority",
- FBI filegate,
- Hillary's missing subpoenaed Rose Law firm files reappear in White House,
- Janet Reno,
- Charlie Trie,
- Bruce Babbitt,
- Maria Hsia,
- Kathleen Willey,
- Sidney Blumenthal,
- Vernon Jordan,
- Juanita Broderick,
- Pardongate,
- Marc Rich.
Each scandal attached to each of the above names and events is both serious and abounding with investigative possibilities. And so many remain unresolved. Surely a rich harvest awaits the intrepid journalist investigator, but major news media will never take on the Clinton record. The treatment of Sandy Berger's theft of classified pre-9/11 documents is only the most recent and egregious example of a media scandal written in water.
Former associates and supporters of the Clintons that prefer Obama are catching on to the media double standard with chagrin. Poor Bill Bradley, the former New Jersey Senator and Democrat presidential candidate, has been reduced to begging ineffectually on MSNBC for the list of donors to the Clinton Library to be released. He is metaphorically talking to a wall. For the pugnacious and relentless foes of Scooter Libby, the Clinton Administration scandals simply did not happen.
The fact that this couple is being seriously considered for another run is as damning a fact as any moral, economic or political evidence of our decline as a nation. For, more than the usual apathy and healthy cynicism directed towards the political system, it betrays an immaturity and irresponsibility that questions the wisdom of universal suffrage.
