Clinton Sec. of State Drama

The Never Ending Clinton Drama

by Mark Luedtke

Americans can't seem to escape the Clintons' public displays of dysfunction, and this time we have Barack Obama to thank for it. Within hours of last weekend's meeting between Obama and Hillary, the Clinton camp leaked that Obama had offered her the job of Sec. of State. Shortly thereafter, the supposedly tight-lipped Obama team expressed their anger at the Clinton team for leaking that information. If the Obama team, most of whom used to be on the Clinton team, is so disciplined, why did they leak their anger at the Clinton team's leak? The Clintons corrupt everything they touch, and just one meeting with Hillary dragged the Obama transition team into an incestuous family feud.

What was Obama thinking anyway?

It wasn't too many months ago that Hillary told reporters that during Bill's administration, he had sent her to Bosnia because it wasn't safe for him to go. She told reporters she had ducked sniper fire running across the tarmac from the plane to the airport. Reporters politely corrected her, reminded her there was no sniper fire and that her daughter Chelsea, Sinbad, and Sheryl Crow had been on the trip with her. Then they buried the story. Undeterred by the truth and emboldened by her accomplices in the press, Hillary Clinton repeated the lie the next day. It wasn't until Sinbad made an issue of her lie in his comedy routine that it became news. Hillary was eventually forced to compound the lie by pretending her memory was faulty. The press let her get away with that too.

And this is no isolated incident for Hillary Clinton. In 1996, billing records from her days in the Rose Law Firm that had been subpoenaed by investigators 2 years previously were discovered in Hillary's office. Under oath, Hillary claimed she forgot them.

But hiding files from authorities is a pattern for Hillary Clinton. In 1974, then Hillary Rodham worked for Jerry Zeifman on Richard Nixon's impeachment inquiry staff. During that inquiry, Zeifman directed Rodham to investigate the publicly accessible impeachment files of William Douglas, who was given legal counsel, and write a brief based on that investigation. Instead, Rodham hid the Douglas files from the public and wrote a brief that contradicted them, trying to keep Nixon from obtaining legal counsel during the proceeding. Before Zeifman fired her, she also gathered information that she never sent to Congress but which she subsequently published.

The Clinton corruption in Arkansas and in the White House that got 16 of their cronies sent to prison is well documented. As Henry Ruth, the lead courtroom prosecutor during Watergate, told the Wall Street Journal, “The Clintons corrupted the soul of the Democratic Party .” And now Obama has invited that corruption into his administration, and Hillary has reportedly accepted the position as Sec. of State. We can only hope those reports are premature.

But it's not surprising that Obama welcomes corruption in his administration. He's a product of the Chicago political machine – arguably the most corrupt political machine in the country. He's loaded his administration with Chicago machine insiders. As a state senator, Obama funneled hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to corrupt slum lords in Chicago including Tony Rezko, who helped Obama buy his home at a greatly reduced price in what has all the earmarks of a quid pro quo deal.

Much has been made of Bill Clinton's agreement to disclose information about his income and charitable activities, but it's all a smokescreen. We already know the Clintons have a huge conflict of interest. Bill Clinton makes multiple millions every year from foreign, mostly Middle Eastern, governments. No disclosure will change that. And when has Bill Clinton ever cared about ethics anyway? As soon as Hillary is confirmed, Bill will have Sandy Berger steal that agreement from the National Archives and shred it.

The Clintons have Obama over a barrel. Obama must have promised Hillary a sweetheart position to keep her from staging a floor fight at the Democrat convention. Hillary has 18 million supporters that Obama needs on his side, and he dangled the Sec. of State job to keep them in the fold. But the Clintons immediately stole the initiative by leaking the job offer to the press. The real reason the Obama team is upset with the leak is the Clintons outmaneuvered them and took control of the situation. You could see it on Obama's face in his 60 Minutes interview. If Obama doesn't give Hillary the job, he'll lose the support of her voters. If he fires her during the next 4 years, he'll lose the support of her voters.

On the plus side, Hillary is not the foreign policy wimp that Obama is, and she has no reason to toe Obama's line. She has her own constituency to answer to. But it's impossible that a woman who lies with near sociopathic zeal can be effective as Sec. of State. She's bound to get caught in her own web of self-promoting lies that will undermine US foreign policy. She can't help herself. And because Bill covets the spotlight and is still trying to invent a legacy, he will undermine her - and Obama's - efforts at every opportunity.

Obama made a deal with the devil, and the devil always gets his, and her, due. But in this case, all Americans will pay the price.