News and Opinion about Bill and Hillary Clinton

Of course Hillary isn't a name that's new or unfamiliar to anyone, since she has already served two terms as co-president.  But now her goal is to the the President of the United States, officially and without taking a back seat to anyone.  With that in mind, it's time to read more about her.

Nobody expects that if Hillary Clinton is elected as President, Bill Clinton will sit in the car and wait for her to get finished with it.  They will serve again as co-presidents.  The people who denigrated the Bush father-and-son team in the White House as a "dynasty" are keeping silent about the Clinton husband-and-wife team.

The Clintons come as a two-for-one package deal.  When one is president, the other is co-president.  Hillary's campaign should be seen for what it is:  an attempted end-run around the Constitution to allow Bill Clinton to serve an illegal third term.

It's hard to imagine a hard-core leftist like Hillary ("It Takes a Village") Clinton becoming the President of the U.S., but with the help of the news media — the news media that only reluctantly reports about the Clintons' many scandals — it is within the range of possibility.

For a while, it appeared that Hillary's biggest obstacle was going to be the Norman Hsu scandal.  But that issue has quickly disappeared from the headlines.  More recently, the Clintons reluctantly released their tax returns, which paint a picture of just another ultra-rich limousine liberal who pretends to be the champion of the little guy.

Note:  This page has been restructured and is now split into five major subcategories, but instead of putting them all on separate pages, I have left all the material on this page.

Also please note that I don't intend this to be an ad hominem attack on Mrs. Clinton, necessarily — I would like to say that it is her platform that I oppose.  At the same time, it is appropriate to call attention to her inability to give a straight, honest answer to even the simplest question.  That's called chicanery.  Very simply, it means that she can't be trusted.

Here are the subsections:
Hillary is doing her best to hide her baggage.
    Suppression of old Clinton scandals.
    The Clinton Library, also known as Little Rock's Fort Knox.
    Hillary's college thesis.
Hillary "It Takes a Village" Clinton is a left-wing Socialist... or worse.
    HillaryCare:  Socialized medicine with a very thin candy coating.
    The Baby Bond:  Hillary attempts to buy votes with other people's money.
    Hillary's leftists friends include the labor unions, homosexuals, AARP, NAACP, La Raza, and Hollywood.
Hillary is in the middle of one or more fundraising scandals which are being kept quiet by the mainstream press.
    Norman Hsu is one of the central figures.
Hillary appears to be a ruthless control freak.
    Hillary's scripted campaign events use pre-arranged shills and audience plants.
    Looking forward to 2012?
Bill and Hillary work as a team:  when you vote for one, you get the other.
Hillary can succeed only with the help of the very sympathetic "mainstream" news media.
    CNN's obvious bias in favor of Mrs. Clinton.
Other evidence of poor judgment and other disqualifications.
    The "Sniper fire in Bosnia" story.
    More examples of dishonesty and prevarication.



Section 1
Hillary Clinton revises history when it doesn't suit her needs.  She and her team focus on suppression of the many old Clinton scandals, major and minor.  For example, she tried not to let anybody read her pro-communist college thesis.  Her whole campaign relies on a steady supply of hypocrisy, dishonesty, chicanery, secrecy, paranoia, flip-flops, and non-committal disingenuousness we haven't seen since... Bill Clinton's presidency!

What is Hillary Hiding?  Hillary has spent her time in the Senate, and her presidential campaign, striving to revamp her image and soften highly negative public perceptions.  Instead of the cold and calculating politician she casts herself as the friendly but tough candidate; instead, of the schemer looking out for number one, she is the leader looking out for the little guy.

Getting Mrs. Clinton:  I think we've reached a signal point in the campaign.  This is the point where, with Hillary Clinton, either you get it or you don't.  There's no dodging now.  You either understand the problem with her candidacy, or you don't.  You either understand who she is, or not.  And if you don't, after 16 years of watching Clintonian dramas, you probably never will.

What will a Hillary Clinton presidency look like?  The answer by now seems obvious:  It will look like her presidential campaign, which in turn looks increasingly like the first Clinton presidency.  Which is to say, high-minded ideals, lowered execution, half truths, outright lies (and imaginary flights), take-no prisoners politics, some very good policy ideas, a presidential spouse given to wallowing in anger and self-pity, and a succession of aides and surrogates pushed under the bus when things don't go right.  Which is to say, often.

'Annie Oakley' changes her tune.  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who has cast herself in the past few days as a champion of gun owners, had a very different message when she spoke eight years ago to the Newspaper Association of America.  "CLINTON TAKES AIM AT GUNS," said the all-caps headline on the group's Web site after she told members in May 2000, during her Senate campaign, that "there isn't a more important task" than passing gun-safety laws.

Hillary Clinton and Saudi Funny Money:  Conflict of Interest?  There's been a lot of talk, going back to the presidency of Bush 41, of the Bush family's ties to Saudi Arabia.  That's all well and good, but in this day and age there are other presidents — and those with presidential aspirations — whose ties to Saudi Arabia deserve a second look.  Bill and Hillary Clinton, one a former president, one a presidential wannabe, seem to be on very good terms with the Saudis.

Hillary Clinton's Massive Conflict Of Interest:  The fact is that Hillary Clinton is totally unable to be objective on this key question of our national financial sovereignty because she and her husband have been so compromised by their financial dealings with the very countries at issue in the decision.  Should the Saudi monarchy be permitted to purchase an important equity position in some of America's leading banks?  How can Hillary be objective when the very same monarchy donated $10 million to the Clinton Library and Foundation?

A Clinton Goldmine.  New York Times sources say that if Sen. Hillary Clinton loses the Democratic nomination or a general election for President, it will largely be due to the efforts of their investigative and political reporter Jo Becker, who yesterday reported on the ties between former President Bill Clinton and Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra, who has committed almost a quarter billion dollars to Clinton's foundation, largely after Clinton appeared to pave the way for Giustra's company to get a sweet uranium mining deal in Kazakhstan.

Mr. Clinton and the Tycoon:  Frank Giustra is a Canadian mining tycoon who has given generously — more than $130 million — to support the charitable enterprises of former president Bill Clinton.  Mr. Giustra's good works alongside Mr. Clinton may also have been good business.

Bill's Mystery Millions:  Another day, another reason for Democratic primary voters to demand complete financial transparency from Bill and Hillary Clinton.  And, it seems, another reason for the Clintons to shudder at the prospect.

Hillary Fibs in Iowa About Ethanol — She Voted Against It.  During her first visit as a presidential candidate to early-caucus state Iowa, Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke out strongly in favor of boosting the production of ethanol in the United States.  But that's a complete turnaround from her earlier actions regarding the alternative fuel, which is made from corn — and could provide a big boost to the economy of agricultural Iowa. … As a Senator from New York, Clinton has voted at least 17 times against measures promoting ethanol production, the RNC noted.

Ethanol is one of those supposedly good ideas that may not be good after all.

Hillary's First Broken Campaign Promise:  Just two weeks after inviting the American public to "chat" about her bottomless powerlust, Hillary Clinton has already broken her first campaign promise.  At the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting last Friday [2/2/2007], Hillary Clinton made her newest, most left-wing statement on Iraq.  Goaded on by — and trying to drown out — protestors from Code Pink and Iraq Veterans Against the War, Hillary pledged:  "If we in Congress don't end this war before January 2009, as president, I will."  And thus she continued the grand tradition of Clintons lying to the public.

Chicanery and triangulation

Clinton disclosures didn't list $24 million of Bill's income.  Sen. Hillary Clinton excluded nearly $24 million of her husband's earnings from Senate financial statements from 2004 through 2006, capitalizing on rules that permit senators to limit disclosures of some of their spouses' income. … [By the time the information was released], about 40 states had completed their Democratic primaries and caucuses, meaning that those voters didn't get a clear look at Bill Clinton's finances.

The amorphous world of Hillary Clinton:  What she personally believes seems to depend largely on the audience. … That's both the beauty and the problem of Hillary Clinton.  She's whatever she needs to be to advance the only agenda to which she is unwaveringly loyal:  the power of Hillary Clinton.

The night Hillary's funny bone went missing.  You learn a lot about people not just by what they say, but by what they don't say.  Or by what they don't do, where they don't show up.  With a Clinton, no move is accidental.  And she is, of course, considered the most likely Democratic candidate for president in 2008.  Could she win?

Many faces of Hillary – none a winner.  There's something oddly satisfying in the possibility that Clinton being herself is politically disastrous.  And, if she's really just playing one more role according to some classically Clintonian political triangulation, there's something equally satisfying to the prospect that even her fans aren't falling for it anymore.

Obama Joins Right-Wing Attack Machine.  [Scroll down] The hit against Hillary as a triangulator wouldn't have as much punch if her husband hadn't lived off poll-driven, situational politics for eight years.  In a general election, a key point of thematic contention will be whether a Hillary presidency will represent change or — as Republicans will argue — an unwelcome return to the 1990s.

The Clintons' 'politics of personal destruction'.  It may seem unfair to single out [Sen. Hillary] Clinton in this matter when the bunker in which she took shelter was crowded with her fellow quivering candidates.  But Clinton is the front-runner, quite possibly the next president of the United States, and so it is reasonable to focus on her and wonder if, as some allege, she indeed does have a spine.  In this instance, it was nowhere to be found.

Hillary Clinton's memory loss:  Hillary Clinton once again asserted during the latest presidential debate that "the American people know where I've stood for 35 years."  Yet, she repeatedly refuses to tell us where she stands on Social Security reform.  And when she does, Mrs. Clinton misrepresents the condition of Social Security when she and her husband left the White House.

Those 27 Words.  What Hillary Clinton was trying to say, it seems, was anything to avoid suggesting that she had made a mistake in voting for the 2002 joint resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.  Admitting error regarding Iraq has become the litmus test for Democratic candidates.

Anti-war rowdies torment Hillary.  Stopping just a fraction of an inch short of saying it outright, [Hillary Clinton] calculatedly implies that she was duped by the Bush administration into supporting the removal of the Saddam regime by military force.  But if the Bush administration duped her into over-rating Saddam as a threat, then she is left to answer this question:  Who duped her spouse — President Bill Clinton — and his top aides into likewise over-rating the Saddam threat?

At Wal-Mart, Clinton didn't upset any carts.  At a Democratic presidential debate last month, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton described Wal-Mart, the world's largest retail company, as a "mixed blessing."  She spoke from experience.  From 1986 to 1992, Clinton was a member of its board of directors, carefully navigating through a spate of internal policy concerns that now weigh on Wal-Mart's corporate image.

Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions.  In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world's largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.

As a Director, Clinton Moved Wal-Mart Board, but Only to a Point.  Mrs. Clinton's six-year tenure as a director of Wal-Mart, the nation's largest company, remains a little known chapter in her closely scrutinized career.  And it is little known for a reason.  Mrs. Clinton rarely, if ever, discusses it, leaving her board membership out of her speeches and off her campaign Web site.

Clintons Mum on Tsunami Donation.  Multimillionaire political couple Bill and Hillary Clinton pledged on Friday [12/31/2004] to make a generous personal donation to relief efforts in the wake of the Christmas tsunami disaster.  But the ex-prez and his senator wife won't say exactly how generous they intend to be.

Bill And Hil:  Up To Their Old Tricks.  Both Clintons … have refused to disclose the names of donors to the William J. Clinton Foundation.  Bill says he will remain mum about all past donors, though he didn't say that in so many words.  As usual, you have to closely parse his words.  Speaking of Hillary, he said, "If she gets elected president, I will disclose the contributions that people make from there going forward."  Catch that?  He will let the public know about any donations going forward — that is, after January 2009 — but not one donation before then.

Liberals slam Hillary over dodge tactics.  In pointed political broadsides from some of the major liberal-leaning publications — including the New York Times and The Washington Post — the New York senator has been the target of surprisingly sharp criticism about her refusal to answer policy questions, investigative reporting about her husband's business dealings and unsavory fundraisers, and even assertions that her candidacy was solely beholden to her husband's political influence.

Slick Hillary:  Without her husband's gift for triangulation and obfuscation, Hillary Clinton has forgotten that if you're going to take both sides of an issue, don't do it in the same room before the same audience.

Clinton Not Ready to Release Tax Returns.  Resisting calls from Barack Obama to release her income tax returns, Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday she would only do so if she secures the Democratic presidential nomination and contended her rival had been less than candid about his relationship with major campaign contributors.

What are the Clintons Hiding?  [Scroll down]  When will Hillary Clinton finally release her tax returns?  This isn't such a stretch:  Bill and Hillary's finances are co-mingled, and the senator recently loaned her sinking campaign $5 million.  Indeed, the loan was made at about the same time that Bill Clinton ended a business relationship with another longtime benefactor that allowed him to reap a $20 million bonanza.  On top of the $50 million he's earned for himself and the hundreds of millions he's picked up for his global charities — not to mention his presidential library.  Yet he refuses to identify most of the sources of all this cash.  What's the big mystery?

Clinton Won't Release Taxes Soon.  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says she won't release her tax returns until she has the Democratic presidential nomination in hand, and not before tax filing time comes in mid-April.  Clinton argued for openness Tuesday night [2/26/2008] during her latest debate with Democratic rival Barack Obama.

Why Clinton Stands to Lose Millions:  Thanks to a little-known provision in 2002's McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill, a campaign must repay the loan to a candidate before Election Day.  In this case, that's the nominating convention.  After the election has passed, a bankrupt campaign is limited to gathering just $250,000 from contributors, which means that modest sum is all it can give back to a candidate.  In short, Clinton stands to lose $11,150,000.

Poor Hillary.  The Clintons raked in more than $100 million in personal income since leaving the White House in 2001.  The idea that they would have any trouble paying back their campaign debts or compensating themselves (regardless of what the campaign laws say) for their own money spent on the campaign is laughable.

The $20 Million Blues:  [Scroll down] Clinton, however, might stay in the race in part because of financial reasons.  A little more than $11 million has come from her own pocket, and if she can't raise that by the summer convention, she'll be out the money for good. … If Clinton quits before the convention, she'll have to talk donors into giving her money to retire the debt.

The Editor says...
Maybe she can wring some more money out of the Chinese dishwashers. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Hillary's Debt-ly Sins.  Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is $20 million in debt — and vendors, consultants and aides in her home state are among those getting stiffed, new campaign-finance records show.  The debt includes the $11 million that Clinton herself lent the campaign.

Fact Check:  Clinton and jobs promised.  She's reminded of it all the time around here, so Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton couldn't have been surprised when her failed 2000 campaign promise to bring 200,000 jobs to economically desperate upstate New York became part of the latest presidential debate.  In her first term in the Senate, the region saw a net loss of 26,500 jobs, according to an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics by the Business Council of New York State.

Crocodile tears and disingenuousness

Can Hillary Cry Her Way Back to the White House?  When I walked into the office Monday, people were clustering around a computer to watch what they thought they would never see:  Hillary Clinton with the unmistakable look of tears in her eyes.  A woman gazing at the screen was grimacing, saying it was bad.  Three guys watched it over and over, drawn to the "humanized" Hillary.  One reporter who covers security issues cringed.  "We are at war," he said.  "Is this how she'll talk to Kim Jong-il?"

The Crying GameNever underestimate the Clintonian team.  Hillary Clinton is in the midst of a complete focus-group/poll-driven/handler make-over.  And to the degree she sticks to it (a big if), she will do fine.  As we heard tonight, Hillary has now "found her voice"; she suddenly speaks more slowly, there are more bite-the-lip-like pauses, and she has been reminded not to go into frenetic panic mode or hit that screech-owl high note as much.

Tear-Jerking America's Chain.  Girls stick together when boys gang up.  But let's get something straight:  Clinton wasn't emotional because she cares deeply about the country.  She was near tears because she cares deeply about becoming the first woman president.  Thwarted ambition is the politician's waterboard.

The Latest Version of Hillary Clinton:  [Scroll down] She gushed about her "full heart," and how she had "found my own voice."  Sixty years old, with all that massive experience in the work of transforming the nation, and she's just now finding her voice?  More likely, she's just found a new way to disguise her essential self.  This is not her first conspicuous change of convenience.  When she and Bill were married, she declined to take his last name, only to suddenly adopt it for political reasons after he was voted out of the governor's office in 1980.

Never Underestimate the Power of Tears.  Conventional wisdom says that a woman should never cry in the workplace … Professional women are told that they should get tough enough to never break down in the office under any circumstance.  This week, though, the whole nation saw presidential candidate Hillary Clinton get all teary-eyed as she talked about why she is running for president and how much she fears that America might go backward.

Hillary's Crocodile Tears in Connecticut.  I have just seen Hillary Clinton and her former Yale law professor both in tears at a campaign rally here in my home state of Connecticut.  Her tearful professor said how proud he was that his former student was likely to become our next President.  Hillary responded in tears.  My own reaction was of regret that, when I terminated her employment on the Nixon impeachment staff, I had not reported her unethical practices to the appropriate bar associations.

Ambition unmasked in U.S. presidential race.  The feminist who decided to stand by her serially philandering political meal ticket, was mocked by some for crying her way to victory in New Hampshire this week, raising more questions about just how far politicians are willing to go in the quest for personal glory.  And with every such act, ambition takes another hit, a nasty character trait deployed not with a careful understanding of how it relates to ones values and ideals, but, venally, simply to get ahead.

For Cryin' Out Loud.  There she goes again.  It was another two-hanky day on the campaign trail yesterday [2/4/2008], as Hillary Rodham Clinton teared up at an event targeting female voters on the eve of the Super Tuesday elections.

Little Miss Sunshine.  Notice her gold power suits.  The wide stance.  Notice how Hillary's voice has gone up several irritating decibels as she shrieks, "I hear you," to supporters. Sen. Clinton strategically projects the image of front-runner, despite being in a statistical dead heat with rival Barack Obama. … Just like old times, the Clintons are up to their necks in smoke and mirrors and secrecy.  Despite assurances of government transparency, Sen. Clinton wants the public to know what she wants it to know when she wants it to know.

Hillary's Voice:  I have come to the conclusion that Hillary Clinton with either not get the nomination or, if she does, will not get elected.  The reason is her voice.  I don't think there is a man of voting age in America who will want to listen to her every day for four years in office. … Then there are the tears.  What American man wants a President who is prone to burst into tears when she's had a hard day or hears something that touches her deeply?

Hypocrisy

Hillary Rodham Gore:  The upside is that Mrs. Clinton is raising money from the very industries she is bashing, making her sincerity open to question.  The Center for Responsive Politics reports that Mrs. Clinton has raised $269,436 from the pharmaceutical industry, more than any other candidate, including Republicans, and $220,550 from the oil and gas industry, more than double what her closest Democratic rivals raised from the industry.

Democrats and Heretics:  while Mrs. Clinton criticizes Wal-Mart for its lack of a union and refuses money from its political action committee, Mr. Podesta's firm last year received $260,000 representing the retailer in Washington — making his firm Wal-Mart's most highly paid lobbyist. … Mrs. Clinton's campaign is a who's who of K Street lobbyists, from campaign chief Maggie Williams to communications director Howard Wolfson to a long list of volunteer advisers.  Chances are one, two or several dozen have represented, or continue to represent, positions to which Mrs. Clinton is opposed.

Saint Hillary.  Hillary Clinton is on a personal jihad against what she calls the Republican-led "culture of corruption and cronyism" in Washington.  Corruption?  Cronyism?  She's one to talk.  It's hard to think of a more unqualified candidate for Girl Scout of Washington.  But Hillary, queen of the Arkansas mafia, has appointed herself to that role in this, the next stage of her pre-2008 media makeover.

The Hubbell Standard:  Hillary Clinton knows all about sacking U.S. Attorneys.  Congressional Democrats are in full cry over the news this week that the Administration's decision to fire eight U.S. Attorneys originated from — gasp — the White House.  Senator Hillary Clinton joined the fun yesterday, blaming President Bush for "the politicization of our prosecutorial system."  Oh, my.  As it happens, Mrs. Clinton is just the Senator to walk point on this issue of dismissing U.S. attorneys because she has direct personal experience.  In any Congressional probe of the matter, we'd suggest she call herself as the first witness — and bring along Webster Hubbell as her chief counsel.

The Editor would remind you ...
Attorney General Janet Reno demanded the resignation of all United States Attorneys on March 24, l993.*

Re-written and revised history

Hillary's re-invented history:  Either Mrs. Clinton is, or used to be, dumb as a post, or she made up the story.  As it happens, Mrs. Clinton doesn't always tell the letter-to-NASA story the same way.  As she was inducted in the National Women's Hall of Fame this weekend, Mrs. Clinton said the young Hillary Rodham was 14 and inspired by Alan Shepherd's 1961 trip into space when she wrote to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  But in this transcript of a May 2005 commencement speech by Sen. Hillary Clinton, archived on her own Web site, the young Hillary is 12 when the incident occurs:  "I wrote off to this new agency called NASA, and asked how a 12-year old girl could become an astronaut."

Secrecy

Team Clinton Does Its Best Work In Secret.  Let's face it:  The Clintons will say anything in their quests for the presidency.  Just as Bill Clinton railed against Republican corruption in 1992, promising his would be "the most ethical administration in history," Hillary Clinton now is presenting herself as the antidote of the Republican "culture of corruption" and the antithesis of the Bush administration's penchant for secrecy.  What makes this argument all the more laughable is that secrecy has always been their modus operandi, and their key method of their scandal damage control.

Clinton schedule a mystery.  After a rally in Philadelphia Tuesday night, the traveling reporters covering Hillary Rodham Clinton tried in vain to get an answer to what seemed like a simple request:  What was the candidate's schedule for the next day?  Only one evening event was on the books.  But word had trickled through the press corps that she might also speak at a breakfast meeting of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.  Or might not.  Or, again, might.

Clinton's Schedules as First Lady to be Released.  The National Archives announced on Tuesday [3/18/2008] that 11,046 pages of Senator Hillary Rodham's White House schedules will be released on Wednesday.  The records were the subject of a legal fight between Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, and the National Archives, which has been slow to comply with a request to release the records, arguing that the vetting process takes time.

Taboo topics

What's Bill Clinton hiding this time?  Editor and Publisher put a gushing headline on the story:  "Bill Clinton Asked His Staffers to Investigate — Him!" … No honest man would do such a thing.  Bill Clinton obviously has something to hide.  He wants to see if anyone can find it — and then obviously, destroy the evidence found.  This is not a game.  This is a mission with a purpose.

Hillary's Doomed Taboo:  Does Hillary realize that this taboo-enforcement strategy plays into the worst aspect of her public image — the dogmatic PC enforcer whose loyal aides seem, at least in public, to live in zombie-like fear that too much candor could incur her wrath?  I don't think it's too much to draw a line from Hillary's attempt to suppress the speech of her fellow candidates to a general, instinctive distaste for the tumult and self-expression inherent in democracy itself.

Clintons brace for 'wandering Bill' claims.  Hillary Clinton's aides have launched a characteristically withering attack against two long-expected biographies of the Democratic presidential front-runner.  They have dismissed one as "totally discredited" because of a single disputed anecdote, and claim that both simply rehash old ground.

Hillary carefully avoids the use of the Clinton name.

The Mononym Platform:  There's something missing in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's recently unveiled presidential campaign, something so conspicuous in its absence that it's certain to set off debate — not on Pennsylvania Avenue, but on Madison Avenue.  What's missing is her surname.  Someone has apparently decided that Mrs. Clinton will be the first major single-name candidate since 1952, when Ike's P.R. gurus realized that "Eisenhower" was tough to fit on a bumper sticker.

It's just Hillary, if you please.  As she seeks to become the country's first female president, Clinton wants to be known to supporters simply as 'Hillary' — no married name or maiden name necessary.  Any reference to Clinton, or Rodham, is absent from the New York's senator's official campaign biography except in direct reference to her husband, Bill, or her father, Hugh.

Paranoia

Hill is Right Back to Her Old Ways.  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday [3/13/2007] revived a much-ridiculed phrase she first used during the Monica Lewinsky scandal — saying there is a "vast-right-wing conspiracy" to attack Democrats and steal elections.

Is Hillary Cracking Up?  Journalists and Democratic politicians seemed to sense that once again Clintonistas had gone too far.  Of course, the Clintons always do.  They predictably overreact and it gets them into trouble — avoidable trouble.

Clinton:  Right-Wing Conspiracy Is Back.  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday [3/13/2007] described past Republican political malfeasance in New Hampshire as evidence of a "vast, right-wing conspiracy."  Clinton's barbed comments revived a term she coined for the partisan plotting during her husband's presidential tenure and echoed remarks she made last weekend in New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first primary.

Suppression of old Clinton scandals

On January 20, 2001, his last day in office, President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentence of almost every individual whose conviction had been secured by an independent counsel during his Presidency.*  Hillary Clinton is hoping you don't know this, or you'll forget.

Let me refresh your memory...
Chronology of the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal.

The many lies of Bill Clinton.  It was 10 years ago tomorrow that Clinton looked right into a TV lens — thus looking every American in the eye — and told us a bold-faced, despicable lie, the same one he had told under oath in a court case nine days earlier.  The earlier recitation of the lie led to Clinton being impeached, fined by trial court and stripped of his law license.  But it was the public lie, in its brazenness, that ought to make every American skeptical of every word Mr. Clinton says.

Clinton Family Loan Mystery.  Those of us old enough to recall the 1990s can remember presidential half-brother and pardon recipient Roger Clinton, as well as presidential brothers-in-law Tony and Hugh Rodham — all of whom were caught up in the pardon-gate controversy.  None of them has been seen much (or at all) during Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, not without good reason.  I don't want to be too harsh, but let's just say they all firmly seem to fall into the Bill Carter mold of presidential siblings.

The Oil Connection:  It's interesting that Hillary Clinton not only was behind the formation of the oil-for-food program, but that it was a direct contact with an agent of Saddam that accomplished the task.  So, fast forward a few years.  Baghdad has fallen, the doors have been kicked open, and the oil-for-food program has become the oil-for-food scandal.  What seems amazing now is not only the extent of the corruption, but how little most Americans even know about it.  The left is often proud of its hatred for Enron and the $1.5 billion in corruption it represents.  Rightly so — but they so easily excuse nearly 40 billion in corruption in a single UN program.

Seeds of Destruction:  A huge scandal erupted when it became known that Mrs. Clinton's brothers, Tony and Hugh Rodham, had lobbied the president on behalf of criminals who then received presidential pardons or a sentence commutation from Mr. Clinton.  Tony Rodham helped get a pardon for a Tennessee couple that had hired him as a consultant and paid or loaned him hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Over the protests of the Justice Department, President Clinton pardoned the couple, Edgar Allen Gregory Jr. and his wife, Vonna Jo, who had been convicted of bank fraud in Alabama.  Hugh Rodham was paid $400,000 to lobby for a pardon of Almon Glenn Braswell, who had been convicted of mail fraud and perjury, and for the release from prison of Carlos Vignali, a drug trafficker who was convicted and imprisoned for conspiring to sell 800 pounds of cocaine.  Sure enough, in his last hours in office (when he issued a blizzard of pardons, many of them controversial), President Clinton agreed to the pardon for Braswell and the sentence commutation for Vignali.

1994 Redux:  Clinton Hasn't Changed A Bit.  The 1994 [health-care task force] was a debacle of biblical proportions for the Democratic party.  To win the presidency, everyone assumed Hillary Clinton would need to erase memories of her flawed leadership of that catastrophe.  And doing so would mean showing voters she had the capacity for a different kind of leadership, one based on openness to the private sector, appreciation for the complexity of the task, and policy flexibility — not 1990's style war-rooms and the promised destruction of opponents with differing views.

Clinton's Filthy Lucre.  Is it just us, or is there something off about ex-president Bill Clinton using his influence overseas to enrich a pal and then accepting the pal's big donation to his foundation?  This looks like a bribery racket.  Strong words, yes, but a New York Times report details a 2005 incident of Clinton and a minor Canadian mining financier jetting into Kazakhstan, where the two met with the local strongman.

Hillary stranger than fiction.  I have no time for Obama, and I think he'd be a disastrous president.  But he's your ticket out if you're a Democrat who can't face the thought of giving your party to the Clinton mob for another decade.  And, evidently, quite a lot of Dems feel like that.

The Whitewater Proxy:  Hillary's and Bill's scandals have been the elephant in the primary room ever since she first signaled a run.  Yet up to now everyone has been too scared, or too loyal, or too weary to touch the ugly past.  Her Bosnia misspeak is now serving as proxy for all the truths about the Clintons' non-truths, allowing even liberals to break free from their Clinton dependence.

Remembering and then forgetting the Clintons:  [Upon leaving office, President] Clinton garnered unwanted publicity for a greedy duo of mini-scandals first, by lifting several thousands of dollars of White House furniture and his pursuance of a high-priced office in a palatial New York City high-rise.  Then there was his pardon of fugitive-financier Marc Rich, who had been on the run for evading millions of dollars in taxes and doing business with the Iranian government while it held American hostages. … Despite his assurances at the time to the contrary, the pardon had all the appearances of a quid pro quo.

Criminals, Clintons, Campaigns.  The news that Mrs. Clinton has accepted money from three criminals who were pardoned by Mr. Clinton in highly contentious circumstances — or, more accurately, two criminals and Mr. Deutch, who was on the point of being charged by the Justice Department when he was let off the hook — is sure to prove hugely embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton's campaign.

Judicial Watch scrutinizing controversial Clinton White House pardon.  Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the official pardon application submitted to the Clinton White House on behalf of Marc Rich. … Rich fled the United States in 1983 to avoid prosecution on racketeering, wire fraud, and tax evasion charges.  He was one of about 140 individuals pardoned by Bill Clinton in the waning hours of his administration.

Clinton papers reveal donor, embargo ties.  With a large charitable donation in hand, Indonesian businessman Mochtar Riady flew to Little Rock to dine with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at a 1993 gala honoring her as an "Arkansan of the Year" at a time his company, a multibillion dollar banking conglomerate, was seeking an end to a 30-year trade embargo with Vietnam.

This article includes a long list of Clinton scandals.
Clinton bends the rules — when she can't break them.  America's chief domestic priority this year is to prevent Hillary Rodham Clinton's election as president of the United States.  Beyond her dreadful ideas, she shares her husband's allergy to the rule of law and the basic standards of fairness and honesty that most people expect of themselves.  Instead, the Clintons do whatever it takes to accomplish whatever they want.  And if normal conduct or even federal statutes interfere, they smash right through them.

With Friends Like These ...  It's not that we expect politicians to have squeaky-clean donor lists.  You try running for office without, at one point or another, taking money from someone you probably shouldn't.  Even Barack Obama, Mr. Clean, has Tony Rezko.  But the Frank Giustra-Kazakhstan-Uranium affair, blown open by The New York Times last week, serves as a reminder that the relationship between the Clintons and money has not always been lily-white.  Here, a guide to the unsavory characters who have been associated with Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Over the Top.  "He [Senator Obama] hasn't been able to find a way to be tough with a woman opponent," they say on TV.  But that's not it, or is only half the truth.  The other half is that it has long been agreed in the Democratic Party that one must not, one cannot, ever, refer to the long caravan of scandals that have followed the Clintons for 15 years.  "We don't speak of the Clintons that way."  But why not?  Everyone else does.

Landlord:  Clinton staff stiffed me on rent.  Rochester physician Terry Bennett said he rented a city building to people who worked for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign — and skipped town without paying the bill.  Making matters worse, Bennett said, the 3,000-square-foot building at 236 Union St. was left trashed.  Campaign signs were left lying all over the place, he said.

The Editor says...
It is reminiscent of the way the Clintons left the White House in January 2001.

Let me refresh your memory about ...
Trashing the White House when Clinton's Staff Left.  White House officials yesterday [6/2/2001] released a list of damage they say was done by outgoing staffers of President Bill Clinton, including obscene graffiti in six offices, a 20-inch-wide presidential seal ripped off a wall, 10 sliced telephone lines and 100 inoperable computer keyboards.

Official GAO report:  Allegations of Damage During the 2001 Presidential Transition.

Departing Clinton Staff Trashed White House Like Never Before.  In 2001, the departing Clinton White House staff made quite a mess, according to [the GAO report]. … When news of this first came out in early 2001, Clinton apologists pointed the finger at previous adminsitrations, saying in effect, "They did it first!"  But the truth is that no administration in decades did as much damage as the Clinton team did on its way out the door.

Clinton Amnesia:  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.

Senator Hillary Clinton:  "He that has ears to hear, let him hear."  If even a fraction of this information is true, it should be cause for alarm.

The Clintons' Terror Pardons:  On Aug. 7, 1999, the one-year anniversary of the U.S. African embassy bombings that killed 257 people and injured 5,000, President Bill Clinton reaffirmed his commitment to the victims of terrorism, vowing that he "will not rest until justice is done."  Four days later, while Congress was on summer recess, the White House quietly issued a press release announcing that the president was granting clemency to 16 imprisoned members of FALN.  What began as a simple paragraph on the AP wire exploded into a major controversy.

What Kind of "Experience"?  Whether in Arkansas or in Washington, Hillary Clinton has spent decades parlaying her husband's political clout into both money and power.  How did that benefit anybody but the Clintons?  For those people whose memories are short, go on the Internet and look up Whitewater, the confidential raw FBI files on hundreds of Republican politicians that somehow — nobody apparently knows how — ended up in the Clinton White House illegally. … It would be hard to find two people less trustworthy than the Clintons or with a longer trail of sleaze and slime.

Whitewater:  Years of legal trouble.  Whitewater.  The word symbolizes years of legal troubles for Hillary Rodham Clinton during her husband's presidency.  The scandal stoked a $52 million criminal investigation and offered moments of extraordinary spectacle, including the unprecedented grand jury appearance by a first lady.  "It's not a first that I'm particularly pleased about," she acknowledged at the time.

If Spitzer, Why Not Clinton?  [Scroll down] Bill Clinton, who admittedly committed perjury and obstruction of justice, ended up being a rock star.  It is well known that when you commit perjury or obstruction of justice, you will receive jail time, since these are acts that go to the very heart of our system of justice that is based on people telling the truth under oath.  Clinton, thanks to DNA and a girl who didn't bother going to a dry cleaner, was clearly guilty of both — perjury and obstruction of justice.  This is all not to mention his other crimes of a sexual nature.  Just ask Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey.

The Case Against Hillary Clinton:  What do you have to forget or overlook in order to desire that this dysfunctional clan once more occupies the White House and is again in a position to rent the Lincoln Bedroom to campaign donors and to employ the Oval Office as a massage parlor?  You have to be able to forget, first, what happened to those who complained, or who told the truth, last time. … In my opinion, Gennifer Flowers was telling the truth; so was Monica Lewinsky, and so was Kathleen Willey, and so, lest we forget, was Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who says she was raped by Bill Clinton.

Flowers Putting Clinton Phone Conversations Up for Bid.  Gennifer Flowers is putting the tapes of her recorded conversations with Bill Clinton during their 12-year affair on the auction block, Vegas Confidential learned Monday [2/25/2008].  Flowers, who came forward during Clinton's 1992 Presidential election campaign with details of the relationship, said she decided to part with the tapes after renewed interest surfaced.

Women in the Clinton era:  Abuse, intimidation and smears.  Here is Bill Clinton's legacy of mistreatment of women.  The common threads are that, almost to a woman:  (1) they had some vulnerability that he could exploit.  (2) they were victims of a smear campaign, and (3) there is an eerie similarity to the stories they tell of intimidation, threats, and burglaries of odd items, such as photographs and tapes.

Hillary donors slept in Lincoln bedroom.  Nearly one in five big-money contributors to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, known as "Hillraisers," are the same donors who surfaced in a 1996 White House scandal involving sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom and other perks to help re-elect President Clinton.

Clinton Considers Giving Up Some Powers.  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday [10/23/2007] that if elected she would consider giving up some of the executive powers President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have assumed since taking office.

Clinton vows review of executive power.  Hillary Clinton would launch a policy review as president with an eye towards giving up some of the executive powers accumulated by George Bush, she tells Guardian America in an interview today. … Ms Clinton said the accumulation of executive power had put America into "new territory" because Mr Bush and the vice president had taken the view that were what previously extraordinary powers were now inherent powers that belonged to the White House.

Let me refresh your memory...
Clinton's Executive Orders.  During his two terms as president, Bill Clinton averaged about one executive order each week.  By doing so, he was able to effectively legislate from the Oval Office.  He wrote executive orders to set aside large tracts of land as national monuments.  He wrote executive orders to restructure federalism.  He wrote executive orders adding "sexual orientation" to laws on federal hiring.  He wrote executive orders prohibiting federal contractors from hiring permanent striker replacements.  In other words, he exercised a legislative function:  he made laws.

Was that $100,000 profit from cattle futures a bribe? The big question, still, is whether Mrs. Clinton was, as she said, just well-advised and "lucky," or whether — via the filter of the futures markets — she took a fat bribe and then coolly lied about it.

Cattle Futures and Conflicts of Interest:  In 1979, Hillary Clinton's trades in cattle futures contracts generated criticism regarding conflict of interest and allegations of disguised bribery.  Her initial $1,000 investment generated $100,000 when she stopped trading ten months later.

Hillary Clinton's greatest hits:  Two months after commencing the Whitewater scheme, Hillary Clinton invested $1,000 in cattle futures.  Within a few days she had a $5,000 profit.  Before bailing out she earns nearly $100,000 on her investment.  Many years later, several economists will calculate that the chances of earning such returns legally were one in 250 million.

Lest We Forget — Hillary's $100K Cattle Scam.  The story intensified in April 1994, when the first couple was forced to pay an additional $14,615 in back taxes and interest after it was learned that the first lady had made more money on commodity trades than had been revealed to the public or to the IRS.

Is the bloom off the Rose Law Firm?  The Rose Law Firm became emblematic of the scandals that dogged Clinton and her husband, Bill, while he was president:  Whitewater; the death of Vince Foster, a Rose partner who became deputy White House counsel; and the missing billing records from Rose that were discovered in Hillary Clinton's book room at the White House.

Did someone mention Vince Foster?

Clinton's records vanished after warning of 'very serious' problems.  Hillary Rodham Clinton's Rose Law Firm billing records, found in the White House residence in January 1996 two years after they had been subpoenaed by government regulators, disappeared shortly after the first lady was warned that the firm's billing problems were "very serious" and the then-ongoing Whitewater investigation could result in criminal charges, newly obtained records show.  More than 1,100 pages of grand jury testimony ... say Mrs. Clinton knew considerably more about the firm's billing problems and their potential ramifications than she publicly acknowledged at the time.

The Clintons' Coal-Gate:  Hillary Clinton calls President Bush's talks with the Saudis about increasing oil output "pathetic."  But it's not as pathetic as her co-president husband locking up billions of tons of clean coal in exchange for political contributions.

Democratic Chickens Coming Home to Roost.  When she says she is more "experienced," she is either lying outright, or counting her time as Arkansas' and America's First Lady.  But that's nonsense.  First Lady is not an elected post, or any post.  Clinton was simply the wife of a privileged white male.  Besides, what was her experience as First Lady?  Was it the experience of Travelgate, in which she engineered the malicious prosecution of White House Travel Office director Billy Dale, which ruined him financially, just so she could turn the office into a cash cow for her friends from Arkansas, socialist TV producer Harry Thomason.  Or Filegate, wherein Hillary collected and kept FBI files on hundreds of Republican officials and staffers whom she considered political enemies?

Hillary's Smear Campaign.  During the Whitewater investigation, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr investigated the legal work performed by Mrs. Clinton, then a partner in the Rose law firm, on behalf of Jim McDougal and his bank, Madison Guaranty.  Mr. Starr believed that Mrs. Clinton helped orchestrate the fraudulent land deal known as Castle Grande. … In the end, no charges were brought against Mrs. Clinton because there was insufficient evidence to prove that she knowingly assisted anyone in the perpetration of a fraud.

Once-secret memos question Clinton's honesty.  The summaries said Mrs. Clinton billed Madison for 60 hours of legal work, spoke with Madison officials about the Castle Grande project on 14 occasions, discussed legal matters with Madison's owners — the McDougals — 16 times, had 28 meetings with Rose firm lawyers on Madison, and met with state regulators about Madison at least twice.  At the time, Madison was seeking help from Mrs. Clinton's Rose Law Firm in Little Rock to fend off state and federal regulators concerned that the thrift was insolvent. … The summary is all that remains, since the original Rose firm billing records for Madison disappeared.

Trustee:  Sen. Clinton's brother owes debts to carnival operators.  Tony Rodham, the brother of Democratic presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton, is being asked again to appear in court on debts owed to a Tennessee carnival operator whose owners received presidential pardons from President Bill Clinton.

Pardon Scandal Still Looms for Sen. Clinton's Brother.  A court-appointed bankruptcy trustee asked a federal judge this week to schedule a new court date in a case against Tony Rodham, the brother of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., accused of failing to repay $109,000 in loans from a carnival company whose owners received controversial pardons issued by President Bill Clinton in the last hours of his presidency.

Update:
Clinton's Brother Settles Lawsuit.  A lawsuit accusing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother of failing to repay debts to a Tennessee carnival operator has been settled.  Tony Rodham was accused of failing to repay $107,000 plus interest to the bankrupt estate of Edgar Allen Gregory Jr. and his wife, Vonna Jo, both of whom received a presidential pardon in 2000.

Pardons reemerge as issue in Clinton run.  Six years ago, the launch of Hillary Clinton's career in the US Senate was marred by allegations that her brothers had received payments from people pardoned by President Bill Clinton in the waning months of his presidency.  Now, in the wake of the launch of her presidential campaign, the pardon controversy has reemerged in an obscure court case in which Senator Clinton's brother Tony is battling an order to repay more than $100,000 he received from a couple pardoned by President Clinton.

The Editor says...
The list of people pardoned by President Clinton is not difficult to find.  [1] [2] [3] [4]

Hillary Clinton's Pardongate Scandal:  When you fast forward today and consider the areas where a huge segment of Americans have reservations about another Clinton presidency, the appearance of and real improprieties surrounding everything from Whitewater, the Lincoln Bedroom, Paula Jones, Vince Foster, cattle futures, the Rose Law Firm, Monica Lewinsky and 'Pardongate' provides the opportunity to resurface Senator Clinton's connection to a very dark episode in American politics.

Hill's Brother a Deadbeat.  Hillary Rodham Clinton's youngest sibling is a deadbeat dad who owes tens of thousands of dollars in child support to his politically connected ex, The Post has learned.  In a disclosure that could prove embarrassing for his sister, Anthony Rodham has stiffed his former wife, Nicole Boxer, out of $75,000 in child support, as well as $55,000 in alimony, a source close to the case said.

Photos from Clinton Presidential Library Link Hillary Clinton to Clinton Presidential Pardons.  Judicial Watch … researchers obtained 34 photos from the Clinton Presidential Library of Hillary Rodham Clinton, then-President Bill Clinton and Grand Rabbi David Twersky at a White House meeting during which the Grand Rabbi and other community leaders allegedly lobbied the Clintons to commute the jail sentences of four Hasidic men convicted of stealing $30 million in government education aid.  The meeting took place in December 2000, just after the New York based Hasidim sect delivered 1,400 votes to Hillary Clinton's Senate 2000 campaign and only 12 to her opponent Rick Lazio.

Hillary's Spousal Albatross.  Hillary Clinton doesn't have the luxury Al Gore did of choosing to dump Bill Clinton on the presidential campaign trail.  She's stuck with him, for better or for worse.  And if she becomes president, so is America.  People always questioned Gore's judgment to cut his umbilical cord from Mother Bill … But in Hillary's case, it's obviously more complicated.  Bill will not just have been a past president with very close ties to President Hillary, should she win.  He won't merely be with her in the White House.  He will be in her space.

All the ex-President's money.  Former President Bill Clinton is one of a kind, but we knew that already.  No president before him has managed to cash in from his time in office with such shameless abandon.  A Washington Post story by John Solomon and Matthew Mosk is staggering in its revelations of Clinton's greed.  In the six years since he left the presidency, Clinton has taken in nearly $40 million — between nine and 10 million of it last year.  Clinton averaged "almost a speech a day" in 2006.  Twenty percent of his fees reportedly "were for personal income."  The rest of his speeches, says the Post, were for no fee or for donations to Clinton's foundation.

Clintons' Charity Not Listed On Senate Disclosure Forms.  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former president Bill Clinton have operated a family charity since 2001, but she failed to list it on annual Senate financial disclosure reports on five occasions.  The Ethics in Government Act requires members of Congress to disclose positions they hold with any outside entity, including nonprofit foundations.

Secret Clinton Foundation Exposed.  In violation of Congressional ethics laws, Hillary Clinton has for years operated a secret foundation that has allowed her and her husband to avoid paying taxes on more than $5 million.  Operated by Hillary, Bill and daughter Chelsea, the multi million-dollar foundation lists a post office box in Chappaqua, N.Y. as its address.  It has given $1.25 million in so-called charitable contributions to a variety of questionable recipients, including Middle Eastern heads of state and a shady Arkansas friend who helped Hillary turn a $1,000 investment into $100,000 with fraudulent commodities trades in 1978.

The Clintons' Hypocrisy is Catching Up.  Over the last several days, The Washington Post has put two stories on its front page that reflect this uneasiness.  The first focused on Bill Clinton's lucrative speaking engagements, which the Post noted in its headline garnered nearly $40 million since 2001.  The second story revealed that, despite Senate ethics rules requiring her to do so, Hillary Clinton failed to disclose the amount of money she and Bill had sheltered from taxes through a family charity they set up when they left the White House (though she amended her disclosures after the story appeared).

A Shower of Gifts for Hillary and Bill:  What's most revealing here is not the gifts themselves — although it is hard to picture one adult giving another a sofa — but how horrified people were at the very suggestion that Hillary would lean on supporters to furnish her house.  The Clintons have long dismissed the criticism of those in the vast right-wing conspiracy whom they don't respect.  But how do you dismiss the views of those you do respect — who insist you would never sink so low, until they are silenced by proof of your grasping?



"Hillary was not in a mood to walk away from her cherished lifestyle simply because the Twenty-second Amendment forced her husband from office on January 20, 2001.  She took the trouble to register with luxury retailers, as though she were about to become an impoverished new bride.  This sent clear signals to donors as to the kinds of items they needed to buy if they expected to stay in Hillary's good graces.  No first lady had ever been quite so crass."
— Barbara Olson,    
The Final Days: The Last Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House,    
Regnery Publishing, Inc. 2001, pp. 63-64.    



Hillary Was Key Partner in Clinton Attack Machine.  With the paperback version of Clinton's memoirs set to hit bookstores in early June, World Ahead Publishing has unveiled Their Lives:  The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine by Candice E. Jackson. Billed as the stories that Clinton left out of My Life, Jackson uncovers the trail of bribes, threats and intimidation that Clinton's inner circle leveled at the women who got in their way.

She blasts Bush over Libby case, but the Clintons abused the power.  The list of investigations, allegations and a few convictions during the Clinton administration was so long and tangled that the cases now morph into a fog.  Distinctions among Travelgate and Whitewater and FileGate and GiftGate and the $100,000 commodities windfall get lost, with only Monica and the stained blue dress forever vivid.  Now and then, that fog is pierced by something that reminds us what a grubby time it was.  The case of Lewis (Scooter) Libby does that.

Do the Clintons Now Support Jail Time For Perjurers?  Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton are absolutely outraged that President Bush granted executive clemency to Scooter Libby, recently convicted of making false statements under oath.  They obviously believe that Libby should serve his thirty month sentence.  Does that mean that they now think that perjurers should go to jail?  Or have they simply forgotten about Bill Clinton's own plea agreement in the last hours of his presidency — for making false statements under oath?  Some people would call that perjury.

A Remembrance Of Pardons Past.  Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made this comment, dripping in irony:  "This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice."  Is this the same Democratic Party that shamed the White House for eight years in the 1990s with its illicit activity and lying?

Of pardons, perjury, and hypocrisy.  Compare the behavior of Democrats on Bush's pardon for perjury against their behavior concerning Clinton's own perjury and you will find hypocrisy.  Just for fun, add into the mix Clinton's own pardons and you get rank hypocrisy.

Unpardonable Hypocrisy:  The Clintons aren't the only Democrats who've attacked the president for the Libby commutation.  But they're surely the most hypocritical.  "This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice," wailed Hillary.  Hmm.  Back in 2001, when her husband left office by extending outright pardons and/or clemency to 176 people, all she had to say about it was:  "It's a presidential decision."  Apparently, Bill Clinton's pardon of his own brother (a cocaine-trafficking conviction), as well as of folks who'd paid Hillary's brother tens of thousands of dollars for presidential clemency, had nothing to do with "cronyism."

Bill Clinton blasts commutation of Libby's prison sentence.  Former President Bill Clinton blasted his successor's decision to spare former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from prison, telling Iowa radio listeners that Libby's case differed from his own administration's pardon controversy. … Bush administration officials, he said, "believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle."

Allow me to refresh your memory...
The Long List of Pardons Granted by President Clinton.

Bill Clinton's old pardons roil 2008 campaign.  It's a blast from the past that Hillary Clinton could probably do without.  Just as Bill Clinton takes a higher profile in his wife's 2008 White House bid, a string of controversial pardons he granted in the last hours of his presidency is back in the news. … Clinton's last-minute 2001 pardons of some 140 people included financier Marc Rich, who fled the US after being indicted for tax evasion and whose ex-wife was a major donor to Democratic causes.  He also pardoned several people close to him, including his half-brother Roger, a convicted cocaine distributor.

Hillary gets her groove on.  It's been a hellish 4 months for Hillary R. Clinton.  She began the race for the presidency, a goal she has been obsessed with since hitching up with boy wander Bill, as if it were her right.  She paid for her claim by putting up with roaming Bill's circus of women, often corralled and marshaled before him by the Arkansas Highway Patrol.  She endured and shared in escapades including hidden commodity and real estate scams, accusations and denials of rape, and drug dealing.  That was BEFORE Hillary rose to co-presidency.

Clinton Fights to Keep Impeachment Taboo.  With a swift response to attacks from a former supporter last week, advisers to the New York Democrat offered a glimpse of their strategy for handling one of the most awkward chapters of her biography.  They declared her husband's impeachment in 1998 — or, more accurately, the embarrassing personal behavior that led to it — taboo, putting her rivals on notice and all but daring other Democrats to mention the ordeal again.

[Attention all Republican strategists:  Hillary just told everyone where her weakness lies.]

Siege Mentality:  The Clintons find themselves victimized and under siege.  The presidency is being stolen from them.  The press is out to get them.  They deride elites and champion the masses.  They live in a constant state of emergency.  But they will endure any humiliation, ride out any crisis, fight on even when fighting seems hopeless.  That might sound like a fair summary of how Bill and Hillary Clinton have viewed the past five months.  But it also happens to describe what, until now, was the greatest ordeal of the Clintons' almost comically turbulent political careers:  impeachment.

The cut-rate pursuit of power:  [Hillary is] not just a frontrunner and a woman, but half of a power couple who may finally be required to pay for the excess baggage, both his and hers.  The former first lady is the most exposed candidate in the race, and the least known.  Despite the endless revelations of scandal and sharp dealing, we've never gotten to the bottom of "Wifewater," her financial killings in the commodities markets or the whereabouts of the lost records that suddenly and inexplicably showed up in the living quarters of the White House.

Hillary's Purpose Driven Drivel:  Listening to liberal politicians attempt to speak about Biblical Christianity is something akin to quizzing porn stars about the finer points of acting. … Would anyone who has tolerated serial adultery, first hand accounts of rape and sexual assault against other women, and an infantile like obsession with never being criticized call their "family" (i.e. the philanderer she's married to and bore a child with) a blessing?

Two Cheers for Obama.  [Scroll down]  Add Clinton's staggering tactlessness to her thirst for funny money (e.g., disgraced fundraisers Norman Hsu, Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung), missing legal documents, abused FBI personnel files, politically motivated IRS audits, stolen antiques, and the multifarious wrongdoing that defined the Clinton White House.  Obama has spared America another four to eight years of official lawlessness.  For this he merits abundant applause.

The Clinton Library

The Clinton Library is important for at least two reasons:  It is the vault where a potentially damaging paper trail from the 1990s can be hidden away, despite the best efforts of investigators and journalists.  More importantly, it is apparently being used as a means of funneling unlimited amounts of money into the Clinton [re]election campaign.

Secrets of The William J. Clinton Foundation.  Chicago bankruptcy lawyer William Brandt Jr. pledged $1 million for the Clinton library in May 1999, at the same time the Justice Department was investigating whether he'd lied about a Clinton fundraising event.  The Clinton DOJ cleared him a few months later. … A major investor in cellular firm NextWave — Bay Harbour Management — pledged $1 million in 1999, when NextWave was waiting to see if the Clinton FCC would allow it to keep its cellular licenses.  NextWave didn't immediately get its licenses, and Bay Harbour never made good on its pledge.  And let's not forget the $450,000 contribution from Denise Rich, which was followed by Mr. Clinton's pardon of her fugitive husband, Marc Rich.

Clinton Library Is Hillary's Campaign Springboard.  If the opening of Bill Clinton's presidential library had the feel of a campaign event, that's because that's just what it was.

Clinton Library Won't Release Berger Documents.  The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library will not make available to the public the documents that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger illegally took from the National Archives in 2003.  A letter from the library said the total 502 pages from the Millennium Alert After Action Review (MAAR) are "restricted in their entirety," under federal law and that the documents are "classified in the interest of national defense or foreign policy."

Hillary Clinton Arkansas Papers Unreleased.  It's unlikely that Arkansas papers on Hillary Rodham Clinton's years as the state's first lady will be released before the 2008 election, says the director of the Little Rock library that holds Bill Clinton's gubernatorial files.

Who Was Hillary Clinton?  Hillary Clinton is running for President based in large part on her experience, especially her eight years as first lady.  So it is revealing that she and her husband don't want the media and others to have ready access to the records that might tell us a good deal more about that 1990s "experience."  We're referring to the controversy over records at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, which opened in 2004.  At the time, Mrs. Clinton promised that "everything's going to be available."

Papers?  I Don't See Any Papers.  When author Sally Bedell Smith was researching her new book about Bill and Hillary Clinton's White House years, she flew to Little Rock to visit the one place she thought could be an invaluable resource:  the new William J. Clinton Presidential Library.  Smith was hoping to inspect records that could shed light on what role the First Lady played in her husband's administration.  But Smith quickly discovered the frustrations of dealing with a library critics call "Little Rock's Fort Knox."

Clinton Library Has Responded to UFO Inquiries — Little Else.  Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are public records.  But many are complaining about the Clinton library's lack of progress in making relevant records available to the public.  The library opened in 2004, and the records became subject to the Freedom of Information Act in January 2006.

Clinton Library Answers UFO Theorist, Not USA Today.  Even though it says it processes Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on a first-come-first-serve basis, the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library has answered multiple requests related to Unidentified Flying Objects made in late February 2006 but not any of the requests made a month earlier by USA Today.

Clinton Library Got Funds From Abroad.  Bill Clinton's presidential library raised more than 10 percent of the cost of its $165 million facility from foreign sources, with the most generous overseas donation coming from Saudi Arabia, according to interviews yesterday [12/14/2007].

How Much Information Can You Really Get From the Clinton Library?  Newsweek reports the national archives says barely one-half of one percent of the 78 million pages of documents and 20 million e-mails stored at the library are open to the public.  Nearly 300 Freedom of Information requests are pending for Clinton documents — and an archives spokeswoman says it is hard to predict if any of the material will be released before next year's election.

Researchers and journalists are finding it hard to get papers out of Clinton's Presidential Library.  Among the documents requested … detailed files on Filegate, Travelgate, Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, the pardons scandal and even back-and-forth about Clinton's 2000 Senate bid.  Sixteen months after the library started accepting applications, no major request for sensitive documents pertaining to Clinton's first-lady years have been released.

Why We're Touring the Clinton Library:  Like far too many women in this country, all three of us have experienced the crime of sexual assault and the violation of sexual harassment by men in powerful positions.  Each of us has battled with the shame, humiliation, and fear of coming forward to report the assault.  Each of us has worried about how this sexual harassment and assault will affect our careers.  Two of us, however, suffered this kind of experience at the hands of a United States president.

The Saga of the First Lady Files:  Word that nearly 2 million pages of documents related to Hillary Rodham Clinton's time as first lady could remain locked up until after next year's election produced the predictable catcalls among critics suspecting coverup.  But it raises the broader, unprecedented question of how someone's service as first lady should be evaluated in terms of her qualifications to be president in the first place.

Hillary, Under Lock and Key.  The authors of the "Kids First" memo were, of course, Hillary Clinton's staffers from the 1993 health-care task force.  Its discovery validated conservative arguments that the proposed S-CHIP expansion is an integral part the larger movement to nationalize health care.  The AAPS lawsuit successfully exposed this memo, as well as other key documents.  But as Judicial Watch's [Chris] Farrell points out, a great deal of Hillary's record as First Lady remains inaccessible to the public.

Clinton Presses for White House Papers.  Former President Clinton said Friday [11/02/2007] that a letter he wrote to the National Archives was to expedite release of his papers, not slow the process or hide anything as rivals are suggesting in criticism of his wife.  Hillary Rodham Clinton was quizzed during this week's Democratic presidential debate as to why correspondence between her and her husband from their White House years remained bottled up at the National Archives.

Clinton no open book on healthcare.  [Scroll down] But a big part of that history is being concealed.  Hundreds of pages of memos and correspondence involving the healthcare plan of the early 1990s have been withheld, leaving a gap in a historic period when Clinton undertook one of the most ambitious domestic policy forays ever attempted.  Some of the records kept from public view are memos from the early 1990s that White House aides wrote to Clinton about members of Congress, some of whom are still serving.

GOP issuing 'Clinton library cards'.  Republicans across the country are encouraging voters to sign up for a "Clinton library card," a publicity stunt to highlight the dispute over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's White House records.  The Democrats have been arguing over the issue since it surfaced during an Oct. 30 debate, and former President Bill Clinton has since said the debate question about the records kept by the National Archives was "breathtakingly misleading."

Clinton library a closed book.  Almost three years after the library's opening and nearly two years after the administration's archives became subject to federal open-records laws, only a small fraction of the archives has been opened to the public.  Virtually all of the 3 million pages of documents that detail the internal workings of the health-care task force that Hillary Clinton headed remain stored away in boxes, for example.

Several obstacles hold up release of Clinton records.  In her presidential campaign, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York argues that if elected she could hit the ground running, because her days as first lady prepared her for the spotlight and the rigors of the Oval Office.  The voluminous records of former President Bill Clinton's administration would seem to be a great source for proving those claims.  The trouble is, many of the documents haven't been released.

2,600 Pages of Clinton Records Withheld.  The National Archives is withholding from the public about 2,600 pages of records at President Clinton's direction, despite a public assurance by one of his top aides last month that Mr. Clinton "has not blocked the release of a single document."  The 2,600 pages, stored at Mr. Clinton's library in Arkansas, were deemed to contain "confidential advice" and, therefore, "closed" under the Presidential Records Act, an Archives spokeswoman, Susan Cooper, told The New York Sun yesterday [12/18/2007].

Archivists block release of Clinton papers.  Federal archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons that the former president approved, including clemency for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich.  That archivists' decision, based on guidance provided by Bill Clinton that restricts the disclosure of advice he received from aides, prevents public scrutiny of documents that would shed light on how he decided which pardons to approve from among hundreds of requests.

Some Clinton Pardon Papers Still Sealed.  The Clinton Presidential Library … released 2,830 pages of documents this week on pardons President Bill Clinton considered for Rich and others during his last months in office.  But the library withheld another 1,114 pages that archivists said would disclose confidential discussion of advice the former president received from advisers or would violate someone's personal privacy.

The Clintons' Records:  So it turns out that — in the middle of a desperate primary battle — the Clintons are withholding from the public documents from the William Jefferson Clinton presidential library.  This was denied back in December, when our roving national correspondent, Josh Gerstein, reported that about 2,600 pages of documents were being withheld at Mr. Clinton's direction, despite assurances from the former president's office that he "has not blocked the release of a single document from his library."

Hide and seek.  The campaign manager for Sen. Barack Obama has a point.  David Plouffe wants Hillary Clinton to release her income tax returns for the last several years and couple that with a speedier process for releasing papers from the Clinton White House years.  That's so voters will be able to judge whether Mrs. Clinton's claims of experience are justified by what she says she did as a virtual "co-president."  Mr. Plouffe told reporters last week that Mrs. Clinton is "one of the most secretive politicians in America today."  Who would disagree, other than Mrs. Clinton?

Even ABC News wonders...
The Clinton Tax Returns:  What's the Holdup?  After weeks of intense pressure, and more than a year after announcing her presidential candidacy, Sen. Hillary Clinton has offered little explanation for why she has delayed releasing the tax returns made public by most other Democratic presidential candidates in recent years.

The Clinton Runaround:  Have you ever been to a government office to pick up a document — your driver's license, say — only to be sent to another window, where the clerk sends you to another window, where a clerk sends you back to the first to start all over again?  That's what it feels like these days asking Bill and Hillary Clinton about their White House records.

Peace and Bitterness:  The Clintons are resisting the disclosure of a document that could help clarify the New York senator's claims that she was "instrumental" in Northern Ireland peacemaking.  The document's unlikely author:  Chelsea Clinton.  As a Stanford University senior in 2001, the former First Daughter wrote a 150-page thesis on the subject.  Her faculty adviser, Prof. Jack Rakove, has said that Chelsea spoke with her father "at some length" about the negotiations.  But the Clinton camp has declined to make it public.

Fishy Way of Sheiking the Money Tree.  [Scroll down] So how much of Bill's earnings came from Burkle really come from the Emir's petrodollars?  And what does Bill bring to Yucaipa?  A rolodex of contacts made while he was president, and nothing else.  By the way, this is the same Emir who aggressively boycotts Israel and has been cited for human rights violations by the State Department.  How much did Bill get from the Emir and what did he do for it?  The tax returns don't say and the Clintons aren't talking.

The Clinton Foundation:  Substance or Style?  The William J. Clinton Foundation proclaims that it is nonpartisan and denies coordinating its activities with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.  But considering its extensive ties to Democratic Party fundraisers and placeholders it's hard to believe the foundation isn't at the very least marketing the Clinton Foundation to Hillary-for-President supporters.  And those supporters may want something more than a discount at the Clinton Library gift shop.

Hillary's college thesis

Another Clinton Cover Up Exposed.  Recently made available for public viewing, Hillary Clinton's controversial college thesis was for years ordered sealed by the Clinton White House to keep her Marxist and socialist views from becoming public.  The 92-page document paints a favorable picture of the radical leftwing community organizer Saul Alinsky, who Hillary refers to as having a "compelling personality" and "exceptional charm."

Hillary's Secret Thesis Reveals Socialist Thinking.  Well, it is finally available to the public, fortunately in time for the public to avoid making the huge mistake of electing Hillary.  By the directive of President Bill Clinton, Hillary's senior thesis was sealed; the only time this has ever been done in the history of Wellesley College.  The reason it was hidden away?  It reveals Hillary's Socialist/Communist philosophy and sympathies.

Hil's College Thesis Reveals Her Mind.  The thesis' title, "There is Only the Fight … An Analysis of the Alinsky Model," exposes Clinton's strong ideological attachment to her most influential mentor, Saul Alinsky.  Reading this work makes it clear why she had to remove it from public view, for Alinsky, who died in 1972, was a radical social activist who preached grass-roots organizing and intense, confrontational politics.

Hillary's Thesis:  The Village Needs an Enemy.  She titled the paper, written to fulfill her Bachelor of Arts degree at Wellesley College, "There is Only the Fight."  It praises the work of radical activist Saul Alinsky, a man who epitomized a self-interested no-holds barred campaign style that Hillary has emulated in later years.  Clinton's savvy-but-ruthless politics, including the "politics of personal destruction" she so often condemns but more often practices, seem rooted in Alinsky's famous rules for radicals.

"There is only the Fight".  Hillary Clinton has a written life plan, but there have been only two copies available to the public — until now.  Written in 1969, and kept under lock and key during her years as First Lady, Hillary's Wellesley College senior thesis has only been readable in person at the campus library and in a single microfilm copy made available to individual researchers on inter-library loan.  Clinton lawyers have previously blocked people who sought to make it public.

Here it is...
"There is only the fight":  Hillary Clinton's 1969 Thesis from Wellesley College.

Hillary's Choice:  Political Power and Alinsky.  Many questioned whether Hillary's tears were real or contrived.  They should read Hillary's 1969 Wellesley College Senior thesis.  Kept under lock and key during her years as First Lady, Hillary's Wellesley College senior thesis has until last summer only been readable in person at the campus library and in a single microfilm copy made available to individual researchers on inter-library loan.

Obama, Hillary and Alinsky's Tactics:  The emergence of a racial tinge to the Democratic Party nomination fight was all but inevitable, given both Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's training as disciples of Saul Alinsky.  Hardball tactics right out of Rules for Radicals provide perspective for understanding the unfolding battle.  Saul Alinsky, the hero of bloodless socialist revolution in America, was a master at explaining how to patiently use whatever weapons one has to bring about the transfer of power from the Haves to the Have Nots.




Section 2
It's not enough to call her a liberal or a progressive.  Hillary "It Takes a Village" Clinton is a hard-core left-wing pro-abortion Socialist.

Hillary Clinton (D.-MoveOn.org) Is A Radical.  Hillary is not mainstream.  She's not even on the far left bank of the mainstream.  She is way, way out there — a genuine '60s girl, and the ideas and staff she would bring to the White House would represent a sharp break with all that has gone before in American politics.  With as many as six appointments to the Supreme Court in the next eight years (six Ruth Bader Ginsburgs!) a Hillary Court would be like a Hillary presidency — a radical Bench to back up a radical Administration.  That's the 2008 campaign in a nutshell.

Read this!
Hillary's Radical Skeletons:  The former Goldwater girl would write her 1969 thesis for Wellesley College on the ideas of native Chicago radical Saul Alinsky. … Hillary had one difference with Alinsky:  she did not believe street demonstrations were effective avenues to promote their shared, far-Left values.  Instead, she affirmed her commitment to working "inside the system," because she believed all change came about only by acquiring political power.

How crypto-Marxism won the Cold War.  Today, for the first time in American history we have two — count 'em, two — hard-core Leftists running for the Democrat Party nomination.  The Left hasn't had this kind of chance for power since Truman defeated Henry Wallace in 1948.  Hillary and Obama are Marx twins who only differ in race and gender.  All the media tell us is how great it is to have a woman and a black man running for president.

What else are the media not reporting?

Clinton will eliminate disparities for same-sex couples.  Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would defend gay rights as president and eliminate disparities for same-sex couples in federal law, including immigration and tax policy.  Clinton said states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts are extending rights to gay couples "and the federal government should recognize that and should extend the same access to federal benefits across the board.  I will very much work to achieve that."

Clinton Calls for $30 Billion for Home Mortgage Crisis.  Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to one of her major campaign themes Monday — the economic impact of the home mortgage crisis — and called on Congress to provide $30 billion to help states and communities lessen the number of foreclosures.

Going After OPEC:  Hillary Clinton says she wants to dismantle OPEC if she becomes president. ... But Clinton's plan to go after OPEC is a slick PR exercise, and her recent threats against U.S. oil companies are downright dangerous.  "(Oil companies) have record profits," she said, "that they frankly are just sitting there counting because they are not doing anything new to earn it; they are just taking advantage of what's going on."  This is patently false.

Don't Stop Worrying About the Clintons.  On the trail these days, Clinton is waging a campaign whose motto should be "Say Anything." … "We're going to go after OPEC," she hollered, dismissing it as "monopoly cartel" in which members "sit in some conference room a couple of times a year, decide how much oil they are going to produce, and how much they are going to charge for it."  It's a nice idea, but her strategy of changing laws to sue the organization on anti-trust grounds is risible, because it's hard to see how the group would abide by any U.S. court decision.

The "Problem" Of Human Freedom:  Could it be that a foolish and abusive use of governmental power is a causal factor with our energy woes?  Could it be, as [Bill] O'Reilly suggested, that our government's (and Mrs. Clinton's) prohibition of domestic energy development is part of the reason we are now held hostage to the "monopoly" of OPEC?  Not so, for Hillary.  In her leftist world, the problem is that American citizens are enjoying too much freedom.  "Consumers" and "drivers" behave badly, they drive too much, and they drive the "wrong" vehicles; and American oil corporations (just as President Carter told us in the 1970's) are once again raking in "windfall profits."

Will Hillary's 'Secretary Of Poverty' Solve Problems Of The Poor?  "I believe we should appoint a cabinet level position that will be solely and fully devoted to ending poverty as we know it in America," she solemnly intoned. … The media largely ignored her proposal but her former rival John Edwards applauded it.

The Editor says...
You remember John Edwards — the champion of the poor, who pays $400 for a haircut.

Hillary's plan for economic ruin:  Hillary Rodham Clinton sat down with The New York Times to outline her economic plans if elected president, and we now know the sad, sordid facts — how confused the senator is and how intent she is on ruinous policies. … The Times story tells us that Hillary Clinton is generally far more skeptical of free trade and free markets than was Bill Clinton as president.  The truth is that relatively unhampered trade has produced literally millions of jobs for this nation.  It has also driven down prices to far greater benefit for America's poor than any dozen new governmental programs the senator's socialistically inclined imagination might come up with.

Clinton pits herself against business.  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) trashed an array of corporate interests in an economic speech in Ohio Thursday [2/14/2008], vowing that as president she would go after oil, credit-card, insurance, pharmaceutical, investment, and loan firms.

Clinton:  Rein in special interests.  Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, criticized for taking corporate special interest contributions, proposed restrictions on a wide array of industries Thursday [2/14/2008] … She said she would rein in oil, insurance, credit card, student loan and Wall Street investment companies and generate $55 billion a year that would be used for middle-class tax cuts, create jobs and pay for an array of domestic programs.

The Editor says...
Senator Clinton's feigned objection to "special interests" is a little hard to swallow.  Are the labor unions a "special interest?"  Are the baby-killing feminists a "special interest?"  Is Norman Hsu a "special interest?"

Clinton Issues Economic Plan.  Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign released a 13-page blueprint for fixing the economy Monday [2/18/2008], detailing the former first lady's plans to achieve universal health care, address the home foreclosure crisis and develop jobs for the middle class.  The pamphlet, which will be distributed to voters at campaign events and posted online, outlines many of the ideas she talks about on the campaign trail each day.  But by pulling them together, the document resembles a populist manifesto … with Clinton championing the needs of working-class voters over corporate and business interests.

Liberal Media is Hillary's Secret Weapon.  All you have to do is look it up.  How hard is this to do?  It would take a reporter about five nanoseconds.  When you've got an "F" from the National Taxpayers Union, a zero from the National Tax Limitations committee, an eight from Citizens Against Government Waste, a twelve from the American Conservative Union, an "F" from the Gun Owners of America, how are you moderate?  When you've got a 95 from the ADA, when you've got a 100 from the Brady campaign against guns, a 93 from the AFL-CIO, a 100 from the State and County Municipal Employees, that doesn't make you a moderate!

Hillary would raise taxes on rich.  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday [12/13/2007] said her plan for fiscal responsibility includes tax increases, during a debate at which the Democratic contenders kept it civil and stressed they will "ask" Americans to sacrifice to achieve their policy goals.  "I want to restore the tax rates that we had in the '90s," said the New York Democrat and former first lady.

Santa Claus Politics:  Senator Hillary Clinton's Christmas commercial, showing various government programs as presents under a Christmas tree, was a classic example of calculated confusion in politics.  Anyone who believes that the government can give the country presents has fallen for the oldest political illusion of all — the illusion of something for nothing.

The Hillary Who Stole Christmas.  If you take Hillary's ad remotely as seriously as many are taking Huckabee's, you're left with a disturbing glimpse of not just Hillary's politics but her vision of government.  Her programs, which would cost billions and billions of dollars by even the most generous accounting, are simply "gifts" for the American people.  No sacrifice, no cost, no strings attached at all — save the price of your vote.

Candidates lose fear of wishing 'Merry Christmas'.  In Sen. Clinton's Christmas message, Hillary is bundling up presents for all of us. … "Where did I put 'Universal Pre-K'?" she says.  "Ah, there it is."  If you thought Christmas at the mall was too materialistic, this is bonanza time.  Message:  It Takes A Santa's Village Staffed By Unionized Government Elves To Raise A Child, and I'm Santa and you're gonna need a much bigger chimney for all the federal entitlements I'll be tossing down there.

Mrs. Hillary Clinton and the Neo-Marxist Democrats.  Evidence of the resurgence of Marxism, or neo-Marxism, as a result of the failures of the neo-conservative Bush regime, is evident both in polling data and in the current debate among the participants in the Democrat primary contest.  The leading contender, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, proffers a specific set of concepts designed to assert a "progressive" or positivistic policy whose intention is to "improve" the condition of the American people.

Hillary Rodham, The Making of a Social Radical.  Most know that Hillary Rodham Clinton's politics veer to the outer fringes of the radical Left.  But how many understand the reasons for her conversion from Goldwater conservative to cultural Marxist, and how this would play out during her controversial bid for the U.S. presidency?

Hillary's Chutzpah:  What the Congress needs to do is give us classical supply-side measures.  It needs to incent earning the next dollar, which means the opposite of the kinds of tax increases Mrs. Clinton wants.  It needs to pass the trade agreements awaiting ratification in the Congress.  It needs to stabilize the dollar and work toward a policy of sound money.

Hillary Clinton 'would move US to Left of France'.  America under Hillary Clinton would suffer high taxes and lavish public spending that would make it more Left-wing than France, Rudy Giuliani, the Republican presidential hopeful, has claimed.  His remarks drew anxious gasps from his audience of party supporters in the key primary state of New Hampshire.

The Democrats and Gun Control:  Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly voted for antigun proposals, and co-sponsored many of them.  After Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans and St. Tammany police confiscated guns from law-abiding citizens, violating an explicit Louisiana law.  In some cases, the confiscation was carried out with the assistance of federal agents, and was perpetrated via warrantless break-ins into homes.  The next year, the U.S. Senate voted 84-16 for a homeland security appropriations rider stating:  "None of the funds appropriated by this Act shall be used for the seizure of a firearm based on the existence of a declaration or stat