Posted on 04/26/2005 9:50:21 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
On 18 July, 1969, Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick. He escaped, but left Mary Jo Kopechne to suffocate in the submerged car. That ended his chances of ever being President. Now Hillary Clinton has experienced an event with a similar political result.
On 15 October, 2000, Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senatorial Campaign filed a report with the Federal Election Campaign that included falsified cost statements (about $750,000 low) for her Hollywood Gala on 12 August. Her National Finance Director, David Rosen, has just been indicted on four felony counts for that and related filings. Those events will sink her chances of being President as thoroughly as the killing of Mary Jo Kopechne sank Ted Kennedy’s chances.
For a detailed analysis of Ted Kennedy’s actions, see the February, 1980, issue of Readers Digest. This went to about 50 million American households, where it was placed on the back of the toilet for leisurely reading. (A literary description of this is Leopold Bloom’s newspaper reading in Ulysses by James Joyce.)
The press accounts of Chappaquiddick plus Kennedy’s gross incompetence in a legendary interview with Roger Mudd prevented Kennedy from taking the 1980 presidential nomination away from the damaged incumbent, Jimmy Carter. The Readers Digest version slammed the presidential door against Kennedy forever.
Hillary Clinton has already said Mr. Rosen will be found not guilty “when all the facts come out.” Not so. The facts include tape recordings of Mr. Rosen admitting illegal conduct to Raymond Reggie, (ironically Ted Kennedy’s brother-in-law), plus copies of campaign documents. They show the Clinton Campaign kept two sets of books – an accurate internal set and a false set for the FEC.
Mr. Rosen will be found guilty when all the facts come out, unless there is a gross miscarriage of justice as with John DeLorean and O.J. Simpson. But his trial is almost irrelevant. The facts alone will do the damage.
The Readers Digest may not do the permanent damage now. Every tabloid in America has sent reporters out with ample funds to loosen tongues and ferret out documents. This will be a hot story on the Internet. The facts may come out even before the trial. The original trial date of 3 May will certainly be pushed back by aggressive lawyering by Rosen’s counsel.
And who is his counsel? The first lawyer to comment on the case was the ever-present Clinton mouthpiece (excuse me, lawyer), David Kendall. Another lawyer has appeared as Rosen’s counsel, but if Kendall is involved at all, there would seem to be a conflict of interest. Kendall’s life’s work is to protect Clinton (him and her) from felonious consequences of their acts. Rosen’s interest right now is to avoid a stretch in stir. Rolling over on Hillary and turning state’s evidence is his best way of saving his neck.
So Mr. Rosen’s legal interests seem quite different from hers. If Kendall were involved, that would suggest Rosen will deny, deny, deny, rather than sing like a canary. However, with tape-recorded conversations and internal documents available, the only consequence of keeping Rosen on the reservation is to protect Clinton from felony charges herself. It will not protect her from the political consequences.
Keep in mind that all politicians – liberal conservative, Republican, Democrat, men, women, smart or dumb – necessarily follow two details of their campaigns: money in, and money out. Unless Clinton is either the dumbest member of the Senate, or the most careless, she would not have a million-dollar gap in knowledge of her own campaign finances. One witness has already claimed discussing financial details of this Gala with Clinton personally.
The bottom line is this: Hillary Clinton cheated her way into the Senate in 2000. Knowing that, the American people will not let her back into the White House. Like Ted Kennedy, she will probably be barred from the Democratic nomination. If nominated, she will not win.
There is another parallel between Ted Kennedy then and Hillary Clinton now. Kennedy was never charged with or tried for manslaughter. Clinton will probably not be charged and tried for election felonies. Though the facts came out, Kennedy still remains Senator for life from Massachusetts as long as he can draw breath and pour Scotch. It is likely that the facts of this case will not knock Clinton out of her Senate seat. (Though for the sake of New York and the nation, I hope I’m wrong about that.)
She may remain a Senator, but Hillary Clinton’s campaign for President in 2008 – or ever – is now over.
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
John / Billybob
As much as I would like to believe it, Hillary is a much stronger candidate than John Kerry, who almost beat an incumbent wartime President. It's up to us to make this story stick.
I am grabbing some talking points for letters to the editor etc.
"She may remain a Senator, but Hillary Clinton’s campaign for President in 2008 – or ever – is now over."
Hillary will be President in 2008. I say this because my predictions are always wrong.
The bottom line is this: Hillary Clinton cheated her way into the Senate in 2000.
======
Of course she did, as the evidence will show. The Clintons are dedicated, evil criminals that are obsessed with political power. They have already proven they will DO ANYTHING TO ANYONE, OR SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ANYONE, AT ANY COST TO THIS COUNTRY, for the sake of political power.
In reality, Hitlery should have been finished a long time ago, when it comes to any more public office. But the mindless Kool-Aid drinking populus that keeps voting for these reprobates are only perpetuating their gross existence. Let us hope the Repubs launch an all-out effort to put the last torpedo into this dispicable ship and send it to the bottom.
As long as the majority of their respective constituents that elect them remain idiots, they are free to wreak havoc in the senate and therefore the nation.
They can, will, and are able do plenty of damage there.
CB: Excellent perspective and parallels.
I hope and pray you are right about the Teflon Bride of Beelzebubba--that enough of this sticks to her broom that she can't get it airborne for 2008.
Meanwhile, the media obsesses over Tom Delay doing things nearly every Congressperson has done, but ignores this story of serious illegalities by someone on Hillary's campaign inner circle. I predict the media will turn up the heat on Delay in order to take any focus off this story.
I dunno,
Teddy is a clearly disgrace as a human being, and still he is clearly an icon in my neighborhood.
Hillary is a seriously very dangerous person. She gives me the creeps, and still she is beloved by the media, and probably by a lot more of my neighbors.
Go figure!
The Clinton scandals are legendary and numerous. Gw has given the Klintoons a pass on some of them. Dick Morris knows about some of the Klintoons antics, but me thinks he wants to live a little longer.
LOFL! Thanks for the reverse jinx! The Hildebeast will remain the dims most powerful member. Her fund-raising abilities are phenomenal. She may not be the nominee, but she will be the man behind the nominee.
<< Unless Cli'ton is ... The Dumbest Member of the Senate .... >>
Given the strong finishes put out by Babs "Yenta" Boxer, Joe "Banks" Biden, Maria "Trojans" Cantwell and Patty "Dumbest-Ever to S**t Between Two [Tennis] Shoes" Murray, that's a tough one to call.
But darn me if, for the fourth year straight, the lying, looting, thieving, mass-murdering, co-serial-rapist gangster bastard hasn't managed to pull it off -- and carry off the title!
Hitlery Cli'ton, The Dumbest Member of the Senate for 2005!
Great.
But we can't elect "Not Hillary" for president. We need a super candidate to beat her, and also beat Al Gore and Kerry too.
BTTT
BTTT
She's not dangerous without ammo. However the people who elect her are. Be afraid of them, that is the enemy.
We may need to help another democrat in order to keep her out.
That's perfectly descriptive.
The full circle irony of Hillary " I am not a crook" Clinton looms.
Well there`s always the chance that the FALN will bomb NYC again killing someone, and the question will arise "Who pardoned them and what for?"
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