Hillary Clinton brings baggage to race

Bill has done little to dispel the impression that he’s itching to make a comeback.

When you Google the phrase “unconstitutional third term,” you get references to a rogue’s gallery of strongman leaders — Vladimir Putin, Alberto Fujimori, Olusegun Obasanjo, Islam Karimov, Hugo Chavez — who in recent years at least have flirted with the idea of holding on to power beyond statutory limits. Now the name Bill Clinton pops up, too.

It may be unfair to Hillary Clinton, but the prospect of her husband’s return to the White House has inevitably become a campaign issue, and it’s beginning to work against her.

A new Pew Research Center poll found voters evenly divided, with 41 percent saying they “like” the idea of Bill coming back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and 41 percent saying they “dislike” the notion. When Pew asked the same question last October, 43 percent said they liked the idea and only 34 percent disliked it.

Democrats are generally amenable to Bill’s return, as they were four months ago. Republicans, unsurprisingly, are increasingly opposed. But the most significant change of opinion came among independents, whose view has flipped from positive to negative — a finding that all but screams to the eventual Republican nominee: “Push this button. Hard.”

Not that Bill hasn’t been doing a thorough job of pushing it himself. His high-profile role in his wife’s campaign — deemed necessary to confront the Barack Obama rebellion — has invited voters to recall the accomplishments of the Clinton years, but also the debacles. And the way he sought to control the campaign’s message raises the question of what his role would be in a crisis if Hillary were to become president.

That’s the unfair part — mostly unfair, at least. There’s no way that Hillary would go to the considerable trouble of running for president in order to let her husband make the decisions. Hillary has her people — longtime friends, supporters, aides — just as Bill has his. If she made it to the White House, her people would be the ones with real power. But Hillary opens the door to all the questions and suspicions about Bill’s role. Has she made a single campaign appearance without claiming that “for 35 years” she’s been fighting for this, that or the other?

When she tries to portray herself as a battle-scarred political veteran and Obama as an ingenue, she counts the years she spent as first lady in Little Rock and Washington. When she adds the policy successes of the 1990s (but not the failures) to her resume, she implies that she was part of a co-presidency. It’s legitimate to ask whether she intends to be part of another.

Bill, meanwhile, has done little to dispel the impression that he’s itching to make a comeback. Until recently, his campaign appearances were almost self-parody; he talked almost exclusively about himself.

Questions about Hillary’s role in the Clinton administration, and about Bill’s business and philanthropic ventures since he left office, are not just fair but necessary.

Why won’t the Clintons speed up the release of White House papers that would let us see what kind of authority Hillary enjoyed? Who donated how much to the Clinton presidential library, and might those donors expect anything from a Hillary Clinton administration? What business tycoons have snuggled up to the former president, and what did they hope to get out of the exercise?

Would Bill return to his foundation and its high-profile international projects? If so, would that work be coordinated with Hillary’s foreign policy? Could donors be sure that the foundation’s priorities were still being set independently?

It’s natural to ask whether Bill is grasping at the chance for an Act II of his presidency to redeem the Clinton name from the impeachment scandal. It’s also natural to ask whether he’s capable of playing second fiddle to anyone, even his wife. Hillary had to know she was bringing this baggage along when she boarded the train. She’ll be stuck with it the rest of the way.

Hillary Hopes You’ve Forgotten - Have You?

Hillary Clinton has been telling America that she is the most qualified candidate for president based on her “record,” which she says includes her eight years in the White House as First Lady - or “co-president” - and her seven years in the Senate. Here is a reminder of what that record includes:

HILLARY, As First Lady, assumed authority over Health Care Reform, a process that cost the taxpayers over $13 million. She told both Bill Bradley and Pat Moynahan, key votes were needed to pass her legislation, that she would “demonize “anyone who opposed it. But it was opposed; she couldn’t even get it to a vote in a Congress controlled by her own party. (And in the next election, her party lost control of both the House and Senate.)

HILLARY assumed authority over selecting a female Attorney General. Her first two recommendations (Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood) were forced to withdraw their names from consideration, and then she chose Janet Reno. Janet Reno has since been described by Bill himself as “my worst mistake.”

HILLARY recommended Lani Guanier for head of the Civil Rights Commission. When Guanier’s radical views became known, her name had to be withdrawn.

HILLARY recommended her former law partners, Web Hubbell, Vince Foster, and William Kennedy for positions in the Justice Department, White House staff, and the Treasury, respectively. Hubbell was later imprisoned, Foster committed suicide, and Kennedy was forced to resign.

HILLARY also recommended a close friend of the Clintons, Craig Livingstone, for the position of director of White House security. When Livingstone was investigated for the improper access of up to 900 FBI files of Clinton enemies (Filegate) and the widespread use of drugs by White House staff, both Hillary and her husband denied knowing him. (FBI agent Dennis Sculimbrene confirmed in a Senate Judiciary Committee in 1996 both the drug use and Hillary’s involvement in hiring Livingstone. After that, the FBI closed its White House Liaison Office, after serving seven presidents for over thirty years.)

HILLARY, in order to open “slots” in the White House for her friends the Harry Thomasons (to whom millions of dollars in travel contracts could be awarded), had the entire staff of the White House Travel Office fired. They were reported to the FBI for “gross mismanagement” and their reputations ruined. After a thirty-month investigation, only one, Billy Dale, was charged with a crime - mixing personal money with White House funds when he cashed checks. The jury acquitted him in less than two hours.

HILLARY also assumed the duty of directing the “bimbo eruption squad” and scandal defense:

...She urged her husband not to settle the Paula Jones lawsuit.

...She refused to release the Whitewater documents, which led to the appointment of Ken Starr as Special Prosecutor. After $80 million dollars of taxpayer money was spent, Starr’s investigation led to Monica Lewinsky, which led to Bill lying about and later admitting his affairs.

...Then they had to settle with Paula Jones after all.

...And Bill lost his law license for lying to the grand jury.

...And Bill was impeached by the House.

...And Hillary almost got herself indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice (she avoided it mostly because she repeated, “I do not recall,” “I have no recollection,” and “I don’t know” 56 times under oath).

HILLARY accepted the traditional First Lady’s role of decorator of the White House at Christmas, but in a unique Hillary way. In 1994, for example, The First Lady’s Tree in the Blue Room (the focal point each year) was Decorated with drug paraphernalia, sex toys, and pornographic ornaments, all personally approved by Hillary as the invited artists’ depictions of the theme, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

HILLARY wrote “It Takes a Village,” demonstrating her socialist viewpoint.

HILLARY decided to seek election to the Senate in a state she had never lived in. Her husband pardoned FALN terrorists in order to get Latino support and the New Square Hassidim to get Jewish support. Hillary also had Bill pardon her brother’s clients, for a small fee, to get financial support.

HILLARY then left the White House, but later had to return $200,000 in White House furniture, china, and artwork she had stolen.

HILLARY played the “woman card” in the campaign for the Senate, by portraying her opponent (Lazio) as a bully picking on her.

HILLARY’S husband further protected her by asking the National Archives to withhold from the public until 2012 many records of their time in the White House, including much of Hillary’s correspondence and her calendars. (There are ongoing lawsuits to force the release of those records.)

HILLARY, as the junior Senator from New York , passed no major legislation. She has deferred to the senior Senator (Schumer) to tend to the needs of New Yorkers, even on the hot issue of medical problems of workers involved in the cleanup of Ground Zero after 9/11.

Quite a resume, isn’t it? Sounds more like an organized crime family.

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