Perversely, I kind of wish it would, and continue to expose the left-wing wacko loonies for what they are. But I'm afraid with collective America's short memory, it wouldn't make a difference, just waste Taxpayers' monies in defending it.
(((sigh)))
Or they were doing the paying...they swung both ways in that administration, doncha know.
Item #2:
Catching up on some pre-Christmas developments on the Webster Hubbell front, former Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor admitted that he had indeed helped Hubbell obtain a do-nothing contract with the Los Angeles city government. But the networks ignored the news. Meanwhile, the husband of an ABC News correspondent came to Hubbell's rescue, paying off a foundation Hubbell defrauded.
-- "Kantor Admits Helping Hubbell Gain L.A. Fee" announced the December 14 Los Angeles Times story by reporter David Willman. He began his front page piece:
"A former member of President Clinton's Cabinet has for the first time acknowledged that he helped former Justice Department official Webster L. Hubbell pry loose a disputed consulting fee from the city of Los Angeles, months after Hubbell pleaded guilty to felony charges.
"Mickey Kantor, who served in the Cabinet from 1993 until last January, said earlier this year that it would have been 'inappropriate' for him to have gotten involved with the Los Angeles payment to Hubbell.
"But in sworn testimony to congressional investigators -- a transcript of which was obtained by The Times -- and in an interview, Kantor described steps he took to help Hubbell obtain the $24,750 payment from the city government in late 1995.
Kantor's aid is important because at the time, prosecutors examining the Whitewater affair were seeking the cooperation of Hubbell, who had been a law partner of First Lady Hillary Clinton and a close friend of the President.
"Those prosecutors now are also examining whether any of the payments Hubbell received were intended to discourage him from providing damaging testimony about the Clintons' role in Whitewater...."
Coverage of the revelation that a former Cabinet Secretary conceded "inappropriate" action? Zilch on the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening shows, nor on CNN, not even anything on CNN's Inside Politics.
-- The day after the LA Times story, the December 22 U.S. News & World Report hit mailboxes. Tim Graham, the MRC's Director of Media Analysis, caught a very interesting item in the "Washington Whispers" section about how after spending the day failing to report the latest revelations about who helped Hubbell, ABC News reporter Linda Douglass arrives home where she can admire some paintings bought by Hubbell. Here is the U.S. News piece in full:
"When former Associate Attorney Webster Hubbell resigned from the Justice Department in 1994 amid allegations he skimmed money from his partners at the Rose Law Firm, many friends stepped in to help him bring in an income.
"The House Committee on Government Reform says Hubbell's earnings from June 1994 to January 1995 totaled $600,000, including a $45,000 grant from the Consumer Support and Education Fund. The Los Angeles-based non-profit hired Hubbell to write a series of papers about public service at the behest of its founder, John Phillips, a friend.
"But Hubbell never completed the project, and an embarrassed Phillips reimbursed the group the $45,000 out of his own pocket.
In a deposition given to the House committee, Phillips explained that when Hubbell was only able to pay back $10,000 of the amount owed, Phillips 'took security interest' in 21 pieces of art that hung in Hubbell's Washington home.
"The artwork, which includes signed lithographs by Grant Wood, Joan Miro, and Alexander Calder, now adorns the walls of the home of Phillips and his wife, ABC correspondent Linda Douglass."
~SNIP~
ABC's of Helping Hubbell
Former CBS News Washington correspondent Linda Douglass, now with ABC News, had a very unusual relationship with convicted embezzler Webster Hubbell: She and her husband John Phillips were close friends with Hubbell and his wife Suzy. In the May American Spectator, Byron York revealed that Phillips arranged for a consulting deal to cushion Hubbell, that Douglass and her husband paid for the Hubbells to join them on a Greek vacation and that Hubbell talked on the phone to Douglass from prison.
Douglass, a long-time Los Angeles television reporter, and her lawyer husband are old friends with Clinton buddy Mickey Kantor. While working on the 1992 campaign Kantor invited Douglass and Phillips to Little Rock where they met the Hubbells. In January 1993, York reported, they moved to Washington where Douglass landed a position with CBS News. The couple began having Kantor and Hubbell, whose wives remained in Arkansas, over for dinner. When their spouses arrived they joined in the frequent gatherings.
Following Hubbell's March 1994 resignation from his position as Associate Attorney General to face charges of embezzling from the Rose Law Firm, Phillips arranged for the Consumer Support and Education Fund, which he helped establish, to pay Hubbell $45,000 to write an essay on public service. "In August," York recounted, "the two families flew to Greece for a vacation." Phillips told House investigators that the couples agreed Phillips "would use his frequent flyer miles to purchase plane tickets for Webb and Suzy Hubbell, and the Hubbells would buy a full-fare ticket for Phillips's daughter. Phillips also paid to rent a boat on which the couples spent ten days visiting the Greek islands."
By December Hubbell had pled guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges. He never produced the essay, forcing Phillips to pay the $45,000 back to the foundation. Nonetheless, "even after Hubbell went to prison, Phillips and his wife kept in touch with their disgraced friend." Phillips visited and "Douglass also talked with Hubbell from prison" by phone.
Eventually, they lost faith. Douglass told York she had aided Hubbell "in a time of need. 'I went to church with Webb,' Douglass remembered. 'I was trying to help him with his personal redemption.' But Hubbell could not be saved. Of the end of the friendship, Douglass said curtly, 'Look, we were lied to.'"
If only a few more in the media would realize Hubbell has no credibility.
~SNIP~