Hillary and Joe

Hillary Clinton has a complicated dance to do as she prepares for the 2008 presidential election.

She has to move far enough to the left to win the Democratic presidential nomination, while staying close enough to the center to win a presidential election. She has to satisfy the anti-war left that can’t abide her position on the war without giving those who would brand her as purely political in the worst sense of the word an opportunity to accuse her of the biggest flip-flop of the decade.

And, she has to accomplish that while sitting in the Senate and voting, which is a notoriously terrible place to be from to run for president, because of the endless series of votes and positions you’re forced to take.

Viewed from that perspective, Hillary’s announcement last week that she would support the winner of the Connecticut Democratic primary for Senate makes absolutely perfect sense. It gives her an ideal opportunity to reach out to the left, to the anti-war crowd, to the base of the Democratic Party, at very low cost.

Whether it will ever come to that – and it likely will – is almost beside the point. She gets credit now and, potentially, credit later as well.

What is happening in Connecticut has captured the attention of the nation both because of the players involved and the issues at stake. What started out as a long shot challenge for three-term incumbent Democrat Joe Lieberman from millionaire Ned Lamont has now become sufficiently serious that Lieberman has made plans to lose, announcing that he will run as an Independent if he fails to win the Democratic nomination.

I hope this comes up to bite her ...

From Captains Quarters today:

July 09, 2006
Presidential Pardons And Presidential Connections
Another of Bill Clinton's presidential pardons has been shown to have financial connections to the Clinton family. The Washington Times reports that Anthony Rodham, Hillary Clinton's brother, got six-figure "loans" on which he never made payments from a company whose owners got pardoned for bank fraud:

Anthony D. Rodham, one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's two brothers, got the loans from United Shows of America Inc. after its owners obtained the presidential pardon in March 2000 over the objections of the Justice Department.
Michael E. Collins, trustee for United Shows, filed papers in Alexandria bankruptcy court seeking the return of $107,000 plus $46,034 in interest from Mr. Rodham, 51, for the loans he received from the carnival company, which went bankrupt in 2002.

Mr. Rodham "received the benefit of the loans without making any repayment," reads a related document filed last year in bankruptcy court in Nashville, Tenn. ...

According to bankruptcy court records, Tony Rodham began to receive the loan checks on May 10, 2000. The final loan of $2,500 was made on Feb. 12, 2002, about six months before United Shows filed for bankruptcy protection.

The timeline seems especially damning in this case. Bill Clinton issues a pardon for the Gregorys in March 2000. Two months later, Anthony Rodham begins collecting checks from the company owned by the Gregorys. Over the next 20 months, Rodham gets 16 checks, all marked as loans as cover for the disbursements on United Show's books, until it totals $107,000. Rodham never makes a payment on these loans, and six months later, United Shows files for bankruptcy, leaving its creditors high and dry -- but not Rodham.

We have often excoriated public officials of both parties for receiving money from lobbyists and contributors concurrently with pushing legislation on their behalf. This is much worse than that. The President overruled his Department of Justice and provided presidential pardons for two people who robbed banks and their depositors through fraud, and two months later the same two people started sending money to the President's brother-in-law, laundered through their company as "loans" without ever seeking repayment.

By any definition, that is a quid pro quo payoff. Clinton had no pressing reason to issue the pardon except to make it easier for the Gregorys to win government contracts. The DoJ did not want them pardoned, and the pair were already out of prison. One can ask for no clearer indication that the Clinton administration had a fire sale on presidential pardons, and made sure that the money stayed in the family.

Hillary Clinton needs to answer for this. It involves her brother and her husband, and the family business in presidential pardons can be expected to have a grand re-opening if Hillary wins the presidential election in 2008. George Bush cannot allow this obvious corruption to go uninvestigated, and if the facts bear it out, Bill Clinton and Anthony Rodham should face prosecution for corruption.

Posted by Captain Ed at July 9, 2006

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.