Posted on 09/24/2006 9:37:40 AM PDT by yoe
An upcoming book by a longtime Democratic insider asserts that Sen. Hillary Clinton is “ethically unfit” to hold public office.
The author of the book is Jerry Zeifman, who was counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for 17 years. He was chief counsel to the committee during the Watergate episode, a role he chronicled in an earlier book, “Without Honor: The Crimes of Camelot and the Impeachment of President Nixon.”
Hillary was a committee staffer at the time. And Zeifman’s new book “Hillary’s Pursuit of Power” is based in large part on his personal experiences with Hillary.
A press release about the book states: “This book describes and documents unethical practices of Senator Hillary Clinton . . .
“In 1974, [Zeifman] had supervisory authority of a staff that included Hillary Rodham, who was then engaged in a variety of self-serving unethical practices in violation of House rules.
“In 1998, as consultant to a member of the Judiciary Committee that impeached President Clinton, he gained extensive personal insights into the unethical practices of Hillary Clinton in her White House ‘west wing’ office.
“A lifelong Democrat, Jerry Zeifman has concluded that Hillary Clinton is ethically unfit to be either a senator or president – and if she were to become President, the last vestige of the traditional moral authority of the party of Roosevelt, Truman and Johnson will be destroyed.”
Zeifman provided more details about his dealings with Hillary in a letter he wrote to the New York Post in August 1999. It read in part:
“In December 1974, as general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, I made a personal evaluation of Hillary Rodham (now Mrs. Clinton), a member of the staff we had gathered for our impeachment inquiry on President Richard Nixon. I decided that I could not recommend her for any future position of public or private trust.
“Why? Hillary's main duty on our staff has been described by her authorized biographer as ‘establishing the legal procedures to be followed in the course of the inquiry and impeachment.’ A number of the procedures she recommended were ethically flawed.
“And I also concluded that she had violated House and committee rules by disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons…
“During my … tenure with the House Judiciary Committee, I had supervisory authority over several hundred staff members. With the exception of Ms. Rodham, [special counsel John] Doar and [senior associate special counsel Bernard] Nussbaum, I recommended all of them for future positions of public and private trust.”
I already knew that!
she were to become President, the last vestige of the traditional moral authority of the party of Johnson will be destroyed.”..... He was the beginning.
This cannot be true. Bill Clinton himself called her his "moral conscience," and he was like the bestest president ever. He only ever lied once, and even then it was only about sex.
Hillary is unfit for the human race
I find that very difficult to believe. Actually they couldn't care less.
This guy gives me hope that there might someday be a respectable Democrat party. There sure isn't one now.
Now, now, just because she said Nixon didn't have the legal right to an attorney is not reason to think her legal knowledge is FLAWED, is it?
My first thought too. He goes on the Arkanicide watch list.
HILLARY'S WATERGATE SCANDAL
JERRY ZEIFMAN
August 16, 1999
She violated House and committee rules by disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons. IN December 1974, as general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, I made a personal evaluation of Hillary Rodham (now Mrs. Clinton), a member of the staff we had gathered for our impeachment inquiry on President Richard Nixon. I decided that I could not recommend her for any future position of public or private trust.
Why? Hillary's main duty on our staff has been described by her authorized biographer as "establishing the legal procedures to be followed in the course of the inquiry and impeachment." A number of the procedures she recommended were ethically flawed. And I also concluded that she had violated House and committee rules by disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons.
Hillary had conferred personally with me regarding procedural rules. I advised her that Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino, House Speaker Carl Albert, Majority Leader Tip O'Neill and I had previously agreed not to advocate anything contrary to the rules already adopted and published for that Congress. I quoted Mr. O'Neill's statement that: "To try to change the rules now would be politically divisive. It would be like trying to change the traditional rules of baseball before a World Series."
Hillary assured me that she had not drafted and would not advocate any such rules changes. I soon learned that she had lied: She had already drafted changes, and continued to advocate them.
In one written legal memorandum, she advocated denying President Nixon representation by counsel. This, though in our then-most-recent prior impeachment proceeding, the committee had afforded the right to counsel to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.
I also informed Hillary that the Douglas impeachment files were available for public inspection in our offices. I later learned that the Douglas files were then removed from our general files without my permission, transferred to the offices of the impeachment inquiry staff, and were no longer accessible to the public.
The young Ms. Rodham had other bad advice about procedures, arguing that the Judiciary Committee should neither 1) hold any hearings with or take the depositions of any live witnesses, nor 2) conduct any original investigation of Watergate, bribery, tax evasion, or any other possible impeachable offense of President Nixon - but to rely instead on prior investigations conducted by other committees and agencies.
The committee rejected Ms. Rodham's recommendations: It agreed to allow President Nixon to be represented by counsel and to hold hearings with live witnesses.
Hillary then advocated that the official rules of the House be amended to deny members of the committee the right to question witnesses. This unfair recommendation was rejected by the full House. (The committee also vetoed her suggestion that it leave the drafting of the articles of impeachment to her and her fellow special staffers.)
The recommendations advocated by Hillary were apparently initiated or approved by Yale Law School professor Burke Marshall - in violation of committee and House rules on confidentiality. They were also advocated by her immediate supervisors, Special Counsel John Doar and Senior Associate Special Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, both of whom had worked under Marshall in the Kennedy Justice Department.
It was not until two months after Nixon's resignation that I first learned of still another questionable role of Ms. Rodham. On Sept. 26, 1974, Rep. Charles Wiggins, a Republican member of the committee, wrote to ask Chairman Rodino to look into a troubling set of events. That spring, Wiggins and other committee members had asked "that research should be undertaken so as to furnish a standard against which to test the alleged abusive conduct of Richard Nixon." And, while "no such staff study was made available to the members at any time for their use," Wiggins had just learned that such a study had been conducted - at committee expense - by a team of professors who completed and filed their reports with the impeachment-inquiry staff well in advance of our public hearings.
The report was not made available to members of Congress. But after the impeachment-inquiry staff was disbanded, it was published commercially and sold in book stores.
Wiggins wrote that he was "especially troubled by the possibility that information deemed essential by some of the members in their discharge of their responsibilities may have been intentionally suppressed by the staff during the course of our investigation."
On Oct. 3, Rodino wrote back: "Hillary Rodham of the impeachment-inquiry staff coordinated the work. ... After the staff received the report it was reviewed by Ms. Rodham, briefly by Mr. Labovitz and Mr. Sack, and by Mr. Doar. The staff did not think the manuscript was useful in its present form."
On the charge of willful suppression, he wrote: "That was not the case ... The staff did not think the material was usable by the committee in its existing form and had not had time to modify it so it would have practical utility for the members of the committee. I was informed and agreed with the judgment."
During my 14-year tenure with the House Judiciary Committee, I had supervisory authority over several hundred staff members. With the exception of Ms. Rodham, Doar and Nussbaum, I recommend all of them for future positions of public and private trust.
---
Jerry Zeifman (jzeifman@yahoo.com) is the author of "Without Honor: The Impeachment of President Nixon and the Crimes of Camelot," which describes the above matters in more detail.
For what it's worth... last night I had a dream that I was in a conference room where HRC announces to all that she's decided not to run in 2008. Strange... it was as if I was just viewing the scene and not connected with it in any way.
bttt
You're right. They don't care. The guiding "principle" of the Left is: The end justifies the means. Maybe some middle of the roaders will be swayed. But that's if they read the book. First, they have to hear about it and you can bet Hillary's gestapo will do everything in their power to suppress it. For example, they'll intimidate the great crusader Bill O'Reilly again.
True
In a June 20 interview, Klein told Kathryn Jean Lopez of the National Review: "Like Nixon, Hillary is paranoid and has an enemies list. Like Nixon, Hillary has used FBI files against her enemies. Like Nixon, Hillary believes that the ends justify the means. Like Nixon, Hillary has a penchant for doing illegal things."
Klein now finds himself a target of Hillary's wrath. From the moment The Truth About Hillary launched, major TV and cable talk shows which had scheduled interviews with Klein began cancelling. At this writing, shows on the NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox and CNN networks -- including ABC Good Morning, America; Chris Matthews' Hardball; Joe Scarborough; Paula Zahn; Fox and Friends; the John Gibson Show on Fox, and many more -- have all cancelled.
Only Sean Hannity has followed through and interviewed Klein on his Fox News show Hannity & Colmes as well as on his radio show. It took guts to stay the course. "I've had more political pressure than I've ever had in all my years in radio…" Hannity told Klein during the radio interview.
Most of Hannity's colleagues succumbed to the pressure.
"[T]he entire mainstream media -- NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC -- have blanked me out," Klein told blogger John Hawkins of RightWingNews.com. "This is my fifth best seller in a row. I've been on all of those networks for all my books up till this one book. I've been a constant guest on the 'Today' show, the 'Good Morning America' show, you know, the Chris Matthews show, etc. Suddenly I'm anathema, and the reason I am is because the Clintons, Hillary in particular, have threatened all these mainstream media outlets."
...In an end note to his book, Klein writes, "I did not find it surprising that my repeated requests for an interview with Senator Clinton were greeted by a shattering silence. Nor did it come as a shock that many sources, fearing Hillary's power to exact retribution, asked to remain anonymous."
It is precisely Hillary's penchant for witch hunts and enemy lists, as revealed, for instance, in the Filegate and Travelgate scandals, which disqualify her from high office, Klein argues.
The Woman Who Would Be President
By Richard Poe
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 5, 2005
Response: No kidding!
Comment: However, the people get the politicians they deserve.
ping
I certainly agree, but unfortunately Senator Clinton is financially fit as can be with Soros and Shadow Party in her corner.
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