Posted on 01/28/2008 6:47:24 AM PST by Congressman Billybob
My favorite professor, philosopher, student of American history, and columnist, is Dr. Thomas Sowell. One or twice a year he writes a column of individual thoughts – that are worth writing but not worth a column. I now borrow that idea for this column.
John Kerry and the Swift Boats:
John Kerry has just attacked the Clintons for trying to “swiftboat” Barack Obama. His invented verb, “swiftboat” is intended to mean that the charges are false, but potentially dangerous. He’s right about the charges, but wrong about the verb.
I knew John Kerry in college. He was a self-important prig then. He’s gotten worse since then. I also know several of the Swift Boat people who attacked Kerry for his dicey military record. If those charges were false, Kerry would have blown them out of the water by signing the Form 180, and releasing his official military record for all to see.
For years he has promised to sign that form to release those records. But, he never has acted. Absent those records, a logical conclusion is that his Honorable Discharge during the Carter years was an amnesty update of an original Discharge was less than honorable.
Obama’s Victory Speech
I listened with great interest to Barack Obama’s victory speech in South Carolina. It was powerful. It was nearly perfect. It sounded like a Vachel Lindsay poem as read by the late Senator Dirksen. Compliments to the speech writer who had the good idea of adopting the English version of the (illegal) immigrant chant, “Yes, we can.” But... However....
Sentences normally have objects. “We can” is usually followed by words that explain what, when, where, why and how. “We can,” all by itself, is grossly incomplete. In context, it means we can win the nomination, we can win the election. But, what then?
This speech was 100% style and 0% substance. Didn’t anyone else notice that little defect?
Viveca Novak’s Hatchet Job on John Armor
The website of Newsweek ran last week a hatchet job on me, under the title of “Crooked Claims About Clinton.” It is a seven-page article and attacks other people than just me. The others will answer for themselves. Rather than write a letter to the editor, I’ll answer here.
This article reviews the unauthorized trailer, rather than available full DVD of a discussion of Hillary Clinton’s behavior with about $1 million in illegal contributions. In that video, I outlined several crimes that Hillary’s Senate campaign committed.
Ms. Novak calls my claims “false.” But a competent journalist would, before accusing a professional of malpractice, call that person for comment. She didn’t. A competent journalist would consult, and quote, other professionals on the subject. She didn’t.
The most interesting error by Ms. Novak is that she admits the Clinton illegality, and then says it really doesn’t matter. Here’s what she wrote:
“Armor declares that this was ‘the largest fraud in election funding history.’ That’s absurd. The only finding of anything illegal in connection with the fundraiser was the underreporting of the cost of the event by about $772,000, which resulted in a fine of about $30,000. To put this in context, last year alone the FEC collected 10 fines of $100,000 or more.”
For better or worse, Hillary Clinton is one of the most powerful individuals in American politics today. She has access to a phalanx of high-paid lawyers. And Conciliation Agreements, which this was, are negotiated between the lawyers for the FEC, and those for the candidate. It is incredible that the FEC managed to tag Hillary with a crime and a minor fine. It remains that $772,000 IS the largest fraud in FEC history. By Ms. Novak’s logic, neither Jesse James nor Bonnie nor Clyde were bank robbers, because none of them were ever found guilty in a court.
Lastly, the Clinton campaign did not just “underreport” its costs. It lied under oath about the source of those funds. Not once, but twice.
I stand by my charges. I suggest that Newsweek has employed an incompetent journalist. She lost her job at Time for unprofessional conduct. Maybe it’s time for her to move along, again.
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About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu He lives in the 11th District of North Carolina.
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John / Billybob
Newsweak is blatantly biased. They had a totally different take on "lying under oath" when the person involved was Scooter Libby, eh ...?
Newsweek is a glossy rag. Time is a glossy rag. So are all the Time spin-offs (SI, People, etc...). And they are dinosaurs, too. Anyone seen this week’s issue of Look? Collier’s? Anyone? Anyone?
ping for later
Thanks so much for this...
Compliments to the speech writer who had the good idea of adopting the English version of the (illegal) immigrant chant, “Yes, we can.”
GRRRRRRREAT catch!
Yes, but will a majority of voters care?
Well done.
Many things, since the Clinton years, “amaze me” but one of the most egregious is the way the campaign finance laws can be violated with impunity.
Hillary Clinton takes an illegal donation worth over $750K, which helps her raise additional campaign contributions, which she uses to get herself elected to the Senate. And when she’s found to have committed a crime, she gets fined $30K?????
Bill Clinton had sleepovers and coffees in the White House, Commerce Department trips to foreign countries, exchanges of national security secrets with foreign nationals, all for the purpose of raising unprecedented amounts of campaign funds which were being spend in the spring of 1996 to lay waste to the GOP and Bob Dole before the nominating conventions were even within eyesight. Clinton wins (but still doesn’t carry a majority of the voting public) and pays a few fines, but the deed is done... Illegality is once again rewarded.
Imagine what would happen to the bank-robbing business if you could rob banks of $1 million, go out and use the proceeds for a really nice vacation, come back and get arrested but released without consequence after repaying $30K for being a bad boy...
What has become of our society (and politics)? Oh, yeah: The Clintons!!!!!
That observation would properly describe every Liberal candidate I have ever heard in my life.
Americans are way beyond being satisfied with that kind of campaigning and that kind of political discourse. It’s time for specifics, it has long since been time for specifics. And these guys are perpetually given a pass because the MSM is both biased AND ignorant... otherwise the banality of someone like Obama would have been exposed long ago. Not one single Conservative candidate could get by on so little for so long if his life depended on it!
Ping.
Exactly. That is a given nowadays, and especially true in the last 32+ years going back to Jhimmi the Dhimmi.
We'd take you up here in a minute!
Great work, John. I spoke with Viveca Novak’s boss. He promised to post my response on his website.
I thought about responding to the attack with a letter to the editor. Then, I thought about Mark Twain’s warning, “Never argue with anyone who buys ink by the barrel.” Today, it’s buying electrons, not ink, but the idea is the same.
So, instead of writing to Newsweek, I thought I’d just attack them in public, and let the chips fall where they may. More people may read what I say here and elsewhere on the Net, than read the charges in Newsweek. (Well, more people who don’t move their lips when they read, anyway.)
John / Billybob
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