MONTAGE--hat tip NY Post
Posted on 08/26/2016 4:58:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
Do you know the old wheelbarrow joke? It's truly funny only to grandpas and the grandkids they tell it to, so I won't bother with the elaborate setup. For years a factory worker pushes a wheelbarrow full of straw past a security guard on his way out. Suspicious that the guy is stealing something, the guard looks in the straw but can't find anything. Finally, when the worker is retiring, the guard asks, "I know you've been stealing something -- can you tell me what it is?
The guy smiles and says, "Wheelbarrows."
That joke keeps popping into my head whenever I hear Hillary Clinton's defenders say there's no evidence of a quid pro quo in the fresh batch of emails released this week. According to many Republican critics, the trove provides fresh evidence that the Clinton Foundation was, in Donald Trump's words, a "pay-to-play" scheme, selling access to and favors from the secretary of state.
The Clinton team says there's no proof of that. Both Clinton and many of her critics can get ahead of the facts, though in opposite directions. But one thing is clear: Clinton lied. That's not shocking; she's famous for doing that.
Just last month, Clinton said, "There is absolutely no connection between anything that I did as secretary of state and the Clinton Foundation." During her confirmation hearings, members of the Obama administration and Congress extracted assurances from Clinton that there would be a high wall between her State Department and her family's foundation. It turned out it was more like a turnstile.
Former Clinton Foundation official Doug Band would contact Huma Abedin, Hillary's closest aide, when he needed a "favor" for a "friend" (his words) -- and the friend would in many cases be a major donor to the Clinton Foundation. Radio host Hugh Hewitt tartly describes the Clinton Foundation as providing "concierge service" to the State Department.
While everyone but ardent Clinton surrogates can agree that the whole thing looks bad, there's ample disagreement about whether there's any fire under all the smoke. The Clinton campaign insists that there's no evidence of a quid pro quo in any of the newly released emails. In other words, there isn't an email saying something like, "If you donate $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, you can be ambassador to Kenya. For $20 million, we'll exempt you from the ban on importing baby elephant ivory."
To which the obvious response is, "Duh." Some things just aren't put in writing.
She may or may not be guilty of selling favors. But if she is, I very much doubt we'll find evidence of it in an email.
This whole argument misses the point. What we know from these emails, particularly thanks to an analysis by the Associated Press, is that Clinton or other State Department officials agreed to meet or talk on the phone with a large number of Clinton Foundation donors. Some of these meetings probably would have happened if the foundation never existed. But clearly some wouldn't have.
Team Clinton wants to say that even though these meetings and conversations took place, there's no evidence that anyone was granted a special favor.
Fine. Maybe. We'll see. But even if that's true, is there any evidence that the Clinton Foundation wasn't eager to leave the impression that a donation couldn't hurt your chances with the State Department?
This brings me back to the wheelbarrow joke. The meetings (and phone calls) are the wheelbarrows. It really doesn't matter if there's nothing "inside" the wheelbarrows; the meetings and conversations alone were valuable.
Being able to say to business partners, creditors, local politicians, etc., "When I met with Secretary of State Clinton last week ..." is a gift. In America and even more so abroad, possessing a reputation for having friends in the highest places is a priceless asset.
All campaigns understand this. Donors could always just send the check by mail. But politicians understand that one of the things a donor is "buying" is the ability to strut like an insider and dine out on your political connections.
When Bill Clinton rented out the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House to big donors, the donors didn't get to keep the furniture, but they did get to begin sentences, "The last time I stayed at the White House ..."
The Clinton Foundation may not have sold any policy changes, but it definitely sold the wheelbarrows.
True ... and a strong circumstantial case can be made for their selling specific preferment and policy.
Then there is the small matter of time commitment.
Hillary, as we’ve seen, will take a healthy public salary but is rarely on the clock like her crony Obama aka the Marlboro Moron.
And while she is on the clock, she’s concerned solely with enriching herself. Paradoxically then, when she’s on the clock she’s really off the clock.
It’s worthwhile to look for malfeasance in office but what about plain old bone idleness as a legitimate reason to reject Hillary?
I don’t think Hillary’s middle east buddies wanted the Keystone pipeline built, or fracking on public land either. She probably lobbied Obama on the second issue. I would venture a guess that Obama is tied to this as well since he could act on these events.
“Just last month, Clinton said, “There is absolutely no connection between anything that I did as secretary of state and the Clinton Foundation.”
Nuance... “I did.” The office of SecState did it with the Foundation. Hillary did nothing. This is, “What is “is”?”
A #NeverTrumper writing an article criticizing Hillary Clinton is an exercise in cynicism. FO, Goldberg.
Right. The Foundation was contacting Cheryl Mills and Huma Weiner to get their clients on Hillary’s calendar. Then one of Hillary’s “little people” would take care of the rest of the State Department service (quo). Need one email where Hillary requested a specific service for a client state.
Silly me—I thought this thread was about Hillary’s thighs and the medical devices attached to them. ;-)
Right. The Foundation was contacting Cheryl Mills and Huma Weiner to get their clients on Hillary’s calendar. Then one of Hillary’s “little people” would take care of the rest of the State Department service (quo). Need one email where Hillary requested a specific service for a client state.
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imo, huma & cheryl were gate keepers offering the disconnect hildabeast is using “I never did anything”
from some of the emails I’ve seen it looked like initial attempts to contact hildabeast directly were screened by huma with something like: “she’s too tired” or “she’s too busy”.
after they initially were put off at the gate, and a hand off to the foundation, in comes a CGI bag man, such as huma’s teneo boss, doug band.
band shakes down the mark for his foundation donation.
hildabeast then takes the rube’s call, but has plausible deniability about granting the request for any donation.
something like that??
Well, we have to give Jonah credit.....he did bring his own straw to help clean up the ‘stuff’ piling up and smelling after being uncovered for such a long period of time.
As someone wrote in an article earlier in the week, it doesn’t make sense that the Clintons NOW promise to STOP doing something if she gets into the WH that they’ve always insisted wasn’t wrong anyway!
Logic???
MONTAGE--hat tip NY Post
And Jonah will still vote for her!! SAD, Jonah.
It’s beginning to sound like some of the “Never Trump” folks are starting to smell the Clinton/Obama stench bad enough to start re-thinking their positions.
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