Back in the late 1990s, a lot of my fellow Americans reminded me of cynical Latin Americans. In other words, all politicians are corrupt but okay as long as the economy is doing well. Believe it or not, I heard that from Venezuelans profiting off Chavez’ crony capitalism under $150 a barrel oil prices. We heard similar things from people in Brazil who accepted political corruption as the price for a strong economy. They are not saying that now.
Did that explain President Clinton’s approval ratings despite incredibly reckless behavior in the Oval Office and before a federal judge?
The Clintons are back, and maybe headed for another round at the Oval Office. And once again there is a scandal surrounding them. The latest one is about the Clinton Foundation and access to The Secretary of State,according to the Washington Post:
A sports executive who was a major donor to the Clinton Foundation and whose firm paid Bill Clinton millions of dollars in consulting fees wanted help getting a visa for a British soccer player with a criminal past.
The crown prince of Bahrain, whose government gave more than $50,000 to the Clintons’ charity and who participated in its glitzy annual conference, wanted a last-minute meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
U2 rocker and philanthropist Bono, also a regular at foundation events, wanted high-level help broadcasting a live link to the International Space Station during concerts.
In each case, according to emails released Monday from Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state, the requests were directed to Clinton’s deputy chief of staff and confidante, Huma Abedin, who engaged with other top aides and sometimes Clinton herself about how to respond.
Some will say that this is politics or politicians taking calls from those who donate.
I disagree.
First, we are talking about foreign donations to a foundation, not domestic contributions to a Senate race. It’s one thing for a U.S. senator to visit with a major contributor and listen to his plea. It’s quite another thing for a foreigner to donate to a foundation and then expect a seat at the Clinton table. The first is politics and I get it. The second is corruption, sets a terrible precedent and it stinks!
Donations to the Clinton Foundation were dressed up as acts of charity but in fact were payments to reserve a seat in an upcoming Clinton administration. The Clinton apologists will argue that the money brought glasses to little children in the Third World. Maybe it did but no leader of a corrupt country gave money to The Clinton Foundation trying to do that.
As William Gurn said, it’s hard to prove a quid pro quo, specially with clever people like the Clintons. At the same time, it is hard to believe that President Clinton ran all over the world collecting money and somehow the cases just accidentally headed to a State Department run by his wife.
Last month, Director Comey chose not to indict Mrs. Clinton and put this issue on our lap. It is now up to us the voters. We will decide whether this is just politics as usual or corruption of the worst kind.
I hope that the voters for once and for all tell the Clintons that we are sick and tired of their ways. We deserve better than people who don’t think that the rules apply to them.
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