The Clintons: Still slippery after all these years
The New York Times’ revelation that Hillary Clinton only used her private email account for official business while secretary of state is dismissed as much ado about nothing by some Democrats who note a bipartisan slew of government officials have a history of email shenanigans.
But for very serious reasons, such dismissals are off the mark.
The first is that the emails Clinton was sending were almost certainly not nearly as secure as those from an official State Department account. Though it has had some spectacular lapses, the U.S. government has spent decades fending off hackers and has far greater resources than a company providing mail-hosting services.
This is why communications technology expert Chris Soghoian told National Journal that it was “irresponsible to use a private email account when you are the head of an agency that is going to be targeted by foreign intelligence services.”
The second is that Clinton’s secretiveness goes far beyond using a private email account. She refuses to turn over all of her work-related private email messages to the government — acting as if she has the right to decide what public information she chooses to share with the public. Her hostility to openness includes stonewalling The Associated Press for five years on its request for basic information about her schedule, information that is routinely available from other Cabinet members. AP also has been denied access to documents explaining the mystery of why Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s top aides, was allowed to simultaneously work as a paid consultant in the private sector.
The third is that this latest mess is so evocative of so many past Clinton messes. From their earliest days in public life, Hillary and Bill Clinton have treated ethical standards as if they were billboards on the highway of life, worth perhaps a glance as they drive past, but not serious consideration. In 1978 and 1979, while Bill was attorney general and then governor of Arkansas, the Clintons thought it was no big deal that Hilary turned a $1,000 investment in cattle futures into nearly $100,000 with the help of a power broker for one of Arkansas’ largest companies and a commodities broker later punished for crooked trading. Now the Clintons think it is no big deal that foreign governments have been making huge donations to the Clinton Foundation, even though they were and are obvious de facto attempts to win favor from her when she was secretary of state and in a presumed future presidency.
Hillary Clinton has millions of admirers who don’t care about this history and are eager for her to reach the Oval Office. But her obliviousness on government transparency and on foreign donations to her family foundation confirms the judgment of liberal Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus: Clinton is her own worst enemy.
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