U.S. Department of State
I am sick of hearing about Hillary’s damn emails. Really. I am. I thought about this, and held off writing about them. But things have evolved over time. It’s an issue. A really big one, that needs to be addressed by Democrats sooner rather than later.
It’s ironic. The then 27 year old Clinton was a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee where she worked on the team that worked on the Watergate impeachment inquiry. Watergate -where a paranoid President Nixon taped all of his conversations and somehow 18 minutes of those tapes that everyone wanted to hear went missing. Fast forward to Hillary circa 2009, who had her own private email server and two email addresses set up, only to later “delete” 30,000 of her 60,000 emails she deemed as personal. Motivated by paranoia about Republicans getting ahold of them? Who knows, but clearly having worked on the Watergate committee she would be more conscious of the ramifications of doing that than most.
Also ironic: The Obama Administration has mercilessly pursued espionage charges - more than any administration ever. Eight people were charged under the Espionage Act for far less than Hillary did. While General David Petraeus arguably should have been the ninth, he instead got a far more lenient prosecution than many lower ranking officials who had done far less. Now the Obama Administration will in all likelihood have the FBI refer her case to the Department of Justice for prosecution. Espionage, Unauthorized Removal and Retention of Classified Material, and/or obstructing a government investigation charges are the ones that are in the realm of the possible. And if you compare the General Petraeus case -where he gave his then mistress classified materials, Hillary’s case legally speaking looks quite similar. And the old, “it-wasn’t-marked-classified” defense showing lack of intent won’t cut it, when it’s been found that she emailed the highest classified material that any grandkid of a CIA analyst would know not to look at, much less show to her friends at the Clinton Foundation. And woe be the lowly analyst who did this and then was hacked multiple times by the Chinese, Germans, Russians, and North Koreans, as Secretary Clinton’s was.
So how does this and $3.09 get you a Grande iced green tea at Starbucks? Allow me to spell it out: Hillary is campaigning as a “Liberal who likes to get things done”.
So no one wants to vote for Bernie Sanders because the wild and crazy notion of creating wide public support, and political pressure, to push for change, and elect others who will get that change done, is just considered so highly impractical. You know..democracy...that quaint old fashioned notion?
I remember the Former President Bill Clinton years. He was the President that signed into law less-bad Republican laws, like the Defense of Marriage Act, 3 Strikes law, the law creating sentencing disparities for crack and powdered cocaine, as well as the executive order Don’t Ask Don’t Tell…to hit upon a few highlights. The House exercised it’s impeachment powers over essentially lying about an affair. What Hillary seems to have done is more of the variety the Constitution was thinking about. And that notion has not been lost on Republicans.
Republicans control the House. Lots of take no hostages Tea Partiers there. Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama, and Freedom Caucus member, has proudly stated that he would move to impeach Hillary on her first day as President. In fact over 72,000 petition signatures in support of Impeaching Hillary has already been garnered. There is also little doubt that it has been discussed at great length and detail in the corners of the Internet. So if Bill got censored for lying about an extra marital affair, Hillary would be out of office. And if MoveOn.org thought the inaction of Congress during Bill’s impeachment proceedings was maddening, they ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
In my humble opinion, if the FBI went after General David Petraeus, they should have gone after Hillary.The Justice Department won't prosecute her. President Obama could have pardoned her, or she could pardoned herself anyway. The problem is that she can’t prevent impeachment proceedings from being initiated in the House. That means nothing gets done. And if the Senate turns Republican she would likely be the first president impeached and found guilty, and therefore out of office. A Washington Post article cites some early precedent by Congress itself limiting impeachment to crimes committed by the President while in the presidency - as opposed to while being Secretary of State and then President. Whoever thinks Congress will follow that ancient decree of itself in 1873 is probably the type to buy the proverbial bridge in Brooklyn for cheap. And good luck bringing it up to the US Supreme Court. Bush v. Gore ring any bells?
So much for the Liberal-Who-Likes-To-Get-Things-Done.
If Stephen Kim, Jefferey Sterling, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake, Shamai Leibowitz, John Kiriakou, and James Hitselberger, were all charged under the Espionage Act, then Hillary should not be running for president. She knew the info was classified, took it from where it was allowed to be, and sent it to people who weren't allowed to see it. To make matters worse she attempted to cover it up by trying to destroy a lot of the emails.
The question that Democrats must deal with now (not later), is not whether Hillary can win the presidency, but rather whether she could be a liberal and get anything done. Is that the presidency that they want? No people's revolution will likely form under those circumstances. Voter apathy and cynicism will, and Republicans win for the long term when that happens.
I’d strongly suggest dealing with this in the primaries. People should reconsider their support of Hillary Clinton for president. A petition to free the Democratic Convention Delegates to vote their conscience has been started. If the convention delegates don't act, perhaps Senator Bernie Sanders, or Senator Elizabeth Warren, will be president anyway - it'll just take 4-8 years of partisan warfare and gridlock to occur first.