Hillary’s E-Mails: Why
Anyone Should Care
By
Leonard Zwelling
Like Mt. St. Helen’s, this story is exploding into the
blogosphere and there are really two questions that must be addressed:
Why is this even a story?
Why should anyone care?
Anything involving the Clintons is a story because that’s
the way they like it–uh-huh! Bill and Hill cannot get enough limelight and
that’s just fine in America. What has changed since they came on the scene in
the early 1990s is the Internet. When Bill was indiscreet, it took at least 24
hours to find out. Of course, his hero, Jack Kennedy, got away with
philandering for years because he had the press in his pocket and they were
always glad to see him. Bill was not as fortunate. His dalliances made news, but
he triumphed anyway. You can’t keep a good ole boy down!
Hillary
is not as fortunate. First, she ain’t an ole boy, she’s an ole gal. Second, we
have seen her continuously for twenty-five years acting imperious and as if the
rules don’t apply to her. And getting away with it. Third, now, when response
time to bad news is measured in seconds and bytes, her team is still a bit slow
on the uptake so when this story broke in the evening, their flat-footed
Twitter response was late and coincided with the morning news shows. Ooops!
So
it’s a story because she probably did not follow the letter of the 2009 law
(not the one Colin Powell was operating under) in making all her emails
available having been stored on her department’s servers, rather than on
her own in New York. And when she tweets out that she will make the emails
available via the State Department’s records, it must be understood that those
records are only what she gave them and may not represent the totality of her
email communications, as is required by law to be on the servers of the
Department of State.
Why
should anyone care?
First, she’s running for President and everything matters.
Second, this demonstrates her innate arrogance and lack of belief that the
rules apply to her. Third, this is what got her husband in trouble and who
needs another stained blue dress or reputation. Fourth, it shows that her
claims of being a champion of equality do not include herself who is clearly an
exception to all rules.
This is the megalomania that brings down leaders who believe
that they are champions of transparency and defenders of the little guy, and
then act like the rules of civility and normal human discourse do not apply to
them. Their behavior belies their words. Their deeds undermine their politics.
Their quest for self aggrandizement makes their claims for fairness for all a
legendary fairy tale. We all see this on a daily basis here in Houston.
I had really hoped that Mrs. Clinton had gotten beyond all
of this after her years in the Senate and State Department suggested that she
had realized the errors of her past ways and was ready for the Presidency. This
episode once again demonstrates that her arrogance gene is not repressed and
her staff is not up to the task of keeping her out of trouble. How many of them
got “official” emails from their boss with not a “.gov“ to be found and then
said, this isn’t right? If you see something, say something. I know some of
these people and they are brilliant. Surely they knew these emails were
improper and either said nothing for fear of reprisal from the boss or are a
lot less bright than they appear to be when you meet them.
This latest flap may not prove fatal to her run for the
Democratic Presidential nomination. But I have had enough. If the Republicans
give me any candidate who is credible, I will probably vote for him (no hers on
their side yet).
I think America has grown past the Clintons and the Bushes,
too. It’s time for a new dawn. The people need to have confidence that their
leaders are less concerned with their own creature comforts and span of control
and more concerned with governing America for Americans. We have to get past
elitism and the concept of national or individual exceptionalism if we really
want to get beyond the behaviors holding us back as a nation. I just don’t
think Mrs. Clinton is up to the task in 2015. Unfortunately, no other Democrat
is either. As for the GOP, we are all waiting to see how they sort this out.
If the Republicans believe their last two Presidential candidates
lost because they were not conservative enough and nominate a right-wing
extremist, they could lose again. If, however, they realize that no Republican
could have beaten Barack Obama in 2008 and that Mitt Romney was simply the best
in a field of lackluster candidates, they will return to their roots and find a
competent, Midwestern governor to be their standard bearer.
If they do, they can win.
