Bonnie
and Clyde, Billie and Hill, Lynda and Ron
By
Leonard
Zwelling
In her latest column in Saturday’s (May
9) Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan
explores “How the Clintons Get Away With It.” The thesis is easy to explain.
Doing things that would get anyone else thrown into jail, the Clintons prosper
and thrive. Here’s a telling excerpt from the Noonan piece, published in the
aftermath of the new book called Clinton
Cash about foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary
was Secretary of State, how Bill was getting over $500,000 per speech from foreign
governments, and how Hill had an email account that was untraceable and has now
been largely deleted:
I wonder if any aspirant for the
presidency except Hillary Clinton could survive such a book. I suspect she can
because the Clintons are unique in the annals of American politics: They are
protected from charges of corruption by their reputation for corruption. It’s
not news anymore. They’re like . . . Bonnie and Clyde go on a
spree, hold up a bunch of banks, it causes a sensation, there’s a trial, and
they’re acquitted. They walk out of the courthouse, get in a car, rob a bank,
get hauled in, complain they’re being picked on—“Why are you always following
us?”—and again, not guilty. They rob the next bank and no one cares. “That’s
just Bonnie and Clyde doing what Bonnie and Clyde do. No one else cares, why
should I?”
Mr. Schweizer (Peter Schweizer
author of the newly published Clinton Cash) announces upfront that he
cannot prove wrongdoing, only patterns of behavior. There is no memo that says,
“To all staff: If we deal this week with any issues regarding Country A, I want
you to know country A just gave my husband $750,000 for a speech, so give them
what they want.” Even if Mrs. Clinton hadn’t destroyed her emails, no such memo
would be found. (Though patterns, dates and dynamics might be discerned.)
Take
note of a few important points.
This book is
thoroughly researched and apparently not at all over the top in its accusations.
There is no question about the appearance of impropriety by the
Clintons what with Billy taking $750,000 for speeches paid for by governments
with which his wife was working.
One of the deals that appears unsavory involves uranium mines in
the US being eventually owned by the Russians after approval by the State Department
along with a green light from other aspects of the US government. That will
really help national security!
This is all no longer news because this sort of behavior has come
to be expected of the Clintons for over 20 years. It is no longer either
shocking, unforgiveable, let alone prosecutable.
I bring all this up for it reminds me of the
Jackie Mason line about Richard Nixon during Watergate. “Everyday he got caught
and every day someone else went to jail.” Eventually, even Nixon paid the price
for being the crook he said he was not, but was.
This is also true of the Clintons although it
was only Bill who was impeached, but then not convicted for lying under oath.
Hillary has thus far been spared a court date, but she has one in front of
Congress again about Benghazi, which would be dismissed as petty politics if Secretary
Clinton would just calmly admit she erred, she could move on. By saying, “what
does it matter,” when four Americans died, she just fanned the Republican flamethrowers.
That brings us to door number three with
another couple of the year following in the footsteps of Bonnie and Clyde and
Hillary and Bill—Ron and Lynda.
This blog has listed their missteps and frank
wrongdoing repeatedly for years. Has it affected their ability to do anything
they wished from sofas to stock shares? Not really until one of them was
finally shipped off to Austin. Let’s hope the pair wishes to stay close to each
other.
Dave Letterman wondered on Thursday last week
how Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the NFL, can ignore the DeflationGate
scandal. “How can you turn the other cheek when you have already turned the
other cheek?” Good question. (And the penalty meted out to Brady and the
Patriots was a slap on the wrist.)
This is also a good question for the Chancellor
and Board of Regents. When is enough enough? This latest nonsense with Ziopharm appointing a former section chief in Pediatrics as its new CEO with no prior
business experience while he still maintains a presence at MD Anderson let
alone has stock in the same company he runs (not unusual) while being a faculty
member at a state, tax-exempt institution which also owns the stock (highly
unusual) would seem to be enough to disqualify Dr. DePinho from service to the
State of Texas in any capacity. Apparently not. At least not yet.
Once again I ask, when will the faculty say
enough is enough. I believe the American people will eventually be rejecting
Hillary for President. Any reasonable challenge in the Democratic primary might
cause her some angst and a little more pressure might end her candidacy, which
it should. Perhaps she will at least answer some questions about her behavior. Alas,
the dwarfs of the Democrats will not run Snow White (Elizabeth Warren) so the
Evil Queen stays in contention. Whether the forces of good in the GOP (are
there any?) can muster a real challenge remains to be seen.
Personally I have had enough of these crooks.
Bonnie and Clyde are dead. Bill may well be close given how he looks and talks.
I think he spent too much time on the cardiac by-pass pump. Hillary is still
hanging tough, but the forces are aligning against her now and we shall see how
she does before Congress. Lynda is sort of like Bill now. Exiled to arm candy. Off
the grid. Ron is like Hillary. He too needs a day or two to confess his sins
and then be judged by those he leads as to his fitness to continue.
Oh, that I wish that could happen!
