Daily Times

Time magazine placed a silhouette of Hillary Clinton on the cover of the March 23 issue. The letter “M” is directly above her head. An optical illusion is the result. The woman is sporting a pair of horns. Time magazine released a statement on (get ready for it!) Friday the 13th: “Any resemblance to cats, bats or devil’s horns is purely coincidental.” Politics is serious stuff but it also provides for a silly season for cartoonists and journalistic buffoons who want to ply their trade: superstition! It is the stuff of an unsubstantiated world. Garlic around the neck wards off evil spirits. The jinns are more rowdy at dusk! But how about the congressional jinn at our state capitol and our ginned up leaders? Their frisky spirits can be difficult to identify if working with the “my name is Legion” operational status (Mark 5:9).
If a body of evidence is required for character indictment, the lack thereof presents a distinct challenge. What if the forensic evidence involves a consistent personal lust for covering tracks? Can the aforementioned trail provide viable proof? The answer is affirmative for journalism. It is our job to track. Let us examine Ms Clinton’s lust for privacy. The political labyrinth is complex but we can follow Ariadne’s thread down three or four corridors and return to the light of day.
The Whitewater Scandal (failed business venture of the 1970s to 1980s): The bones of the story are as follows. When Hillary Clinton was a partner at the Rose Law Firm, a fraudulent land scheme was initiated. The cast of characters included Jim McDougal, Vince Foster and Webster Hubbell. McDougal later died in prison under mysterious circumstances. Vince Foster turned up dead in Fort Marcy Park and Hubbell was convicted for tax fraud. The cat with nine lives landed squarely on her feet.
The White House travel office dismissals (1993): Billy Dale, head of the White House travel office, and several staffers were fired at the insistence of the first lady. These moves cleared the way for a Clinton family loyalist to move into the lead position in the office. Mr Dale was accused of accounting irregularities. The FBI inquiry resulted in the indictment of Mr Dale in December of 1994. A jury later acquitted the former government careerist office director. Before his good name was restored the relentless media attention slowly eroded a life that appears to have been well lived. The FBI trotted him unceremoniously out of his office. The media slandered him. Mrs Clinton was complicit in turning this man’s life into a living hell. What do we call a woman who uses sleight of hand to destroy a man’s life? Her behaviour was ruthless. The special prosecutor noted the role played by Mrs Clinton in his final report. Robert Ray stated, “The overwhelming evidence establishes that she played a role in the decision to fire the employees, thus her statement to the contrary under oath was factually false.” Let me modify the statement for simple English: Mrs Clinton lied under oath. She was the primary architect of the destruction and derailment of careers.
Hillary bluffs the FBI (1993 to 1994): the first lady gained access to approximately 900 FBI files without proper legal clearance and with a lack of legal justification. The files were requested by Craig Livingstone, director of the White House office of personnel security. The storm brewed in 1996 when it was discovered that some of the files covered White House employees from previous Republican administrations. Mrs Clinton was later exonerated. This event dovetailed into an investigation into the suppression of potentially incriminating e-mails that were requested by members of Congress who were investigating the activities of the presidential couple.
Hillary raises funds for dear old dad (1994): after the 1994 elections and the Democrats’ loss of Congress, the trade commissions were used as a fund raising tool. According to an affidavit given by Nolanda Hill on January 17, 1998, it was Mrs Clinton who conceived the idea to sell trade mission seats in exchange for political contributions. This moved ahead with the approval of the president. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown hawked seats on the international trade commission and companies were solicited to donate large sums of money. This was a lucrative back channels fundraising endeavour. In early 1997, interest in this peaked and was eclipsed by the Monica Lewinsky scandal. All US citizens do not understand finances but we do chat about sex. The blue dress provided a nice flag to draw off the angry bull.
Hillary coughs up a hair ball (February 2006): with presidential aspirations in hand, Mrs Clinton offered up a slap against President Bush with regards to national security and the Dubai port deal. In actuality, the duplicity is apparent when following the politico-financial thread. The Clintons have long benefited from their relationship with the UAE. Bill had received a total of $ 750,000 dollars for speaking at two conferences hosted by the UAE. The Clinton Foundation had also received a generous donation. With this political snark, the one hand that delivered the slap was accompanied by the second hand held in open palm fashion toward the largesse of the Emirate. To be fair, the Bush family dynasty was embroiled in the same political complexity with the UAE.
Hillary puts on her ‘I am shocked’ face (September 11, 2012): as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton did not respond to repeated requests for a more robust security configuration for the US embassy staff in Libya. Our US ambassador, Christopher Stevens was killed in the attack on the consulate in Benghazi. Talking points were formulated to blame the attack on a virtually unknown, trash-talking and independently filmed Innocence of Muslims. The date of the attack had everything to do with the terror that unfolded. Like Colonel Klink in the television series Hogan’s Heroes, Mrs Clinton chose an ‘I see nothing’ posture.
The woman may not have horns but she lands on her feet every single time.

The writer is a freelance journalist and author of the novel Arsenal. She can be reached at tammy@tammyswofford.com