Clinton II; Libby pardon was cronyism
I’m still trying to catch up on the news after being in the hinterlands among people who are more worried about the lack of rain for this year’s sweet corn harvest than they are worried about politics. I figured that the Libby thing would be played out by now, but being among real people made me forget that Republican transgressions are always much more serious than those of the Democrats – well, for the media and the Congressional Democrats anyway.
I dipped in my toe this morning by watching Fox News Sunday which had my idiot, pussy, partisan Congressman Chris VanHollen as a guest. And so I can always count on him to get my blood pressure up – because it reminds me of how stupid my neighbors are for electing the moron to Congress. He was one of the first to pile on the Army over the conditions at Walter Reed, then when the Army tried to speed up construction of the new Walter Reed facilities in Bethesda, VanHollen stepped in to delay construction because it’d disrupt his commute in the morning.
So I jumped over to the Fox News website and watched Hillary Clinton call the Libby pardon “cronyism”(Video). Cronyism? Can she be serious? Or does she forget that we can google a search of her husband’s pardons – he pardoned murderers, terrorists and drug dealers as well as cronies. In fact Clinton, pardoned more people on January 20th, 2001 than President Bush has pardoned in the last six years.
Clinton pardoned contributors, disgraced cabinet members, Susan MacDougal who kept his secrets in prison (unlike her husband who mysteriously died when he was about to tell what he knew), Clinton’s own drug dealing half-brother, a disgraced CIA director who was under investigation for pilfered national secrets. But pardoning Libby is “cronyism” – despite the fact that Libby wasn’t the criminal the special prosecuter was looking for, or involved in the incident that the prosecutor was investigating.
This extent of partisanship probably borders on Democrats being criminally partisan.
Category: Historical, Legal, Politics
The CIA director pardon is at least understandable. No one alleged that Deutsch was doing anything other than making his work more convenient for himself, admittedly in a remarkably stupid and insecure way, but he wasn’t profiting from same except to the extent he got soe work done with the family around.
Â
Jonn Lilyea wrote: Welcome, Honza. I’ve been a fan of Pros & Cons for several months. But, ya know what – if Deutche had been the CIA director for President Bush, the Democrats would screaming to high Hell about a cover up and cronyism. There’s really no good excuse for anyone to break security protocols. The same way we get exercised about VA and IRS employees who take our personal information home.
HonzaP: I worked as an Intelligence Analyst for 17 out of my 30 years in the U.S. Army. I can tell you in no uncertain terms that security involving operations, documents, computers and the like was pounded into our heads. Humans make mistakes, but what Deutch did was a deliberate breach of security. We were taught from day one the proper procedures for storage and transport of and access to classified material. Storing classified information on an “unaccredited”, unsecure computer is a security violation. had I done the same thing as Deutch, I seriously doubt a pardon would have been considered. The SOB deserved time in Leavenworth…but then again, so did Clinton.
I’m sorry to hear the way that you talk about your visit with your family. Just because they don’t
talk politics every minute, like you do, doesn’t mean that they are not interested or concerned.
I’m sure that there are topics to discuss that are just as important and maybe more interesting.
Â
Jonn Lilyea wrote: You misunderstand me – I meant it as a good thing. I went there to get away from politics and to be with family and discuss the lack of rain for the sweet corn. It was wonderful to get away from the Beltway crap for a change. I should do it more often.
Edited to add: Since I just found out who you are, I’ll add; you’d think my littlest sister would know better than to accuse her big brother of being an insensitive jerk 🙂
Yes, you should come home more often. Maybe then I would know you a little bit better!