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The Unreformable Clintons

The political dynasty that guarantees continuity, of a sort
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From Ron Fournier’s take on Hillary Clinton’s e-mail presser today:

1. She decided to use her personal email account for both work and private business as a matter of convenience. “Looking back,” she said, “it would have been better had I simply used a separate account.”

That was as close as Clinton got to contrition, and even this talking point was misplaced. Nobody questions her right to use a personal account for work-related matters. Nobody seeks to make truly private emails public. The issue is Clinton’s clear violation of federal regulations requiring her to store official emails on government servers. For reasons she left unsaid, Clinton went rogue.

A home-brewed server gives her full control of government records. Theoretically, she can delete or withhold public documents without the public ever knowing.

2. The “vast majority” of her emails went to government authorities, which means they would be captured by people who (unlike her) followed federal rules. Clinton didn’t put a number to “vast majority” or characterize what material was contained in the “minority” of emails loast. Presumably, though, they’re on the server she won’t cough up.

3. After she left the State Department, House Republicans investigating the Benghazi attack discovered that they had none of her emails and notified State. The agency asked all former secretaries of State to turn over their emails. With her cache secured on an off-the-books server, Clinton decided which ones to turn over: only 30,490 of 62,320 emails, according to her office. More than 31,000 were deleted! It is irrelevant that Clinton says the notes are private. Those are our emails, not hers. A government archivist, not a Clinton, is suppose to decide what is private and what is public.

4. She took the “unprecedented step of asking the State Department to make my work-related emails public for everyone to see.” Gee, thanks. We can see the emails you want us to see?

Read the whole column. It’s harsh, but just. If I were a Democrat, I would be two tics away from panic right about now. There are no challengers to Hillary for the 2016 presidential nomination. This incident may be relatively minor, but it strikes a resonant chord. It reminds everyone of what they hated about the Clintons, and gives us a preview of what a Hillary presidency would be like.

Four more years of those people. Think about it.

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