Hold on; we may finally be getting some fireworks in this lackluster presidential campaign -- as the Clinton Foundation scandal seems to be gathering steam.
Could the Clintons finally have to face the music for their adult-lifetime of corruption? Is it possible that Hillary Clinton's lifelong scheme to be America's first female president could be derailed by this power couple's wanton venality?
I've watched closely through the years the Clintons' uncanny agility at hurdling real scandals and coming out almost unscathed. Yes, Bill Clinton was impeached, but what a dud that turned out to be, with Clinton rising to the figure of beloved statesman among Democrats and his accusers being painted as petty partisans.
There has been no justice, and they have made off like bandits ever since. One might argue that it's unfair to impute Bill Clinton's misdeeds to his wife, but but it's not a matter of imputation. Hillary Clinton has been integrally involved every step of the way -- from enabler to enforcer to joint participant. Don't ever forget her complicity, such as her leading role in destroying the train of women who dared to blow the whistle on him.
From the beginning, these two have stepped all over people (Travelgate) and mutually abused .and destroyed Bill's harassment victims. But do you remember the grating mantra of the Clinton-guarding media? "These are private matters that have nothing to do with his public life. Private conduct is irrelevant to one's fitness for public office."
Well, these disgraceful hacks don't have that excuse in their arsenal of dodges this time. There is no way even a journalism school valedictorian could credibly argue that the Clinton Foundation graft didn't directly involve the public interest.
The media and Democratic Party's joint alibis for the Clintons through the years have puffed the Clintons up with a sense of invincibility. The couple have to believe there is nothing they could do that would bring them down.
When I first heard about the foundation's influence peddling, I had little doubt there was truth to it, but I had no expectation that anything would come of it. In a sense, the Clintons have benefited from the plethora of charges leveled against them over the years. After a while, these allegations -- no matter how credible -- become just noise and are easily characterized as another chapter in a decades-long partisan witch hunt.
It's awfully convenient for the Clintons and their liberal hatchet men to paint every scandal as a politically motivated slander, but when the media and the Democratic Party themselves always refuse to put truth above their own ideological and political interests, it's inevitable that only Republicans would bring these charges.
But the Clinton Foundation scandal seems to be different. It is objectively true that the Clintons have become mega-millionaires since the close of Bill's second term -- and they've done it through exorbitant speaking fees, which, absent other consideration, couldn't possibly benefit the payers commensurate to their payments, and bizarre contributions to their foundation by foreign interests that had unusual access to Hillary's State Department.
Bill Clinton flippantly dismissed the suggestion of any quid pro quo, saying there is no evidence that any of the donors received anything for their donations. When asked whether there is at least an appearance of impropriety, he said, "I'm not responsible for anybody else's perception." It couldn't be more fitting that he was the first postmodern president. He lent Oval Office credence to the demonic lie that words have no meaning apart from what people choose individually to assign to them. He's unctuously transitioned from "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is" to "I can't be held accountable for your accurate perception that my wife and I are wholly corrupt and have not only used our public positions to financially profit but also compromised and damaged the nation's interests in the process."
Just think about the charge that Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain secured a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that led to her approval of certain extremely controversial arms sales to Bahrain after his kingdom donated up to $150,000 directly to the Clinton Foundation and some $32 million to the Clinton Global Initiative. This alone would be enough to bring down a deified Roman emperor.
The Associated Press reported that more than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state donated to the Clinton Foundation either individually or through related entities. Clinton apologists are already trying to tell us there's nothing to see here, but sentient human beings know better.
No president in modern history, including Richard Nixon, has been the scandal virtuoso that both of the Clintons are in their own right. The jig just may be up.
WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange promises more email dumps that will bring Hillary Clinton down. Wouldn't it be the profoundest poetic justice if the Clintons were done in by the very emails Hillary thought she had deep-sixed months ago?
