Subject: Re: The Clinton Contamination - The New York Times
From: "Alexander S. Mackler" <[email-masked]>
To: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2016 16:23:19 -0400

But what should disturb Obama, who bypassed his own vice president to lay
out the red carpet for Hillary, is that the email transgression is not a
one off. It’s part of a long pattern of ethical slipping and sliding,
obsessive secrecy and paranoia, and collateral damage.

On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 10:28 AM, Eric Schwerin <
[email-masked]> wrote:

>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opinion/sunday/the-clinton-contamination.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0
>
> The Clinton Contamination
>
> President Obama joined Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for the first time
> during her presidential campaign. Doug Mills/The New York Times
>
> WASHINGTON — IT says a lot about our relationship with Hillary Clinton
> that she seems well on her way to becoming Madam President because she’s
> not getting indicted.
>
> If she were still at the State Department, she could be getting fired for
> being, as the F.B.I. director told Congress, “extremely careless” with
> top-secret information. Instead, she’s on a glide path to a big promotion.
>
> And that’s the corkscrew way things go with the Clintons, who are staying
> true to their reputation as the Tom and Daisy Buchanan of American
> politics. Their vast carelessness drags down everyone around them, but they
> persevere, and even thrive.
>
> In a mere 11 days, arrogant, selfish actions by the Clintons contaminated
> three of the purest brands in Washington — Barack Obama, James Comey and
> Loretta Lynch — and jeopardized the futures of Hillary’s most loyal aides.
>
> It’s quaint, looking back at her appointment as secretary of state, how
> Obama tried to get Hillary without the shadiness. (Which is what we all
> want, of course.)
> Continue reading the main story
>
> The president and his aides attempted to keep a rein on Clinton’s State
> Department — refusing to let her bring in her hit man, Sidney Blumenthal.
>
> But in the end, Hillary’s goo got on Obama anyhow. On Tuesday, after Comey
> managed to make both Democrats and Republicans angry by indicting Clinton
> politically but not legally, Barry and Hillary flew to Charlotte, N.C., for
> their first joint campaign appearance.
>
> Obama was left in the awkward position of vouching for Hillary’s “steady
> judgment” to run an angry, violent, jittery nation on the very day that his
> F.B.I. director lambasted her errant judgment on circumventing the State
> Department email system, making it clear that she had been lying to the
> American public for the last 16 months.
>
> James Comey, the F.B.I. director, testifying before a House committee on
> Thursday. J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
>
> Comey, who was then yanked up to Capitol Hill for a hearing on Thursday,
> revealed that instead of no emails with classified information, as Hillary
> had insisted, there were 110, of those turned over to the State Department.
> Instead of Clinton’s assurances that the server in the basement in
> Chappaqua had never been breached, Comey said it was possible that hostile
> actors had hacked Clinton’s email account. Among the emails not given to
> State, he said at least three contained classified information.
>
> Hillary had already compromised the president, who feels he needs her to
> cement his legacy. Obama angered F.B.I. agents when he was interviewed on
> CBS’s “60 Minutes”
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/17/us/politics/obamas-comments-on-clinton-emails-collide-with-fbi-inquiry.html>
> last fall and undermined the bureau’s investigation by exonerating Hillary
> before the F.B.I. was done with its work, saying pre-emptively, “This is
> not a situation in which America’s national security was endangered.”
>
> Hillary willfully put herself above the rules — again — and a president,
> campaign and party are all left twisting themselves into pretzels defending
> her.
>
> Obama aimed to have no shadows, but the Clintons operate in shadows.
>
> After Bill Clinton crossed the tarmac in Phoenix to have a long chat with
> Lynch, the attorney general confessed that the ill-advised meeting had
> “cast a shadow” over her department’s investigation into his wife and that
> she would feel constrained to follow the recommendation of the F.B.I.
>
> “I certainly wouldn’t do it again,” Lynch said, admitting it hit her
> “painfully” that she had made a mistake dancing with the Arkansas devil in
> the pale moonlight.
> Continue reading the main story
>
> The meeting seemed even more suspect a week later, when The Times reported
> that Hillary might let Lynch stay on
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/us/politics/hillary-clinton-president.html>
> in a new Clinton administration.
>
> The fallout from the email scandal has clouded the futures of longtime
> Hillary aides Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan, who were also
> deemed extremely careless by Comey for their handling of classified
> information. The Times reported that they could face tough questions as
> they seek security clearances for diplomatic or national security posts.
> (Not to mention remiss in not pushing back on Clinton about the private
> server.)
>
> “You’ve got a situation here where the woman who would be in charge of
> setting national security policy as president has been deemed by the F.B.I.
> unsuitable to safeguard and handle classified information,” Bill Savarino,
> a Washington lawyer specializing in security clearances, told the Times
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/us/state-department-emails-fbi.html?ref=topics>
> .
>
> So many lawyers in this column, so little law.
>
> President Obama is not upset about being pulled into the Clinton Under
> Toad, to use an old John Irving expression. He thinks Washington is so
> broken that the next president will need a specific skill set to function,
> and he thinks Hillary has that.
>
> But what should disturb Obama, who bypassed his own vice president to lay
> out the red carpet for Hillary, is that the email transgression is not a
> one off. It’s part of a long pattern of ethical slipping and sliding,
> obsessive secrecy and paranoia, and collateral damage.
>
> Comey’s verdict that Hillary was “negligent” was met with sighs rather
> than shock. We know who Hillary and Bill are now. We’ve been held hostage
> to their predilections and braided intrigues for a long time. (On the Hill,
> Comey refused to confirm or deny that he’s investigating the Clinton
> Foundation, with its unseemly tangle of donors and people doing business
> with State.)
>
> We’re resigned to the Clintons focusing on their viability and
> disregarding the consequences of their heedless actions on others. They’re
> always offering a Faustian deal. This year’s election bargain: Put up with
> our iniquities or get Trump’s short fingers on the nuclear button.
>
> The Clintons work hard but don’t play by the rules. Imagine them in the
> White House with the benefit of low expectations.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Eric D. Schwerin
> Rosemont Seneca Advisors, LLC
> 1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
> Suite 705
> Washington, DC 20007
> (202) 333-1880
> [email-masked]
> *P* *Consider the environment before printing this email.*
>
>

-- 

Alexander Snyder Mackler
(302) 598-867