31.01.2008
Chris just
flagged a Josh Marshall
item about the Clinton-Kazakhstan story which, like Chris, I think is a little off the mark. Josh writes that:
One point that should not go unmentioned is that what former President Clinton is described as doing in that Times article is little different from what the first President Bush has done in his post-presidency. And his son is the president. So if it would be a problem with Bill, and I think it would be, it unquestionably is already a problem with the current president's dad. And no one has seemed to much bother about it.
That's fair enough, as far as it goes. But I don't think it goes very far. As Chris points out, the two Bushes weren't implicitly running as a presidential duo--to the contrary, W. generally tried to distance himself from H.W. when campaigning (and certainly after).
And there are several other ways in which context matters here. For example, one of Hillary's chief talking points is that, unlike Obama, she's been "fully vetted." This story demonstrates that to be false. Also, while people may have had negative associations with first Bush presidency, tackiness-verging-on-sleaziness wasn't one of them. (I'm not saying H.W.'s crowd was never tacky or sleazy, just that this wasn't a major narrative in retrospect.) But the average voter hears a story like this and immediately thinks Marc Rich, or some such. Finally, a major storyline of W.'s 2000 campaign wasn't whether or not he could "control" poppy; the question (even hope) was whether poppy could/would control him. But that's one of the major unanswered questions about a future Hillary Clinton administration. Needless to say, this story doesn't alleviate those concerns.
And that's all before you get to the actual details of the story, which are somewhat egregious. (See
Isaac for one particularly nauseating piece.)
P.S. A bonus point: If they weren't already on the Clinton influence-peddling beat, every investigative political reporter in America now is. And, unlike sexual indiscretions, it's a subject they're completely unambivalent about pursuing.
Now, Democrats are aspiring to be the Bushes?
According to
Hillary's campaign:
Regarding President Clinton's letter to President Nazarbayev:
The letter sent by President Clinton following President Nazarbayev's reelection was a routine letter that the former President's office regularly sends to world leaders on such occasions.
Routine?
That
New York Times piece which Noam
alluded to earlier about Bill Clinton helping broker a shady mining deal in Kazakhstan has this charming anecdote:
Indeed, in December 2005, Mr. Nazarbayev won another election, which the security organization itself said was marred by an “atmosphere of intimidation” and “ballot-box stuffing.”
After Mr. Nazarbayev won with 91 percent of the vote, Mr. Clinton sent his congratulations. “Recognizing that your work has received an excellent grade is one of the most important rewards in life,” Mr. Clinton wrote in a letter released by the Kazakh embassy. Last September, just weeks after Kazakhstan held an election that once again failed to meet international standards, Mr. Clinton honored Mr. Nazarbayev by inviting him to his annual philanthropic conference.
President of the Republic of KazakhstanPresident Nazarbayev was born on the 6th of July, 1940. In 1967 he graduated from the Technical higher education institute of the Karaganda metallurgical industrial complex. He holds Ph.D. degree in economics. In 1969 he started his political career being involved in Party and Komsomol activity. He was elected as the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the 1st of December, 1991. On the 29th of April, 1995 the referendum extended his presidential term up to the year 2000. In 1999 and 2005 was reelected as the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He is an academician of the National Academy of Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, International Engineering Academy, Social Science Academy of the Russian Federation, Honorary Professor of the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Mr. Nursultan A. Nazarbayev is the author of the number of books and articles.
link The Clintons Kazakhstan problemHillary's role in the Clinton/Guistra/Kazakhstan deal looks more like "good cop, bad cop" Oh, this is rich: Taylor Marsh tries to defend Hillary by throwing Bill under a bus People have taken issue with the
Clintons and BushesToo many in the media are likely
looking the other way.
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