"Blizzard of Lies"

Give the New York Daily News some credit. They support Donald Trump, but they gave Lisa Schiffren an opportunity to comment on why voters should not vote for Hillary.

...In a January 1996 column called “Blizzard of Lies” about the then First Lady’s mounting scandals, the late, highly respected New York Times columnist William Safire wrote:

“Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady … is a congenital liar … she is compelled to mislead, and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit.”

Safire listed the Clinton-era scandals: the $100,000 she claimed to have made trading in the cattle futures market; the abuse of presidential power in which she “induced a White House lawyer to assert flatly to investigators that Mrs. Clinton did not order the firing of White House travel aides, who were then harassed by the F.B.I. and Justice Department to justify patronage replacement by Mrs. Clinton’s cronies”; and her decision to hide incriminating records from the Rose Law Firm, which showed she had lied under oath “when she denied actively representing a criminal enterprise known as the Madison Guaranty S&L.”

...Safire concluded, “Therefore, ask not ‘Why didn’t she just come clean at the beginning?’ She had good reasons to lie; she is in the longtime habit of lying; and she has never been called to account for lying herself or in suborning lying in her aides and friends.”

Twenty years on, in face of larger scale but similar influence-peddling accusations, she still has never been held accountable.

A rotten temperament
Behind the cool façade that suggests steadiness under fire, Hillary is a well-known rageaholic, infamous for shrieking nasty imprecations at both professional staff and people who guard her, as leaks from the Secret Service and others have long indicated.

...newly released FBI records show that, in her years as secretary of state, the nation’s leading diplomat, Clinton was so rude and nasty to the State Department security agents assigned to guard her that they refused to work with her. “[Redacted] explained that CLINTON’s treatment of DS agents on her protective detail was so contemptuous that many of them sought reassignment or employment elsewhere,” the interview summary says. “Prior to CLINTON’s tenure, being an agent on the Secretary of State’s protective detail was seen as an honor and privilege reserved for senior agents. However, by the end of CLINTON’s tenure, it was staffed largely with new agents because it was difficult to find senior agents willing to work for her.”

This behavior occurs frequently, and it undermines any idea that Mrs. Clinton is in control of her emotions, or in any way “steady.”

The personal is political
Mrs. Clinton’s current crusade against “bullying” seems ironic given that she personally bullied the women her husband slept with in pursuit of keeping the Clinton, Inc. reputation clean enough to fool most Americans.

Many women found it puzzling that such a strong-seeming woman stayed with a husband who humiliated her by constant cheating. But it makes a lot more sense if you consider them a pure partnership, devoted to acquiring power and money.

Servergate, influence-peddling and worse
Let’s start with the most consequential current scandal, which gets bigger by the day. That is the linked set of illegal actions Clinton took as secretary of state, including “Servergate” and the alleged auctioning off of U.S. foreign policy to the biggest donors to the Clinton Foundation.

...Only recently has it become clear that the likely purpose of setting up the private server in the Chappaqua residence and a bathroom in a non-secure office in Denver was to avoid detection of the private business Clinton conducted from her office — namely, directing nations with business before the U.S. State Department to become donors to the Clinton Foundation.

Policy and political judgments

The record shows, again and again, lies, secrecy and duplicitousness deployed as means to the ends of amassing wealth and power.

Despite her well-padded resume and long proximity to power, Hillary Clinton’s illegal actions, abuse of office, secretive, undemocratic instincts and low character render her unfit to serve as President of the United States.

Read more here.