A Quickie from Clinton.com

A little short of time; we spent most of the day on the road. Let's see how fast I can do this.

Over at Powerline, John Hinderacker asks a question that makes the same point I have made several times: Was Hillary Clinton Ever Really Secretary of State?

One of the weirdest moments in today’s House committee hearing came when Hillary Clinton testified that she did not have a computer in her State Department office:

If you were to be in my office in the State Department, I didn’t have a computer, I did not do the vast is majority of the work on my e-mail.

Whoa. So the Secretary of State’s office is one of the last in the world that contains no computer.

No, Hillary Clinton was appointed "Nominal" Secretary of State, an "honorary" position designed to satisfy her legion of democratic supporters, and keep her out of trouble. She spent most of her time fund raising for Clinton.com. The bureaucracy at the State Department was just as happy to have someone who wasn't actually paying much attention to their actions in charge.

Fred Hof: “I was wrong”

I’ve devoted a lot of verbiage on this blog to demonstrating how hard it is for most people to admit they were wrong about something, and how rare it is as well. Hof has done just that, in a very public and difficult way. No, it doesn’t change the consequences of his having been wrong, but it’s still the act of a person of integrity—and, I might add, bravery. His piece makes almost tragic reading and he does not for a moment excuse himself or whitewash the truth.

But let him describe it:

By September 2012, when I resigned my State Department post as adviser on Syrian political transition to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I knew that Syria was plunging into an uncharted abyss—a humanitarian abomination of the first order. And I knew that the White House had little appetite for protecting civilians (beyond writing checks for refugee relief) and little interest in even devising a strategy to implement President Barack Obama’s stated desire that Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside. …
And as Syria began to descend into the hell to which Assad was leading it, I did not realize that the White House would see the problem as essentially a communications challenge: getting Obama on “the right side of history” in terms of his public pronouncements. What the United States would do to try to influence Syria’s direction never enjoyed the same policy priority as what the United States would say.

Again, I'm willing to grant the notion that Nominal Secretary Clinton had little influence over Preznit Barack Obama's foreign policy. But she would be better serve the truth, if not her presidential prospects, to just come out with it.

Why Congress needs to keep probing the Clinton cash register. The former first couple has been commingling public and personal business for years

Now that Hillary Clinton’s much anticipated congressional testimony is in the rearview mirror, the House Select Committee on Benghazi can move toward completing its investigation and issuing a final report. It’s also an appropriate time to urge standing congressional committees on both sides of the Capitol to press new investigations into a crony capitalism network the Clintons built inside the State Department. They ran a political cash register that blurred the lines between official government business and private enrichment and left behind many unanswered ethical questions.

The blueprint for this shakedown machine is laid bare in emails that the group I head, Citizens United, has been able to force into the public domain through Freedom of Information Act requests and subsequent lawsuits. Over the past several months, Citizens United has released many of these never-before-seen emails, and it prompted me to reminisce about the past.

Rasmussen reports that Hillary is Paying a Price Now for Her 2012 Lies About Benghazi.

Nothing is free in politics, but there is some question as to when you'll pay the price. Obama paid no price in 2012: He was re-elected. But Hillary Clinton, rated dishonest and untrustworthy by most voters after the Benghazi committee unveiled her private emails and spotlighted her video lie, is paying a price now.

How the FBI Could Derail Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Run

James Comey – not Bernie Sanders -- is the biggest challenge to Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions, a prospect that should keep the former Secretary of State up at night. The fiercely independent head of the FBI is directing the investigation into Clinton’s use of a personal email server and attendant issues raised during the Benghazi inquiry, which could lead to indictments of the former Secretary of State or her various aides.

If the probe determines that Hillary or her aides mishandled classified information or obstructed justice, her campaign will likely collapse. (Hence, the rumored possibility that Joe Biden could still emerge as a “draft” candidate.)
. . .
Comey has a reputation for integrity, a quality lauded by President Obama when he nominated the former Deputy Attorney General for his current post. Obama told how Comey prevented an ill Attorney General Ashcroft from being hoodwinked into reauthorizing a warrantless eavesdropping program, in the process standing up to President George W. Bush and putting his career on the line.

"He was prepared to give up the job he loved, rather than be a part of something that he felt was fundamentally wrong," Obama said.

I don't see it as likely myself, but if Comey threatens to resign if Obama tries to rein him in I would be impressed. I do expect to see a stream of leaks from the FBI investigation that reflects poorly on Clinton and the administration.

Talk about an instant turn around. First Hillary’s outrageous effort to whitewash the VA hospital crisis in which Hillary attempts to pin the VA scandal on Republicans for making a trivial problem seem ginormous for political gain, and then " Team Hillary swings into damage control mode after VA comments backfire" (brought to you via Wombat-sochos "In The Mailbox: 10.28.15."

Last week, Hillary Clinton dismissed the VA scandal as not “widespread” and a story that’s been partly blown out of proportion by Republicans pushing an ideological agenda.

The Clinton campaign obviously sensed those comments sparked a PR disaster, because Team Hillary’s coming out with a plan to address problems now called “systemic” that last week were referred to as not “widespread.”

Hillary has two arguments. "Vote for my vagina" and "Those mean Republicans are picking on little old me, a girl (vote for my vagina)."  That works well with her supporters, but gets a old with the uncommitted.

Typical: Hillary pledges to protect ‘law abiding’ illegals she was ‘adamantly against’ a dozen years ago

Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton pledged to make President Obama look like a rank amateur when it comes to executive amnesty:

“I am going to back and support what President Obama has done to protect DREAMers and their families, to use executive action to prevent deportation,” Clinton said to applause. “And I have said that if we cannot get comprehensive immigration reform as we need, and as we should, with a real path to citizenship that will actually grow our economy — thenI will go as far as I can, even beyond President Obama, to make sure law-abiding, decent, hard-working people in this country are not ripped away from their families.”

As you might expect, that’s precisely in line with what she said a dozen years ago.

Well, not really:

Hillary has a long record as liberal weather vane. Republicans should continually challenge her on her re-orientations.