What’s Bill Clinton hiding this time?
Editor and Publisher put a gushing headline on the story: “Bill Clinton Asked His Staffers to Investigate — Him!â€
What a swell guy that Bill Clinton, huh? Read the first 4 paragraphs:
An article by Marc Ambinder in the forthcoming May issue of The Atlantic (not yet available online) explores what he calls one of the “the juicier subplots of the 2008 presidential campaign†– the role to be played by former President Bill Clinton will play.
Ambinder reveals that at Clinton’s urging “researchers at his presidential library and his offices in Harlem embarked on a highly secretive two-year project: investigating their own boss.
“The team conducted a painstaking reexamination of all the well-worn issues from Clinton’s presidency, poring over trial transcripts, internal White House documents, notes, and public and private correspondence, searching for any overlooked information that could be used to give new life to old embarrassments. Perhaps more important, the researchers covered Clinton’s postpresidential history too, with a muckraker’s eye, including the rumors about his private life that inevitably trail him.
“All but a handful of Clinton’s staff and friends were kept in the dark about the vetting process, though two who did know about it confirmed its existence to me. Neither would describe how the results were disseminated or who has access to them now. But the purpose of the exercise is clear enough: Bill Clinton wants to know what everybody else could know about Bill Clinton. Knowing that, we can safely conclude this, too: Bill Clinton hopes to play a major role in his wife’s campaign.â€
No honest man would do such a thing.
Bill Clinton obviously has something to hide. He wants to see if anyone can find it — and then obviously, destroy the evidence found.
This is not a game. This is a mission with a purpose.
The left lean of the Editor and Publisher story and the Atlantic Monthly’s pro-Clinton leanings tell me the Clintons leaked the story for a reason.
The Clintons are sitting on tons of money right now (I weigh money at $10,000 per pound) with few rules on how the money is spent. Opposition research is a routine expenditure. Self-oppo research is routine as well. Bill Clinton’s reputation as a cad is a known. If he cheats on Hillary now, who cares? Unlike when he was in office, cheating today would not count as sexual harrassment.
The signs point to there being something more. Ambinder said Clinton has “a longing to return to the presidential campaign trail that Al Gore overcautiously denied him.â€
Gore is no rocket scientist, but he knows politics. There was a reason he shunned Clinton in 2000 and continues to do so today. Seems to me it would take something bigger than Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky and the rest of the crowd to make Al Gore distance himself from Clinton — especially in such a close race.
This curious self-oppo research story raises that old issue.
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2007/04/07/604/
