What Difference Does it REALLY Make?

The usually reliably left-leaning Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus has now written multiple pieces for the Post that are highly critical of former first lady Hillary Clinton in her handling of the email scandal that has enveloped her this past week.

The former secretary of state, of course, would not deign to use the Government's protected, mandated email system.  Instead, as soon as her confirmation hearings even started, she had an email server set up -- not in the offices of the State Department, but in the Clinton family home in Chappaqua, NY, which she used exclusively during her undistinguished tenure at State.

Miss Marcus on Friday posed a series of questions which need to be asked of Mrs. Clinton directly -- but, of course, will not be -- in regard to the scandal.  There are more questions as well, such as why she fired her own ambassador to Kenya for using private email for government business which, in fact, is the only way that Mrs. Clinton communicated.

First of all, it is thrilling to see at least one liberal columnist at the Post (or anywhere else) finally break with the reflexive orthodoxy that tells them to protect Mrs. Clinton at all costs, much the same as it protects the current president.  It's telling that she wrote about it twice, which means it was not perfunctory faux outrage but, in fact, a true expression of contempt for Mrs. Clinton's actions.

But, in the long run, "What difference does it really make?"

It makes no difference to me.  I've been contemptuous of the aloof and impervious-to-criticism Clintons for years, particularly Mrs. Clinton -- and most particularly her penchant for opacity, dating back to her mishandling of the health-care overhaul attempt she led.  But it should make a difference to every American voter who would even think of considering her a worthy candidate to be president of the USA.  Because in the absence of a critical press, she can be expected to operate in precisely the same opaque way as president that she presumed she could get away with as secretary of state.

Let's look at the basics.  On the day that her confirmation hearings started in 2009, Mrs. Clinton set up an email server in her home in Chappaqua, NY.  Yes, the very day.

Why is it curious that the server was set up in her house?  Because a control freak like Hillary Clinton found, and implemented, the one way that her actions as a public servant could be shielded from public view -- owning the medium, literally.  She knew that in the event of a FOIA request, she and only she (and her lawyer) would be able to decide what was even available to be released.

Why does it matter?  Because she knew, having herself complained about "secret White House email accounts" during the Bush #43 years, that what she was doing was wrong.  Because she knew, having sent out a memo under her own name while secretary of state to instruct State employees not to use personal email accounts for Government business.  Because she knew, having fired her own ambassador to Kenya for doing exactly what she did for years as secretary.

It matters because, at 67 years old -- 69 by Election Day 2016 -- Mrs. Clinton's ethics and moral compass are now, and have long been, what they ever shall be.

The Hillary Clinton who clearly believes in the "do as I say, not as I do" approach is the same person she would be as president.  The opaque, entitled woman  that Hillary Clinton is now would be even less candid in the White House than its current occupant. If she could put a moat around the White House with alligators, one has no trouble thinking she would.  Surely that's not the attitude needed from our next president.

Mrs. Clinton recently used a hashtag "#grandmothersknowbest", as if having delivered a child who delivered a child imparts some kind of wisdom that she presumably would not ascribe to, say, Sarah Palin, also a grandmother.  That's not opaque.  That's trying to create an image of something softer than the pretentious character she has grown up to become.  But the presumption that she knows best, that her emails were too good to be accessible, that no one but she should decide what the public had a right to -- that is what should frighten anyone with a vote.

As Miss Marcus's column showed, it frightens even liberals, at least some of them.

And that is why it does indeed "make a difference."

Copyright 2015 by Robert Sutton