Hillary and the Even Worse

"I've already said it was a mistake and it wasn't the best choice."  No, literally, those were Hillary Clinton's exact words.  I know because I just listened to a replay of her uttering those exact words this week.

Those "exact words" are important because they relate, as you surely know, to actions she has taken, and admits to have taken, which constitute felonies.  Whether or not a court of law will ever get the opportunity to give her the day in court she is entitled to, well, that is a decision the Attorney General will make after the FBI recommends indictment.

Oh, yeah.  Let's recall that the "mistake" she made was to set up a private email server on the day her confirmation hearings (to be Secretary of State) began.  The "mistake" was compounded, and made far more clearly illegal, when she declined to use an official government email account (one that ends in "...@state.gov") and chose to conduct all her official email on that private server.

It was compounded even worse when, at least 2,000 times, she sent or received classified material through that unsecured private server on her personal email account.  And I would add that it was compounded tenfold, at least in contemptibility, when she turned that communications approach into her standard way of doing business, regardless of the sensitivity of the material in the emails.

Another tenfold?  Sure, that would be when she suggested in an email that a particular message's content be stripped of its headers to mask the fact that it was sensitive and going over a private, unsecured email.  And we can add yet another hike in severity when she had her server wiped clean once the you-know-what hit the fan, when the Benghazi hearings exposed the private server's existence.  And I don't mean "with a cloth" either.

You know what "spin" is.  That's when a politician tries to get the public to think of some piece of news in a particular way, one that isn't exactly how it happened, and may even re-describe the facts.

Hillary Clinton is spinning like crazy.  This was a "mistake", I'll give her that.  But it was not a mistake in the sense of leaving a milk carton on the counter overnight, or forgetting to feed the cat.  That's a mistake.  There's a ton of difference between a willful action, that blows up even worse than the deception that was intended, and an accidental omission or commission whose results end up very badly.

I realize that her lackeys and her lemming followers will gratefully follow the line about it being a "mistake" and "not the best choice."  Michael Brown made a mistake when he robbed a convenience store, I guess.  It wasn't the best choice.  Trying to grab the policeman's gun, that was a mistake.  Charging him?  Mistake.  He paid for all of those.

Charles Manson made a mistake.  Ted Kaczynski?  Mistake.  Lois Lerner running a political usurpation of IRS powers to deny rights to conservative groups?  Mistake.  Dennis Hastert molesting boys?  Mistake.  None of them made the "right choice."  Exaggeration for effect on my part?  Sure, but maybe not by that much.

You see, Hillary Clinton, even before being confirmed for the huge national security-defending role of Secretary of State, realized that the greatest danger to her ability to use the State position to run eventually for president was broad access to her regular communication.  She set that server up to prevent FOIA access that might expose what she is and was really like.  It was no accident; it was a carefully-planned action taken in 2009 to prevent the exposure of her actions, corrupt or not -- including, not coincidentally, foreign influence on US policy through contributions to the Clinton Foundation.


Spin, spin, spin.  Those who feel obligated to believe her will stop right there and believe what happened as her press lemmings describe it.  The rest of us and, obviously, the FBI investigators creating an airtight case of it being more than a "mistake", see it for what it is.  An intentional and criminal, proactive step taken to mask other illegal activity -- and which, clearly, resulted in the constant exposure of national security, sensitive information to the world.

Thanks, Hillary.  Sure, we get it; it was just a mistake.  But go look for forgiveness in another column.

Copyright 2016 by Robert Sutton
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