Hillary plays loose with the truth

In late March of this year, the Clinton campaign said that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton may have “misspoken” when she said she had to evade sniper fire when visiting Tuzla, Bosnia, exactly 12 years earlier as First Lady. “Misspoke” it would seem is political jargon for “lied”.

She milked the “sniper” episode to illustrate her foreign policy bona fides. But her account of that incident was challenged, first by Sinbad, the comedian, who travelled with her, and then by a forest of newspapers including the Washington Post.

This is merely the most recent example of how Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton plays loose with the truth. Her focus on power, her drive to dominate and her limitless capacity to deceive, are the pistons that relentlessly drive her to the highest office in the land. Exposing her lust for power, stretching over two decades, but best illustrated by her single-minded tilt at the presidency, is the subject of this book, Hillary: The Politics of Personal Destruction.

In the build-up to Election ’08, what is most telling of the last three candidates standing is Clinton’s polarising effect on the electorate. Folk either love her or loathe her. There are very, very few straddling the middle ground. And of those who love her, many, many, are buying her fiction that the race is all about making a woman - and not a man - the Commander-in-Chief. These voters have been duped. Regrettably they are disinterested in the pros and cons of one particular woman running for office - Hillary Rodham Clinton. They have been successfully persuaded that the election is all about women.

And that’s just the way Mrs Clinton wants it.

David N. Bossie, a former chief investigator for the US House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, exposes a host of facts that have been concealed or woefully under reported by the media over the years. Details about Clinton's life and her career are recounted by those who worked with her or with her husband. Both within 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and outside those august gates.

Bossie interviews many who came into contact with Hillary Clinton and exposes her parcelling of favours to lobbyists and reveals how her time in the White House was steeped in controversy as well as sleaze.

Bossie cites example, after example, of Clinton sidestepping the law; lying; deceiving and intimidating. For instance, former White House operator Mr Dick Morris explains her well documented track record of saying what she does not believe in, if she feels it is politically expedient to do so.

The book opens with an account of corrupt financial dealings in relation to a fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s US Senate Campaign. A large donor to her campaign, Mr Peter F. Paul is mentioned in the context of being leaned on to keep contributing way above what he agreed to, lest Mrs Clinton cancels the proposed function and blackballs him. Her campaign team’s failure to report such donations is exposed for the criminality inherent in such a breach of Federal Election Commission laws.

When the matter went to trial, the judge - a (Bill) Clinton appointee - made a mind blowing statement to the jury, saying that Hillary Rodham Clinton had no role whatsoever in this matter. And that the contributor in question, Mr Peter F. Paul was no more than a totally corrupt con man.

Mr Paul’s account of his interactions with Mrs Clinton makes for Godfather-like reading. She has used the power she has amassed since leaving the White House to compromise all three branches of government. She has thwarted investigations by the Senate, the Federal Election Commission as well as the Department of Justice. She has induced a federal judge to throw a criminal trial by making false statements to a jury and caused a prosecutor to exonerate her with the full knowledge that evidence existed.

Ultimately her campaign was fined US$35,000. The largest fine ever handed down for such criminal behaviour. And in the (northern) summer of 2007 she was forced to return US$900,000 from colourful identity, Mr Norman Hsu.