Parsing words; splitting hairs; living in gray areas; pushing the envelope.
Is this any way to run a political campaign or career? Is it any way to run a government?
Apparently. For many — perhaps most — politicians, it’s the way the game is played. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it, when pushing the envelope to the edge of legality brings politicians into the ethical red zone.
For supposedly smart, savvy and experienced political players who champion progressive policies that help regular people, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seem recklessly tone deaf at times to the sensibilities of those same constituents and even supporters — whether defining what sex is or isn’t in the Oval Office, or arranging overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom for big donor Friends of Bill, or letting donors to the charitable Clinton Foundation slosh over into the appointment book of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The current flap over apparent access to the State Department for friends and contributors to the Clinton Foundation when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state is just the latest example.
What were they thinking?
The Foundation, like many such organizations established by former presidents, does good charitable work worldwide on issues like health care and poverty. So donations from foreign countries and corporations and big political contributors goes toward those good deeds, not into the Clintons’ personal checkbook or Chelsea’s pocketbook.
Might those contributions have been made with the cynical hope of gaining access to State Department or a future president? Duh!
Is it unseemly to the electorate, once exposed? Duh!
Was it illegal? Well, no. But sadly that seems to be the litmus test for the Clintons. We’d prefer the standard for behavior of our politicians were “is it the right thing to do?”
At the very least the litmus test should be “will it look bad?”
So, no, we aren’t happy the Clintons didn’t manage to keep a real firewall between the foundation and Secretary of State Clinton.
Of course, precious few of our leaders in Washington, D.C., pass the same smell test. Our federal government is just bathed in too many billions of dollars in campaign contributions. Don’t tell us those mega-contributors aren’t expecting access to our congressmen and payback for their “friendship.”
So it seems, just a little disingenuous of Clinton’s Republican rivals to carp about her taking visits from Clinton Foundation donors. At least they weren’t contributing directly to her campaign, but to a charity that actually does some direct good in the world.
Based on the records released so far, the Associated Press found that more than half the people outside the government who met or spoke by telephone with Mrs. Clinton during her tenure as a cabinet secretary had given money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation.
Clinton said after the flap broke she would take “additional steps” to ensure there wasn’t a conflict of interest with the foundation if she is elected president. Her husband has said the foundation would no longer accept foreign or corporate donations and that he would no longer raise money for the organization if she became president. The Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, would remain on the foundation’s board.
Mrs. Clinton has asserted there was nothing illegal, no favors improperly granted to Foundation donors. Perhaps not, but just because a law wasn’t broken doesn’t mean the optics aren’t bad and voters aren’t offended. While there may be no fire, the Clintons should have from the beginning taken the kinds of steps being discussed now to clear the air of smoke foreign and corporate donations to their foundations have caused.