Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Obama Should Think Twice About This Clinton Retread
NEWS DETAILS
Parent(s) Race 
ContributorScott³ 
Last EditedScott³  Nov 19, 2008 11:11am
Logged 2 [Older]
CategoryOpinion
News DateTuesday, November 18, 2008 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionPajamas Media.

"Reports are circulating that President-elect Barack Obama is considering Eric Holder as his attorney general. Earlier in the year when Holder was placed on Obama’s VP search committee we looked at Holder’s liabilities. Those are an even greater concern now that he is considered for the country’s top law enforcement job.

You may not always agree with his political analysis but Dick Morris, perhaps better than anyone willing to talk about it, knows his Clinton-ology. Morris reminded us that Eric Holder played a leading role in one of the most infamous events of a presidency filled with infamy: the pardon of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich. Morris dubbed candidate Obama’s decision to select Holder as one of three people charged with vice-presidential vetting his “first clear, serious mistake.”

Rich, of course, was the commodities trader who fled the country in 1983 to escape prosecution for tax evasion, racketeering, and trading with the enemy. Rich’s attorneys circumvented normal procedures, took the pardon to the White House attorneys, and gained pardon for their client, whose wife just happened to be a friend and major donor to the Clinton library, the Democratic Party, and Clinton’s legal defense fund. A firestorm ensued as did congressional investigations in which Democrats as well as Republicans excoriated the Clintons’ conduct.

This was not a Republican-contrived controversy. Time reported at the onset of the hearings:
But most see this as a source of bipartisan outrage. Republicans and Democrats alike were dumbstruck by the Rich pardon. The federal prosecutors who indicted Rich are especially livid, particularly because, by definition, Rich appears to be ineligible for a pardon: He never took responsibility for his actions or served any sentence. The congressional panels were called to investigate the path to Rich’s pardon — which, as various documents seem to indicate, did not follow usual channels."
Share
ArticleRead Full Article

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION