Sundance508
Gold Member
- May 24, 2016
- 3,109
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If you want the truest indicator of that you need to visit Arkansas where the people know the Clinton's all too well....and are all too familiar with that sordid period of history in Arkansas when bill was the governor.
If one wants to understand what a hillary administration would be like....you must understand how they operated in Arkansas...that is where it all began...and there is no more true indicator of what a hillary administration would be like.
'The Clintons: Untold Secrets of Corruption, Drugs, Organized Crime & Financial Investments' (1996) by Roger Morris
'Roger Morris's "Partners in Power" is a summa of the case against the President and the First Lady. Next to this, a book like James B. Stewart's "Blood Sport" reads like a valentine. Mr. Morris, who has written biographies of Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig, argues that the Clintons are corrupt and that they have a history of betraying their liberal supporters. "Partners in Power" stops at Inauguration Day, 1993, but Mr. Morris investigates their pre-Washington careers with the baleful thoroughness of a Puritan divine. Think of it as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Author."
Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham earn some sympathy during their childhoods. Mr. Morris says that Bill's alcoholic stepfather abused his stepson as well as his wife. Hillary's father comes off as cold and tyrannical. Once they enter adulthood, however, Mr. Morris's subjects become patterns of moral squalor.
Mr. Clinton's motive in life, according to Mr. Morris, is politics -- winning and being liked. Politics in Arkansas was inseparable from a culture of fixers and favors, into which the young man was initiated by his stepuncle, Raymond Clinton, a Hot Springs Buick dealer. Mrs. Clinton's motives, as recounted by Mr. Morris, include a large measure of compensation for moving to Arkansas. "She took what she thought they were entitled to," says a soi-disant old friend of hers, "in making such a sacrifice in this steamy, raw, backward place."
In public, Governor Clinton talked a populist game, with calculated feints to the right; Mr. Morris cites his push to have Arkansas teachers take a qualifying test as an early instance of "artfully turning on people ostensibly of his own constituency." Behind the scenes, there was Mr. Clinton's Whitewater partner James McDougal, whose cash, generated at critical moments, Mr. Clinton called "McDollars." Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton traded cattle futures, making almost a 10,000 percent profit under the tutelage of politically well-connected brokers. Along the way, the author says, there were Governor Clinton's affairs. Mr. Morris arraigns "the Washington establishment" for "inherent sexism" and "class discrimination" in dismissing such stories.
But these are twice-told tales. The two matters "Partners in Power" examines that have received little coverage are Bill Clinton's relationship with Dan Lasater and his knowledge of goings-on at the Mena airport in western Arkansas.
Mr. Lasater was a bond dealer and race horse owner who socialized with the Clintons in the early 1980's, taking them to the Kentucky Derby in his private plane and contributing to Mr. Clinton's campaigns. Mr. Lasater's firm made a tidy sum underwriting Arkansas state housing bonds. He was also a drug dealer who paid off the drug debts of Mr. Clinton's addicted half brother, Roger, and briefly gave him a job. Mr. Lasater ultimately did time in prison, but Mr. Morris says state and Federal investigations into his activities and his relationship with Mr. Clinton were "stunted."
By far the most incendiary charges Mr. Morris makes concern Intermountain Regional Airport in Mena, Ark., which he calls "one of the world centers of the narcotics trade" in the early 1980's. Barry Seal, a pilot charged with Quaalude smuggling, flew weapons from Mena to the contras in Nicaragua and brought back cocaine and heroin. According to L. D. Brown, a disaffected Arkansas state trooper, Mr. Clinton (and Vice President George Bush) knew all about the operation. Mr. Morris's main sources for the story are Mr. Brown; Bill Duncan and Russell Welch, an I.R.S. agent and an Arkansas State Police detective who claim their inquiries into the smugglers were quashed; and the archives of Seal, who was murdered in 1986.
The story could be an Oliver Stone scenario. But it could also be a page out of Iran-contra testimony. It would take a Congressional committee, or a special prosecutor, to get to the bottom of it -- if there is a bottom. There would certainly be an interesting defendants' table.
Mr. Morris's brush is uncommonly broad. His Clintons are not isolated rogues but symptoms of the sickness of American life: "the destructive, stunting bondage to rampant commercialism and material consumption," and "the political culture of collusion and complicity." Yet this all-encompassing ferocity weakens the indictment. If America is so rotten (and Mr. Morris says the rot began with Alexander Hamilton), then it hardly matters whether Bill Clinton gets re-elected or not.
We will be hearing more of Mr. Morris's material, however. The book is a best seller, Republicans will no doubt take it up for partisan reasons and the press, some of which is beginning to feel it gave the Clintons a free ride in 1992, may be looking to make amends'.
Richard Brookhiser, a senior editor at NationalReview, is the author of "Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington."
If one wants to understand what a hillary administration would be like....you must understand how they operated in Arkansas...that is where it all began...and there is no more true indicator of what a hillary administration would be like.
'The Clintons: Untold Secrets of Corruption, Drugs, Organized Crime & Financial Investments' (1996) by Roger Morris
'Roger Morris's "Partners in Power" is a summa of the case against the President and the First Lady. Next to this, a book like James B. Stewart's "Blood Sport" reads like a valentine. Mr. Morris, who has written biographies of Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig, argues that the Clintons are corrupt and that they have a history of betraying their liberal supporters. "Partners in Power" stops at Inauguration Day, 1993, but Mr. Morris investigates their pre-Washington careers with the baleful thoroughness of a Puritan divine. Think of it as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Author."
Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham earn some sympathy during their childhoods. Mr. Morris says that Bill's alcoholic stepfather abused his stepson as well as his wife. Hillary's father comes off as cold and tyrannical. Once they enter adulthood, however, Mr. Morris's subjects become patterns of moral squalor.
Mr. Clinton's motive in life, according to Mr. Morris, is politics -- winning and being liked. Politics in Arkansas was inseparable from a culture of fixers and favors, into which the young man was initiated by his stepuncle, Raymond Clinton, a Hot Springs Buick dealer. Mrs. Clinton's motives, as recounted by Mr. Morris, include a large measure of compensation for moving to Arkansas. "She took what she thought they were entitled to," says a soi-disant old friend of hers, "in making such a sacrifice in this steamy, raw, backward place."
In public, Governor Clinton talked a populist game, with calculated feints to the right; Mr. Morris cites his push to have Arkansas teachers take a qualifying test as an early instance of "artfully turning on people ostensibly of his own constituency." Behind the scenes, there was Mr. Clinton's Whitewater partner James McDougal, whose cash, generated at critical moments, Mr. Clinton called "McDollars." Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton traded cattle futures, making almost a 10,000 percent profit under the tutelage of politically well-connected brokers. Along the way, the author says, there were Governor Clinton's affairs. Mr. Morris arraigns "the Washington establishment" for "inherent sexism" and "class discrimination" in dismissing such stories.
But these are twice-told tales. The two matters "Partners in Power" examines that have received little coverage are Bill Clinton's relationship with Dan Lasater and his knowledge of goings-on at the Mena airport in western Arkansas.
Mr. Lasater was a bond dealer and race horse owner who socialized with the Clintons in the early 1980's, taking them to the Kentucky Derby in his private plane and contributing to Mr. Clinton's campaigns. Mr. Lasater's firm made a tidy sum underwriting Arkansas state housing bonds. He was also a drug dealer who paid off the drug debts of Mr. Clinton's addicted half brother, Roger, and briefly gave him a job. Mr. Lasater ultimately did time in prison, but Mr. Morris says state and Federal investigations into his activities and his relationship with Mr. Clinton were "stunted."
By far the most incendiary charges Mr. Morris makes concern Intermountain Regional Airport in Mena, Ark., which he calls "one of the world centers of the narcotics trade" in the early 1980's. Barry Seal, a pilot charged with Quaalude smuggling, flew weapons from Mena to the contras in Nicaragua and brought back cocaine and heroin. According to L. D. Brown, a disaffected Arkansas state trooper, Mr. Clinton (and Vice President George Bush) knew all about the operation. Mr. Morris's main sources for the story are Mr. Brown; Bill Duncan and Russell Welch, an I.R.S. agent and an Arkansas State Police detective who claim their inquiries into the smugglers were quashed; and the archives of Seal, who was murdered in 1986.
The story could be an Oliver Stone scenario. But it could also be a page out of Iran-contra testimony. It would take a Congressional committee, or a special prosecutor, to get to the bottom of it -- if there is a bottom. There would certainly be an interesting defendants' table.
Mr. Morris's brush is uncommonly broad. His Clintons are not isolated rogues but symptoms of the sickness of American life: "the destructive, stunting bondage to rampant commercialism and material consumption," and "the political culture of collusion and complicity." Yet this all-encompassing ferocity weakens the indictment. If America is so rotten (and Mr. Morris says the rot began with Alexander Hamilton), then it hardly matters whether Bill Clinton gets re-elected or not.
We will be hearing more of Mr. Morris's material, however. The book is a best seller, Republicans will no doubt take it up for partisan reasons and the press, some of which is beginning to feel it gave the Clintons a free ride in 1992, may be looking to make amends'.
Richard Brookhiser, a senior editor at NationalReview, is the author of "Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington."
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