President-elect Barack Obama cannot appoint Sen. Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state. Frankly, I think Sen. Clinton would do a good job. But her husband, President Bill Clinton, is too much of a liability.
I’m sad to say this, because I am, and have been, a big fan of President Clinton.
But here is the problem: President Clinton has been raising money from foreign governments for the last eight years, money dedicated to humanitarian causes that any reasonable person would approve. How can you disapprove of projects to deal with the AIDS crisis in Africa and similar catastrophes?
But you know very well that any measure taken by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be compared to the donations received by former President Clinton. And the first time there is any kind of a match, the fact that the money went to widows, orphans, starving people or desperately ill people won’t make any difference. The propaganda machines that still have many people convinced that Obama is a Muslim (in spite of all the controversy about the Christian Church he attended for decades) will spew out hate.
It is sad that initiatives undertaken by President Clinton to help the poor, the sick, the downtrodden and the disadvantaged damage his wife. But they do, they do indeed. I can just hear the screeching and raging of the right-wing radio shock jocks when it turns out that we’ve made some agreement with the country whose leader donated to combating AIDS in Africa through President Clinton’s foundation.
This truly is a sad state of affairs. However, the right-wing shock jocks know no limits. I shudder every time I think of Ann Coulter talking about how the widows of people incinerated in the World Trade Center must be enjoying their widowhood. I do not know if Coulter is married, but if she is, I pity the poor devil who is her husband. I hope she lives a long life, most of it cold and lonely. Rush Limbaugh could not think of any reason why Colin Powell would support Obama except race. That is a sad indictment of Limbaugh. Limbaugh supported McCain, another old white guy. Why was that not a racial choice just like Powell’s selection? If white people choose white people, that’s not racial, but if black people choose black people it is? Oh, and by the way, according to Rush we are in the Obama recession. Now there is reason unhinged. Rush wants to blame a recession created by Bush that is in full swing (if you don’t believe me look at the 50,000 jobs Citibank just tossed off) and say it is the fault of the guy who won’t even become president for another two months.
Is there any chance Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would fair treatment from the people you know will be combing over the donations to her husband’s foundation? All of you who answered yes need to stay after class and clean erasers. Everything she does as secretary of state would be matched to the donations that Bill Clinton’s foundation received, and the fact that neither he nor she gets a dime of that money will not matter at all.
I think she might be a wonderful secretary of state. But I don’t think that we can afford the price exacted by people like Rush, who don’t seem to care about how much damage they do to our country.
Dugan Barr has practiced law in Redding since 1967. He has tried more than 200 civil jury cases to verdict. He is married and has five children. The offices of Barr and Mudford, LLP, are at 1824 Court St. in Redding and can be reached at 243-8008.
