Never mind Hillary Clinton's Obama hires, who may, or may not, assist her in breaking with infamous chaos and managerial disorganization past. For her chief consultant seems to be an even truer voice of ruthless efficiency: Pat Buchanan, he of Nixon's campaigns and memorable maladministrations. Burn the tapes! was Pat's pragmatic, albeit justice-obstructing, advice to his ethically stunted boss. You got yourself a records-kept problem? Destroy the records and you destroy the problem — (theoretically).
Such has been the pro-Nixon consensus for decades: If only Dick had listened.
Well, Pat's latest protégé has.
"To avoid prolonging a discussion that would be academic," writes Hillary's lawyer, David Dean-Colson-Haldeman-Erlichman-Kendall, to a congressional investigative committee, "I have confirmed with the secretary’s IT support that no emails … for the time period January 21, 2009 through February 1, 2013 reside on the server or on any back-up systems associated with the server."
It has been wiped clean; the tapes, so to speak, have been burned. Problem gone. Take that! Trey Gowdy and John Boehner, as well as Jason Chaffetz and every other hyperpartisan sleuth on Capitol Hill — all of whom, given an absence of evidence, are now sure to let this matter drop. Right?
That, of course, becomes the new problem for Hillary — or rather a fresh investigative opportunity, just as it would have 40 years ago for another congressional committee, for which Hillary worked. "Gowdy said that Clinton’s response to the subpoena means he and Speaker John Boehner will now contemplate new legal actions against Clinton."
It requires little imagination to look down the road at 2017 or '18, when "new legal actions" morph into impeachment proceedings against another President Clinton. In realistic terms, impeachment is more a political act than a legal one. And by 2017, having lost the White House again and thus having throttled themselves up into the very highest overdrives of madness, the people's fanatics in the almost-certain Republican House majority will be looking to nip that Clinton in the bud — and create a whole new circus. After all, what's to worry? The "worst" that could happen is that they'll gain more seats in the 2018 midterms.
Naturally, on 20 January 2017, congressional Republicans will convene in packs of carcass-hunting jackals anyway. For that, one can't blame Hillary. But one can regret that, Nixonlike, she just keeps leaving them a scented trail.