The "email scandal" wasn't a scandal until Hillary Clinton made it one. I noted, back in March, that she had done precisely that — thrown a scandalously stupid bone to the scandalmongers — when she declared her "server will remain private." Such is Hillary's managerial habit: to needlessly prolong the torturous drips of wretched publicity. She never changes, perhaps because her managerial incompetence is congenital. Or so it would seem.
Democrats are worried that the furor surrounding Hillary Clinton’s private email server will be prolonged and intensified after her sudden move to hand it over to the FBI.
The Clinton campaign’s decision to give up the server and a thumb drive containing backup copies of emails left Democrats scratching their heads as to why the former secretary of State had resisted for months turning over the server.
Why are they scratching their heads? Rolling disclosures and bending to the inevitable at the eleventh hour are Hillary's way. Democrats' sudden "worry" was as predictable as her characteristic stonewalling. Retaining the server was dumb — remarkably dumb, even for a serial botcher of sound political management.
Who couldn't have guessed it would come to this? Worry, hand-wringing and newfound furor — all when the page-A1 "scandal" could have been permanently relegated, months ago, to the back pages and the fevers of Trey Gowdy's mind. Now of course it's back, all of it, courtesy the "victim."
Will any this torpedo Hillary's frontrunner status? Almost certainly not. But her self-slashed pool of blood in the political waters is attracting unwanted attention. And Joe 'Mack the Knife' Biden is surely smelling that blood. My guess? He senses a body just oozin' life, and our boy Biden is about to do something rash.
Why not? What has he to lose?
Why did Obama let the furor around his birth certificate rage for years and then just put it out there? It wouldn't have made any difference to the conspiracy theorists if he had made it public on day one. But it sure made a lot of people on the right look nuts. This looks exactly what it is. Anyone who thinks any actual evidence of wrongdoing will be found doesn't know their Clintons. Barring Bill's marital peccadilloes when has any of these scandals proved to have any foundation? And this we'll just be another one.
What have they got besides this? Hmm. There's Benghazi but that mine seems about played out. They have the Clinton Foundation which cashed some nice checks with names on them like Bush and Trump. Can they stretch the e-mail thing for a year and a half? I doubt it. Asked to comment on it Bernie said naught. O'Malley was smarter this morning. He said it was a matter for Hillary and her lawyers to deal with.
Posted by: Peter G | August 13, 2015 at 12:41 PM
Bernie.
Posted by: Jimiskin | August 13, 2015 at 12:50 PM
We seem to be in a mind meld today. I see this exactly as you do, Peter. The server is scandalmonger bait that's going to make whatever hapless Republicans are "investigating" it look like the Alex Jones Fan Club with 110% more frustration. We can always count on the mediocre right to learn nothing (autopsy, anyone?) and that's why the Clintons keep repeating the same "mistakes."
Posted by: Bob | August 13, 2015 at 02:04 PM
That's not to say they haven't made mistakes but neither Clinton is dumb. They have only to look at the pattern of their own history. No "scandal" is ever forgotten and no investigation barring Bill's zipper problems ever yields anything concrete. No journalist will go on record saying that either. Why not use that process to advantage? The Clintons are entirely in control of this particular "scandal". The timing, the evidence such as might be found on storage media they have always controlled. Everything. I don't think anyone is going to find a blue dress on either the server or that thumb drive. Of course the same people who howled for an investigation will howl when nothing is found. Just like always.
Hillary Clinton's chief danger in her battle for the presidency has always been that inevitability may lead to apathy and poor voter turnout when it is needed. Bernie is taking care of one end of the problem in a frankly noble way. And this scandal de jour is taking care of the problem on the other end of the scale. Though our host may classify me as a Clintonista that is not entirely true. I like to think I am more of a pragmatist. But he is right that such exist and masses of them. And in the immortal if apocryphal words of Nathan Bedford Forrest, one should always keep up the skeer. Even if it is your own people.
Posted by: Peter G | August 13, 2015 at 02:25 PM
We'll see how this goes. Hillary probably should have just agreed to turn over the whole enchilada right away, but probably wanted to triple-check that she knew exactly what would be found (as any sentient being in that position would). But delaying gave the Clinton-Scandal entertainment complex the opening they needed to turn this into a circus.
I still think, on the merits, there is probably nothing to see. I think politically, Hillary probably had few good choices to get on top of or squelch the story early and didn't do herself any favors by being defensive early on. I also think the half-life of this story probably doesn't extend into actual voting season, but then again, I didn't think anyone would remember it by NOW, and it's still humming along.
I usually disdain politicians who go straight for flagrant identity politics and playing the victim card, but I think there is support to be mined from that approach for Hillary. If she can make a convincing case that she's being treated unfairly (and differently from other candidates and previous Secs of State), she could get Democrats and women voters to rally around her. I mean, she did some of that against Edwards and Obama in 2008 and it worked reasonably well, and those two weren't half as nasty to her as the GOP is and will be, and the media has been so far. In this instance, I think she'd be more than justified in making this play.
Posted by: Turgidson | August 13, 2015 at 02:27 PM
Or to put it more conventionally, any knock is a boost. Again, I'm no Hillary fan either, but she understands politics even if she lacks the skill to execute on Bill's level, and she's not as conservative (If there are any genuine conservatives left they're mostly Democrats). "Hillarycare" was closer to the Swiss system than Obamacare; close enough that even Bill couldn't get it done.
Posted by: Bob | August 13, 2015 at 03:20 PM
I don't put it past her to have set the whole thing up as an opening to play the victim card. Like her or not, she's a highly intelligent woman coached by a guy who emerged from all his scandals, including a sort-of real one, with higher approval ratings than when he went in.
Posted by: Bob | August 13, 2015 at 03:27 PM
"Retaining the server was dumb — remarkably dumb, even for a serial botcher of sound political management."
Hahahaha... well said!
Posted by: Gary on the Left Coast | August 15, 2015 at 01:10 AM