Americans are conditioned to think that what is reported in the news is a fair representation of reality. Everyone understands there is considerable bias in the news, but everyone assumes it is deliberate. The news people know, for example, that Obama is lying about his Iran deal. They just like him and therefore cover for him on it. In other words, there’s no secret conspiracy or deep state maneuverings going on, just good old fashioned partisanship in the reporting. If you look close enough, you can figure out what’s going on in the world.
Palace intrigue, cloak and dagger capers and Byzantine conspiracies are for movies and history books. In the old days, conspirators worked behind the scenes to undo the king or subvert his enemies in court, but that’s long over. Most people today subscribe to Franklin’s maxim that the only way three can keep a secret is if two are dead. Only tin foil hate loons talk about conspiracies, the “deep state” and clandestine plots.
I’ve never been a conspiracy guy and I tend to think a conspiracy of more than a handful of dedicated fanatics is not going to go too far. Even something like the 9/11 attacks worked mostly because of sloth. There were plenty of people who knew something was not right, but they were too lazy or too stupid to do anything about it. Good old fashioned dumb luck had more to do with 9/11 than conspiracy.
That does not mean things are done in the open. Politics is thick with plotting and scheming. It’s all they do, even when it works against their interests. That’s what makes the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal interesting to watch. There’s a lot not in the public domain, but we keep getting these drips suggesting someone is doing the dripping. That someone has reasons and they have a boss, possibly in the White House.
The thing that the press never bothers to consider is what must have been known for a long time. Hillary Clinton was at State in 2009 and supposedly had the private e-mail system on day one. That means everyone at State knew about it. It means the White House knew about it. Further, all of these people knew it was unusual and maybe even illegal. The first question that comes to my mind is why did the White House let this go on? Why would State not blow the whistle on this?
My hunch is the White House looked at this as mana from heaven. They had fall in their lap the best piece of leverage possible. Their political enemy was caught red handed mishandling classified information. Maybe it was not that way at first, but it was at least a very embarrassing thing that they now had on Clinton. It’s the sort of thing J. Edgar Hoover used to collect on people in case he needed leverage on them.
The most obvious explanation for why the White House kept this under their hat, so to speak, is it was great leverage for later. If they ever needed a favor from the Clintons or they needed to take down Hillary, they had the perfect weapon. Presumably they had the NSA or CIA monitoring the server, maybe even copying the traffic to and from it. Reports indicate the Clinton people did not encrypt the traffic, which is amazing. That means they may have other stuff.
Something people don’t know about how the government polices classified data is they have multiple counter espionage shops looking at everyone, using all the tools you read about. In the course of their normal work this off-the-books server would have been in briefings that make it to the President. At the minimum, they would have been in the briefing books.
That leads to why this is getting into the public now. In politics, a standard way to handle dirty laundry is to reveal it yourself to friendly media who will spin it for you. That way you get it out in the public on your terms, deal with the initial excitement and then declare it old news if anyone brings it up again. That does not appear to be the case here as Team Clinton has been absurdly ham-fisted in their handling of this thing. They are acting as if they don’t know who knows what about this thing.
That means the White House or State as the top targets behind the leaks. People forget that it was State that leaked the information on Valerie Plame to the press. Scooter Libby took the fall, but it was State that was playing politics. In the Plame case it was just good old fashioned blabbing that was the cause. In Watergate, Mark Felt allegedly conspired with the Washington Post against Nixon entirely out of spite. That could be the case here as the Clintons have a lot of enemies.
The other possibility that comes to mind is the White House is behind it. I tend to think this is the case as the leaks to the media have a DOJ vibe to them. The FBI is involved and what’s coming out is the sort of stuff that comes from an FBI investigation into the mishandling of classified material. That cannot happen without approval of the White House. This DOJ is so politicized they don’t take a crap without calling the White House.
That would raise the obvious question of why now? Maybe it is just serendipity. Things get out of hand in politics too. My hunch is they want to get Warren to reconsider and clearing the field of the 500 pound gorilla would change Warren’s math. Six months ago she was looking at running as the liberal insurgent. That’s not easy when the “centrist” is a vicious street fighter who had access to your raw FBI files. If the gorilla is suddenly out of the picture, Warren could run as the sensible liberal alternative to Bernie Sanders.
Plan B could be to back O’Malley, but he has a penis and is white. Joe Biden is too old and too crazy to be a serious alternative. It seems to me that unless they know Warren is ready to ride in as the white knight, it makes little sense for Team Obama to be leaking this stuff. Spite is always a possibility, but these guys are cold blooded when it comes to politics so I’m not inclined to think that’s the case.
There’s one other reason Team Obama could be behind this and that’s ego. A Republican in the White House would let Obama be the wise man of his party and function as a shadow president, questioning anything he does not like about the new guy. Clinton in the White House takes that away and it gives Team Clinton a chance to settle any old scores with Team Obama. With a Republican in the White House, Obama can walk around as the greatest living Democrat. That was worth $150 million to Bill Clinton. I’ll also note that Clinton did not help Gore and was not a great friend to Kerry or Obama.
I’ve written a lot about the comparisons between Hillary and Nixon. Their lives would make a great dual biography so the reader could compare the two in real time. Nixon was ultimately undone by enemies he knew, who were exploiting enemies he never imagined. Mark Felt was a nobody and no one had a reason to care about him. Alexander Butterfield was just a guy on Haldeman’s staff. More than a few great men have been brought low by minor figures just doing their jobs. Maybe that’s what we have here.
It would be great theater if in the end, Hillary goes to jail and Bill walks free.
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I favor it being a White House op. The primary motive would be joy. The Clinton’s hate Obama as they love themselves, so there is a long and continuous history of Clinton probing and resentments for Obama to pay back. You cannot disrespect The One. This is just a final slap down of both Clinton’s, and, as you, say, leaving the imaginary high road clear for The One in perpetuity.
The fact the Hillary would take a job in the enemy camp and that the party of Obama would have here there exemplifies the grossness of politics at an extreme end in the same way that the Clinton’s marriage exemplifies marriage–or the Obama’s for that matter. This entire democratic process is reality tv now, 24-7. Maybe Trump is the only credible candidate, considering our fake political arrangements.
Team Clinton Inc. said mean things about BO in the campaign for the Democratic Primary 8 years ago. See: Birther, Lack of experience, voting present, etc. Teh won did not forget and payback is a _itch. He is a small man. Also agree with Joseph K, the crumble is about to happen so let’s pin it on the Republicans and preserve O’s “legacy”. Also, crazy is not a requirement for leadership but it doesn’t hurt either.
Payback time. People forget that the Birther meme started in the bowels of the Clinton campaign. The Clinton operation finally may have met a team more ruthlessly vituperative and vengeful than they.
In sports, it is not unusual for a great coach to nosedive later in the career, after their top assistants have moved on to other jobs. Musical acts often run into this trouble. The original band, manager and producer make a great team for a while. Then some members go solo and the producer moves onto other projects. The magic is gone and that’s it. Politics is a similar bag. It’s not called Hollywood for ugly people by accident.
Team Clinton no longer has the top-shelf talent on staff. A Lanny Davis would have made sure there was plenty of distance between this caper and the boss. He would have made sure never used the e-mail service. Instead, assistants would have sent and received e-mail on her behalf. Old pros know that you never write when you can speak and you don’t speak if you can nod. Hillary is now surrounded by amateurs.
Reading between your lines, I deduce that you are part of the conspiracy. One of the conspiracies, anyhow. I’m not sure which one, but I’m watching, now, for further data.
I like the idea that someone is too crazy to be considered a “serious alternative.” As far as I can see in politics, that has never been a barrier.
The UK’s Liebore party is set to elect a man as leader who wants to befriend terrorist-sponsoring organisations, crucifying people with money and generally heaving the lefties even further back into a mythical ‘dream’ that soon develops horns and an arrow-pointed tail. Most people think it is too crazy to even consider such thing, but he may well win handsomely.
As the US appears to have either come close to or actually chosen various crazies over the years (albeit smiling and subtle crazies, which may be the worse kind) then I can’t see what the objection to Biden is.
There’s crazy, as in you have silly ideas about the world, and then there’s crazy, as in you have different silly ideas in your head at any given moment. It’s the difference between chaotic evil and lawful evil. You can work around someone who is predictably nuts. Biden jumps from one crackpot thing to the next without rhyme or reason. He was picked for Veep because he made Obama impeachment proof. Nothing Obama did would warrant the risk of Biden getting the top job.
Biden is an amiable guy and generally harmless because people around him make sure he is never handling anything dangerous. That’s been the case since he arrived in Washington. If he is made the nominee, it means the party knows there is no chance he can win. Given the circus in the GOP, that’s too big of a risk.
If I am going to go full conspiracy here I’d say that the point behind this operation is to put GOP Inc. back in the White House for a spell. The Democrats would much rather see things fall apart on the Republicans’ watch, and the shit is going to hit the fan soon. Obamacare needs to collapse to get us to single-payer, as planned; the Israelis are going to hit Iran; China will implode taking down half the world economy; an oil price collapse will cause chaos across the Middle East and in Russia; the Saudi Monarchy could fall. Not to mention the GOP will be needed to finally pass amnesty and get that Pacific Trade deal done so that the concept of national sovereignty can finally be put to bed. The Democrats have done the heavy lifting for 8 years; time for GOP Inc. to do its part.
Nixon was undone by Nixon. He dipped his toe into the cover up and the proof was on the tapes. Not legal beyond a reasonable doubt proof, but enough guarded conversation and direction to make the impeachment charges plausible. Without the tapes he could have survived. Most likely if he had destroyed them, even after their existence was revealed, he could have survived. Once they became a subject for the courts, he was screwed because then it really would be a crime, destroying evidence. In spite of his intelligence he failed to appreciate how badly his opponents wanted to see him in the dock. He was right, previous presidents had engaged in even worse acts. But he wasn’t FDR or JFK. He was the guy who exposed Hiss and he was going to be made to pay for his sin.