The Double Standard Starts Already

by Deacon Blues

I’ve already said my piece about the anti-Hillary bias amongst the various MSNBC prime time hosts, reflecting their collective desire for Saint Elizabeth Warren to enter the race and save the party from another four years of Clintonism (thereby ensuring a GOP president in 2017). But even good reporters and news outlets like the Guardian are not immune from questionable statements about Hillary’s alleged taint. This is from Ed Pilkington’s piece in today’s Guardian:

But with Bill refusing doggedly to give up his speaker engagements – "I gotta pay our bills" – and foreign corporations and super-rich individuals still able to donate to the family charity, it looks like this controversy may run and run. Politically, too, Hillary Clinton is confronted with a potential credibility gap between her appeal to ordinary Americans on the presidential campaign trail and the millions that continue to flow to the foundation.

"Is she going to be in touch with the needs and dreams of poor America when her spouse and daughter is working with the world’s global elite?" said Dave Levinthal of the anti-corruption investigative organization, the Center for Public Integrity. "That’s a question she will have to answer, every step of the way."

I realize that many in the media and political classes have no sympathy for the Clintons, nor do I expect them to. I also stipulate that many of the decisions that Bill makes about securing speaking fees and donations for the Clinton Foundation, and Hillary’s obliviousness towards creating an ethical firewall from those decisions while at Foggy Bottom are simply unexplainable. But in the rush to leap from Peter Schweiker’s right wing attack manifesto in "Clinton Cash" towards a broader attack on the Clintons, members of the media are simply sophomoric in their analyses.

First, my question to Mr. Levinthal of the Center for Public Integrity is this: “Have you asked the same question of any of the GOP candidates who are already and clearly in the back pockets of the right wing oligarchs like the Koch brothers? Will Scott Walker and any of the other GOP candidates be in touch with the needs and dreams of poor America when they are dependent upon right wing billionaires for their political viability?”

Second, for Mr. Pilkington, what "credibility gap" exists for Hillary in appealing to ordinary Americans while she and Bill shake down billionaires for foundation contributions? Does he really think that having the Saudis and the wealthy elite giving to a separate non-campaign fund like the Clinton Global Initiative renders Hillary incapable of placing American voters ahead of the foreigners who wrote checks to the CGI? It’s different with the Koch’s and the right wing oligarchs, because they are in-country and already own our domestic political system and the GOP. But do these media critics really think Hillary will toss aside a second term and millions of Americans just to please the Saudis and other foreign donors? Really?

When I see the media and the "good government" types like Mr. Levinthal of the Center for Public Integrity hold the GOP candidates to the same critical standard demanded of Hillary, then maybe I'll give a damn about what they think.