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| Hillary Clinton takes a question at her Press Conference |
I thought she handled herself pretty well at her recent press conference. If what she did about her emails was not illegal, and it wasn’t, what’s the big deal? If the security of the United States was not compromised, and apparently it wasn’t, I have no problem with her using a properly secured private server.
True, there are some unanswered questions, but they don’t bother me. I don’t care why she did things the way she did. She said it was a matter of convenience, I accept that. She also admitted, given the firestorm that has arisen, that it would have been better had she used the State Department server for her official email correspondence. I agree with that. I don’t care if she erased some of her personal correspondence. She is entitled to her privacy. Did any of those emails in any way compromise the integrity of her position as Secretary of State? I seriously doubt it. Hillary Clinton is a very intelligent, experienced woman who is well aware of the protocols and the risks of violating them. There is no doubt in my mind that she has her country’s best interests at heart, and she has demonstrated that as a public servant.
But here is what I find really infuriating. In the midst of all this politically motivated fuss about Hillary Clinton’s email the media commentators for the most part are barely mentioning one of the most infamous and unprecedented actions ever perpetrated by a group of United States senators. Forty-seven Republican senators signed a letter (click to see) addressed to Iranian leaders that was intended to undermine President Obama’s efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Their action has led many to label the signers as traitors! They have jeopardized our nation’s negotiating position. They have misrepresented our President’s role in the negotiating process.
Their action has evoked an embarrassing squelch from Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif , who saw through their ulterior political motive and gave the Senators a lesson in US constitutional law! Kudos to the seven Republican senators who declined to sign the document.
No wonder Republicans are pouncing on Hillary for her email “scandal”! It is a convenient way to take the heat off their own party’s despicable action. Why has there not been more of a public outcry against those Senators? There is no comparison between their deliberate disrespect and disloyalty to the President of the United States and their endangerment of our nation’s foreign policy, and Secretary Clinton’s allowable but in retrospect regrettable decision to use her personal email server instead of the government’s. Was it inappropriate for her to be the one to judge which of her emails needed to be turned over to the State Department? Perhaps. But that is hardly as serious as the action of those 47 senators. Kudos to those who are putting the emphasis where it belongs, and brickbats to those who are blowing the email story out of all proportion!
Meanwhile, I’m on Hillary’s side. And the more she is attacked, the stronger I feel about it. I hope many other people are feeling the say way.
I agree with you - for the most part - and I, too, have an awful lot of respect for Hillary. I think she has been a tireless public servant and, for all the controversy in the late days of her husband's presidency, the Clinton years were pretty darned good. My only negative about this is that, while it may not have been illegal, it most certainly was ill-advised in this climate where EVERYTHING will be found out, and, if a negative slant can be attached to an action by political opponents, it will be. I have a close friend in the IT Security business who writes that "Without an independent third party IT security auditor looking at the physical server and its back-up archives, there's no way to know what was properly forwarded to the State department archives and what was inappropriately buried." That's where the brouhaha lies I think. Nonetheless, if she earns the Democratic nomination for President, I'll proudly vote for her.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your very thoughtful comment, with which I thoroughly agree. Hillary is certainly paying the price for her decision to handle her email the way she did. My main objection in this post had to do with the politicizing of her story and the attention it is being given in comparison to the less extensive coverage and lack of outrage given to the blatantly disloyal and dangerous action by the 47 Republican Senators. .
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