Tweet This! Hillary Scandals Explode
Posted 06/12/2013 06:34 PM ET
Scandal: The media have been all atwitter, pardon the pun, over Hillary Clinton joining the tweeting world. What they've been largely silent on, however, are the scandals now exploding from her time as secretary of state.
Yes, Hillary Clinton's on Twitter. As Michael Goodwin of the New York Post noted, her first comments were cutesy jokes about her hair and pantsuits. And she informed the Twitterati that her future job is — wait for it — "TBD."
Gee, "TBD," what could she have in mind? How about 2016 — when, according to most Democratic pundits, she will be the clear front-runner to take President Obama's place.
Surely, that explains Clinton's sudden focus on using the new media.
What's more intriguing are the scandals now blowing up around her — which, when not entirely ignored, have so far gotten little substantive coverage.
Prime among those scandals is Benghazi. Clinton's failure to adequately protect her own diplomats in Libya and the multiple lies told about the terrorist attack are bad enough in themselves to warrant multiple investigations.
But now it turns out that there was an entirely different kind of scandal brewing in the State Department's halls and embassies during her tenure: Multiple sex scandals, including charges — not proven — that Howard Guttman, a longtime Democratic supporter who now serves as ambassador to Belgium, solicited sex from prostitutes and even children.
CBS News has reported that investigations into a number of sexual misconduct charges on the part of both ambassadors and security officers were quashed by order of Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryl Mills.
If so, this is beyond troubling. It suggests a pattern of deceit and abuse that, at best, calls Clinton's character and leadership into question, and at worst, would seem to require a special criminal investigation.
Guttman has been controversial from the start. In 2011, he blamed Israel for a surge in anti-Semitism in Europe — setting off a firestorm of criticism. Maybe that foolish gaffe should have been a tipoff that he wasn't exactly ambassadorial material.
But the latest allegations, if proved true, are criminal and could hurt U.S. diplomatic efforts for years to come. And Guttman is not an exception.
As Contentions, Commentary Magazine's blog, noted this week, "Apparently, those tasked with protecting the secretary were believed to have hired prostitutes during her trips to Russia and Colombia. The practice was said to be endemic and going on in the same hotel where the secretary stayed."
This goes way beyond "boys will be boys" — this involves diplomacy at the highest level, the most sensitive area of our relationship with the rest of the world.
The response? Virtually nothing. The investigation ended with only minor punishments. Similarly, charges of misconduct leveled at Clinton's pick to be Iraq ambassador, Brett McGurk, were also squelched by Mills.
A report written late last year by the inspector general's office on the scandals was watered down. It cited examples of improper influence "from the top floor of the department, raising serious concerns about the quality and integrity" of investigations. Damning stuff.
Now, not only has the scandal of Benghazi not been resolved, but we are discovering that under Clinton's hands-off stewardship once-proud Foggy Bottom has turned into something resembling a house of ill-repute.
In addition to the lies Clinton and those around her already told about Benghazi, she and her aides have tried to squelch these sex scandals.
Contrary to the media's sycophantic portrayal of Clinton's career, she was a disaster at the State Department. And she could be even worse back in the White House.
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