Vince Foster might save America from Hillary Sunday, July 14, 2002

The emergence of Hillary Clinton as a potential candidate for president is an indication of how desperate Democrats are becoming.

Early in the 1992 election, when President George Herbert Walker Bush looked invulnerable, serious Democrat challengers went fishing, and Bill Clinton won the White House despite the handicap of Al Gore.

We can all agree that, for better or worse, Bill would not have won without the help of Hillary. Now, with another George Bush heading the popularity polls, pollsters are placing the junior senator from New York ahead of a pack that includes Sens. Evan Bayh and John Kerry, Gov. Gray Davis and the inevitable Kennedy collection.

There is even talk of a Bill Clinton scheme to have Hillary as a vice-presidential candidate in 2004, willing to run with either Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri or Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Al Gore isn't a likely candidate because not even Democrats like a sure loser on the ballot.

The selective memory of the American voter is evident in Hillary's "strong negatives" — falling from 46 percent during her Senate race down to 30 percent today. And, in a world where the media believes itself to be the surreptitious president-maker, polls show that more than 80 percent of people working in the media voted against George Bush.

HOW SERIOUS IS HILLARY?

Is she a serious contender? A random selection of Hillary cleanup stories might shed some light:

In 1969, a group of Black Panthers was on trial in New Haven, Conn., charged with the torture killing of one of their comrades. The story goes that Hillary Clinton, then a student at Yale and working with the ultra-radical National Lawyers Guild, supported the Panthers and helped shut down the university with protests. Today, Hillary's friends will say, "It is hard to fault her efforts to monitor the trial." They don't want to comment on the fact that the future first lady joined the law office of hard-core communist Robert Truhaft as an intern and worked with him on defense strategies for the New Haven Nine.

Then let's take a peek at the many ultra-leftist causes Hillary Clinton has supported for individual indictments and glance at her inexplicable executive actions in the White House:

Accepting $50,000 from a Chinese agent probably in exchange for space weapons research.

Subverting FBI bureaucrats to gain access to the bureau's confidential files.

Using the Travel Office to shmooze the media.

Not to mention the near deadly combination of Hillary and Ira Magaziner in their top-secret plans to "reform" the entire health-care industry into purchasing cooperatives with bureaucratic gatekeepers at every decision level. "Hillarycare," as it became known, failed. But Hillary prospered. And we could go on and on:

The drawn-out series of evasions and lies relating to the pre-presidency Whitewater land deals with the equally long history of belligerent attempts to conceal and destroy documents.

The delight taken in smearing the reputations of her husband's unwilling ladies.

The acceptance of Bill's yobbish tendencies in hiring Monica Lewinsky.

The immediate abandonment of any friends whose continued presence could hurt her image. Even nastier was the reasoned exploitation of Chelsea, who was yanked every time her father was "caught out" to pose for a sympathetic handholding picture of Dad with his little girl.

DON'T FORGET THE $$$

And always there was money:

Hillary had no problems, with only $1,000 in her bank account, making big investments in cattle futures. In 10 months of trading, she made nearly $100,000. She explains that her failure to remember how the profits were made was due to "hormonal imbalances" brought on by pregnancy that prevented her thinking like a male. Does NOW know about this?

Some will remember that Hillary failed to report a $2 million Senate campaign donation to the Federal Election Commission — a contribution from Peter Paul, who was promised receptions and honors from Bill Clinton that were never delivered. Paul now is facing charges of stock fraud.

And what about Madam Hillary's management of the Lincoln Bedroom for donors?

Her pilfering of furniture, silver and china from the White House and Air Force One?

Her ferocious temper tantrums?

And her — let's be dignified — appointment of a former young bar bouncer as head of White House security? And whoever heard or remembers Midlife Partners, which, despite its cute name, made less than $100 a year according to the Clinton tax returns. This, despite the partnership owning Firestone Tire and Diamond Shamrock stock with no one aware of where gains or losses were reported.

THE FOSTER AFFAIR

Perhaps it was this cozy brokerage that resulted in one of the most disturbing incidents of all: Seven years ago, Vincent Walker Foster Jr., was living on Cambridge Place in Washington's Georgetown. An attorney, deputy counsel in the White House and childhood friend of President Clinton, who had brought him to Washington, Foster also was Hillary's best friend at the prestigious Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, where they shared, among other intimacies, the securities brokerage account, Midlife Partners.

On July 20, 1993, Vince Foster was found dead. His death officially was termed a suicide but is suspected by many to be a murder — if not a superbly planned assassination. The cover-up that followed Foster's death is one of many compelling reasons Hillary Clinton must be defeated if she ever again runs for public office.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a stereotype from the 1960s narcissistic era that decided to replace accountability and responsibility with deniability and deception. Despite this, she was elected by the people of New York to represent them in the U.S. Senate.

Soon after the 2000 elections, Hillary quickly raised $1.6 million for the political action committee she had opened and lavished the cash on Democrat Senate and House candidates in key presidential states. She is in heavy demand as a fund-raiser at Democrat events across the country and as a person with an immediate attraction from the press.

Will she ever get back into the White House? Only the American voter has the power to determine that. In the meantime, we continue to take note of her shenanigans, as well as those of her husband. And we note that while Vince Foster's family and friends may still mourn him, his death — and the scandal that still clings to Hillary — may save the country from the mistake of her campaigning for the presidency.

Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer.

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2002