What Will Hillary Do?

"The economy is in the tank," he told a crowd who waited for two hours in the heat and a rain shower.

"Yeah, in the gas tank!" yells one voter.

"You got that right," Mr. Clinton says, appearing delighted to riff with fellow Southerners.

"That's why we need Hillary."

So ended an article in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal discussing Sick Willie's now-heavier involvement in his wife's campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

So, I am moved to ask the obvious,

"And just what, Bubba, would/will Hillary do about gasoline prices and supply?"

Will she encourage legislation to control price and allocate supply? Our great yellow-stain of a President, Carter, failed with those 'solutions.'

Would Hillary nationalize our oil industry, the better to manage it? That's a laugh- the Federal Government managing anything that is critical better than private enterprise.

Perhaps Hillary plans to simply levy new taxes on US oil companies. Great. That will cause them to lessen their efforts to procure, refine and sell petroleum products, since each gallon of refined oil will net them less money.

Or maybe Hillary plans to retaliate against anyone she feels is involved in runup of energy prices by passing anti-trade legislation and engaging in other actions calculated to 'punish' whom she sees as guilty countries or other parties.

Fine. She rails against how George Bush has allegedly been responsible for other countries holding the US in low regard, but she'll count among her first acts meting out retribution for imagined slights and anti-American energy-related behaviors.

Unfortunately, Bubba Clinton and his wife don't really 'get' economics. As I just wrote in this post on this blog, the recent behavior of energy prices, particularly oil and gasoline, are a direct result of simple inabilities of business people to have perfect crystal balls when forecasting how newly-wealthy Asians would spend their money.

There are no villains. Nobody is directly and singly responsible for oil prices rising as they have.

If anything, liberal Congressmen have contributed to the mess by restricting the search for energy off America's shores by our own oil and gas companies. New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg is running ads this very month touting his role in stopping energy exploration off of the state.

The truth is, Hillary should and can do nothing that will bring oil prices down, unless she plans to change parties and fight for lower taxes, a more hospitable climate for energy companies, and the chance to let higher oil prices signal the need for more onshore and offshore exploration and onshore refining.

About the only thing Government can do now is to try not to screw the situation up any worse than it is, and hope that private enterprises across the world will respond to the $100+/bbl oil prices by finding and bringing onstream, as soon as possible, new energy supplies.

In the meantime, Bubba, his wife, and all Americans would be better served by the couple keeping quiet about the energy situation.

Hillary, Bill and The Puerto Rican "Terror Pardons"

The Wall Street Journal published a superb editorial on Tuesday of this week. Penned by Debra Burlingame, sister of "Chic" Burlingame, the pilot of AA Flt77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11/2001, it is entitled "The Clintons' Terror Pardons."

For any voter in this year's Presidential election, it's eye-opening, "must" reading.

Because of the length of the piece- nearly a full page in the WSJ- I won't attempt to quote extensively from it. Tempting though that is.

Instead, I'll just provide a very brief summary.

As Hillary began her run for a New York Senate seat, her husband, Bill, arranged unrequested pardons for several participants in the Puerto Rican terrorist bombings of several building in NYC on New Year's Eve, 1982.

Ms. Burlingame's editorial details how Slick Willie evaded various Constitutional checks and balanaces by doing a favor for his wife's election campaign. He wasn't guilty of directly benefiting from the pardons. His wife was. She even admitted to several enraged Puerto Rican politicians, who were angry that some special arrangements which embarrassed the FALN terrorists had to be made, because the terrorists did not intend to comply with the usual conditions of their pardons.

The bottom line is that Slick Willie pardoned 16 FALN terrorists in order to get his wife elected to her Senate seat. So badly was this handled that, according to Burlingame, even the NY Times disclosed it in a piece entitled "Bill's Little Gift." Hillary had to backpedal from supporting the pardons when the whole mess became public and drew the ire of the general populace, because both civilians and law enforcement officers had been killed and/or seriously injured in the attacks.

As Burlingame points out, as Bill was talking tough against the Middle East terrorists, he gave unrequested pardons to the FALN in order to secure the New York Hispanic vote for his wife.

How despicable is that? Sadly, how typical of the Billary? He commits a smarmy, sleazy act. She initially accepts it. Then, upon being confronted with it publicly, feigns horror and shock. But, in the end, it has its desired effect and Hillary accepts the gift.

Remember this as you watch the home stretch of the Democratic Presidential primary race. The Clintons will do whatever it takes to win, no matter what principles are shredded, who is maligned, or, probably, what damage it does to their own party.

Slick Willie Demonstrates Why We Distrust Politicians

In a shocking display of ill-gotten gains, the Wall Street Journal ran an article yesterday detailing Bill Clinton's looming multi-million dollar payoff from being President.

This is the sort of post-office holding development that enrages voters. Or at least it enrages me. Bill Clinton would have none of this, had he not been elected President. In fact, as the article notes, much of his wealth actually resulted from political favor-seekers helping him to raise money to pay his impeachment-related legal bills.

It's ironic, of course, that Slick Willie is now the type of corporate fat cat that his 'partner,' Hillary, would soak with her tax hike plans.

According to the article,

"Former President Clinton stands to reap around $20 million -- and will sever a politically sensitive partnership tie to Dubai -- by ending his high-profile business relationship with the investment firm of billionaire friend Ron Burkle.

The former president has had links to Yucaipa since early 2002, when Mr. Burkle -- a longtime friend and political contributor -- offered him a role there. Mr. Clinton's association with the firm began at a time when he was looking to earn large amounts of money, partly to pay heavy legal bills accumulated to defend himself and Mrs. Clinton from several investigations during his presidency.

Profits from the sales helped to push the funds above the earnings threshold needed to generate a multimillion-dollar payday for the former president, according to public documents related to the sales and other information.

The deals were announced in February and March 2007, respectively -- around the time Mr. Clinton's involvement as an adviser to the domestic funds was set to expire. By not closing out his Yucaipa relationship before those sales were completed, President Clinton probably increased the amount of money ultimately due him, say people familiar with such transactions."

Thus, we see that Slick Willie gained access to tens of millions of dollars of profits from 'unearned' income that most of those who voted for him could never achieve. More than any other former President, the former First Philanderer has traded on his term of office to make a fortune. While his wife, a Senator, rails against....exactly what he is doing.

The Yucaipa connection became public recently, as I noted in this post from last September.

Then we have the incredibly rich irony described in this passage,

"Mr. Clinton is also looking to close out partnership interests in a Yucaipa fund that focuses on investing in foreign companies. This fund -- called Yucaipa Global Partnership Fund LP -- has raised several hundred million dollars from a range of investors. Unlike his deal to advise the two Yucaipa domestic funds, Mr. Clinton invested an undisclosed sum of his own money in the global fund and has a limited partnership interest.

Mr. Clinton is also one of three owners of the global fund's general partner. The others are Mr. Burkle, who is the managing member, and an entity connected to the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

Severing the tie to Dubai, a U.S. ally, will remove a potentially tricky problem for Mrs. Clinton. Questions raised about the activities of sovereign wealth funds -- giant pools of money controlled by foreign governments -- have become a campaign issue, as the funds have made a spate of multibillion-dollar investments in such corporate giants as Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mrs. Clinton said such purchases are "a source of concern," partly because the foreign funds "lack transparency" and could be used by foreign governments as "instruments of foreign policy." "

So here we see Bill making hay while the sun shone, with his Dubai partners. Then, as soon as his wife's bid for the Presidency made that investment questionable, he dumped it- but not the profit, of course.

This way, Hillary has her funding, and the contradictory, hypocritical political position, too.

What, precisely, did Slick Willie do for Burkle that allowed him to earn- and I use the term incredibly loosely- all that money? The Journal piece states,

"Mr. Clinton's duties and activities as a Yucaipa adviser have never been completely clear to outsiders. He has met at times with people involved in various Yucaipa business deals. And the former president's vast global network of contacts probably has been an asset for Mr. Burkle in dealings with business, labor and political leaders. Over the years, Mr. Burkle has said publicly that Mr. Clinton's prestige and connections have helped Yucaipa get its business proposals in front of top corporate decision makers.

Asked about the unwinding of the Yucaipa relationship, a spokesman for Mr. Clinton said the former president "is taking steps to ensure" that there will be "an appropriate transition" for the business relationship should Mrs. Clinton win the Democratic presidential nomination.

The spokesman added it isn't yet known how much Mr. Clinton will receive from his involvement in Yucaipa. A Yucaipa spokesman declined to comment on the firm's relationship with Mr. Clinton.

As part of the effort to sever financial connections that could complicate Mrs. Clinton's presidential bid, the couple in June disclosed that they had sold millions of dollars worth of stock in public companies and put the funds in cash accounts."

Before reading this article, I thought John Edwards' working at the hedge fund Fortress, described here, was the height of hypocrisy.

I was wrong.

Slick Willie has sold his status as ex-President for something north of $20MM. Not content to have stained the office while actually holding it, he now continues to dishonor it by brazenly turning it into cash. Reading Burkle's contention that just by having Slick Willie's name associated with business proposals, they get attention, confirms that the former President is 'doing' nothing for the millions he is paid by Yucaipa.

While masquerading as a champion of the poor and disenfranchised, the Slick One from Arkansas has managed to monetize all those millions of votes from his two Presidential election.

Disgusting. Just stomach-turning. It's exactly why voters in America have become so jaded by the political, governing class. Nothing is ever done out of a public service ethic. There's always a payday around the corner from every public office held.

I shudder to think of what the Billary could concoct, should she actually be elected to even one term in the Oval Office.