Some Thoughts on Mrs. Clinton’s Mess

The Barometer became an independent years ago because there was not a dead-cat-swing’s worth of difference between the two political parties in the United States.  Lest animal rights readers take offense, the Barometer has never swung a cat, dead or alive — just speaking metaphorically, of course. The following comments address the various ethical issues that resulted when Mrs. Clinton’s dang e-mails clunked onto the political battlefield ONE MORE TIME with just 10 or 11 days, give or take a few hours, remaining until election day.

How did FBI Director Jim Comey became the bad guy in all of this?  This morning he was targeted in a New York Times editorial for violating the Hatch Act??  Mr. Comey has shifted from hero to villain, from straight-arrow prosecutor to political hack, from seasoned lawyer to Satan, and all since July, with the fleeting characterizations dependent upon one’s political affiliation and timing.

A little root cause analysis is in order.  In the movie “Midnight Run,” starring that charming, sometime ranting, Robert De Niro, and the fussy Charles Grodin there is a lesson for Mrs. Clinton.  Charles Grodin plays a straight-laced accountant (Jonathan Mardukas) who embezzled from the mob when he realized that he was indeed the accountant for the mob.  Probably a bad idea.  Mr. De Niro plays a bounty hunter hired by a naive Los Angeles bondsman who posted bail for Mr. Grodin. Mr. De Niro’s job is to get Mr. Grodin back to jail.  Mr. Grodin had jumped bail just after his embezzlement arrest and hid because he figured the mob would be after him.  He was right.  So, Mr. De Niro finds Mr. Grodin, and Mr Grodin travels cross-country, handcuffed to Mr. De Niro as the mob and the FBI chase the both of them.  Mr. Grodin tries to convince Mr. De Niro to let him go because these mob types are bad folks.  Mr. De Niro asks him why on earth he did such a dumb thing as stealing from the mob in the first place, and then adds, “John, you’re in this mess because you’re in this mess.”

The root cause here was Mrs. Clinton’s conduct with her e-mails, whether one views that conduct to be careless, negligent, grossly negligent, willful, purposeful, diabolical, criminal, intentional, and/or Satanic.  Regardless of one’s view on the whys of the e-mail, the private server, the wiping, the bleaching, etc. etc., the results were the same:

• Classified documents made their way onto sites, servers, and Yahoo where they could be viewed, download, or hacked.  If the Internet trolls can figure out that I just looked at a navy skirt on Talbot’s site and then post said skirt on the sidebars of my e-mail and on every site I view for time and all eternity, Mrs. Clinton’s coming and goings and her “C” documents were easy targets.  Mrs. Clinton is in the mess because of Mrs. Clinton.
• There are consequences in law, in many areas, for grossly negligent conduct.  For example, a director of a film went to prison because a member of his crew was killed when he was staging a train accident.  He made a mistake, he had no intent to kill anyone, but the way the scene was set up and the envelope pushed on filming resulted in the death. Run a red light and hit someone and try and sell your story that it was negligent to gun it to make the light but you never meant to hurt anyone and see how far you get with a judge. Mrs. Clinton faces consequences because of what Mrs. Clinton did.  What those consequences are remains to be seen, but the investigation will reveal that outcome.  Her mess, her consequences.  Sometimes consequences affect personal lives.  Indeed, that is part of the punishment. Oh, and apologizing for mistakes is not a sentence — it is generally a way to reduce a sentence when the judge is making a decision.
• The “unprecedented” argument about Mr. Comey’s conduct is silly.  Of course it is unprecedented for the FBI to announce the reopening of an investigation 10-11 days before a presidential election.  Then again, we have never had a nominee for president engage in the type of behavior that was fast and loose with the law, national security, and truthful responses to the FBI and the American people.  Generally the FBI is not involved investigating presidential candidates.  Oh, sure, a few presidents, and some who should have been, but none in the run-up to office. In fact, there was a time in this great Republic when the announcement of an FBI investigation in the first place would have caused a candidate to withdraw, or, at a minimum, a political party to object, saying, “Is this really a good idea to nominate this ne’er-do-well?” In short, Mrs. Clinton is in this mess because of Mrs. Clinton.
• No one who is the target of an FBI investigation has the right to turn to the FBI and demand, “I want to see all the evidence, NOW!”  Not even a presidential candidate.  We are  all equal under the law.  No exceptions for presidential candidates.  The timing for justice is, well, you know the saying, the wheels grind slowly. Still, Mrs. Clinton is in this timing mess because she’s in this mess.  Justice should be blind when it comes to presidential election calendars.
• Do we really want to destroy the FBI so that Mrs. Clinton can win an election?  Heaven help us with the precedent that would set. Mrs. Clinton’s actions belong to Mrs. Clinton, not to our Republic.  We did nothing wrong and would prefer to have centuries-old rules of law and prosecution stand, complete with equal justice under the law.  The job of the Republic is not to fix Mrs. Clinton’s mess.  Mrs. Clinton, and Mrs. Clinton alone, is responsible for what happened, and continues to unfold, not Mr. Comey, not those rascally Republicans in Congress, not Huma Abedin, not Carlos Danger, not Reince Priebus, not Donald Trump, and not Wikileaks.  Unless we want “Banana” in from of our name, we all need to remember root cause:  Mrs. Clinton. It is her mess.