2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumClinton server - Molehill or Mountain
I still can't figure out what to make of the Clinton email server 'scandal'.
Here's some perspective . . . Republicans routinely do seriously illegal, unsupervised, dangerous things while in positions of power and are NEVER called on it. Dick Cheney's records from his time in office disappeared into his man-sized safe. Colin Powell just deleted all of his emails from his time as SOS - and apparently his AOL account can't be recovered. Fancy that. Mitt Romney destroyed all of his electronic and email records when he left office. And let's not even start on all of the intelligence failures, betrayals of Americans, and treason that happened leading up to and during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So, Republicans just thumb their noses at the rules and the press never calls them out, their party never calls them out. They don't believe in good government, and so they deliver bad, unaccountable, criminal government.
Clinton wants to be held to the same standard as Republicans when it comes to accountability and rule-following (apparently), that is to say, none. Which, I guess is a goal. Democrats are theoretically supposed to champion good, accountable government, but maybe that idea went out the window in the 80s.
So, what she did seems to me to be no worse than what every member of Bush's government was up to for eight years. And yet it is hard to just dismiss it. The Clintons are supposed to be better than the Bushes. Democrats are supposed to be held to a higher standard than Republicans.
It seems fair to want to hold any Democrat to a standard higher than Snarling Dick's and the Pretzeldunce's record. It is a low bar, indeed.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Is that REALLY too much to ask, especially when the job description set forth in the Constitution includes seeing that laws are faithfully executed? *
Usually, there is very little I can do about it because the lawbreaker is already in office or because I don't get to vote on his or her election--not my city, not my state or whatever.
*Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section 3.
He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.
flor-de-jasmim
(2,124 posts)combined with the completely off-the-record (yet not secure) home server. You're right - Cheney set a low, low bar.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)And so does Clinton, and for the same reasons.
Ego, entitlement, sneakiness and contempt for the public she ostensibly serves.
Exilednight
(9,359 posts)Hillary as SOS since it was a matter of contention between them.