by Scott Creighton
Because of the heightened scrutiny of the current administration just now taking off and the lengthened campaign season, we should expect some real unforgiving investigations of all of the candidates. Regardless of their political affiliations. And in fairness and with a sense of self-preservation, we should be willing to go the extra mile to investigate for ourselves the revelations that come to light.
Much has been written about the potentially historic candidate who leads the Democratic pack; Sen. Hillary Clinton. Not all of it has been favorable. Several books have come out that call into question her ambition and her deceptive practices when dealing with certain facts that she and her campaign staff would rather not address. I have read none of them, to my shame, so I will not address hearsay opinions as to their credibility or their accuracy.
But I am concerned about a specific story that seems to be getting very little press. It is the story of Clintons “blind trust” and just how much money she and Bill made since Bush came into office, and she was a voting member of the U.S. Senate. “The documents reviewed by The Washington Post provide the most complete accounting of how the Clintons accrued the $5 million to $25 million in the trust — nearly all since leaving the White House — through investments in foreign companies, oil giants and drugmakers (without their input or knowledge?) and without public disclosure.” John Solomon,Washington Post, June 15th 2007.
“The Clintons were told earlier this year by federal ethics officials that they would need to reorganize their blind trust to comply…The couple chose instead to dissolve the trust on April 27 and to convert all their stocks to cash” John Solomon,Washington Post, June 15th 2007.
The trust, managed by Citibank, had holdings in the following; Wal-Mart and Wal- Mart de Mexico., pharmaceutical companies, including $250,000-$500,000 in Biogen Idec and Johnson & Johnson and $100,000- $250,000 in Amgen, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline.,General Electric and Raytheon, two leading defense contractors., “and Oil Giants Anadarko Petroleum, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil and chemical makers Dow Chemical and DuPont at a time when questions at Democratic debates focused on gasoline prices, global warming and pollution.” No wonder she doesn’t like Gore.
This blind trust was established after the Clintons left the White House and the reason for using a “blind trust” is so that you can distance yourself from the “conflict of interest” in the future. It allows you to profit from potential hot topic investments and then look back later and say “I didn’t know”. Considering that this trust was created after they left the White House, during the Bush years, someone really helped the Clintons profit from this illegal invasion of Iraq. You would think that the Clintons would be mortified by this “dirty money”(since it was a blind trust and they had “no idea” that they were profiting from such companies) and get rid of it as quickly as possible. But instead, they simply tuck it away, quietly, and wait for the storm of bad press to subside.
They have learned from this administration that all things blow over, soon enough, so just wait it out and say nothing in the mean-time. Is that what we want in the White House?
Filed under: Campaign 2008
