There’s an interesting dynamic on display by the Left regarding Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. Among the exculpatory angles being presented are assertions that the classified info was not marked as such, the information was classified after the fact, that she didn’t know the information was classified, and that any and all transgressions were committed by underlings. Among the dismissive angles being presented are assertions that this all just part of the giant and endless Republican smear job, that she’s been investigated for so long that they would have found condemning evidence by now if any were to exist, that she’s been more scrutinized than any candidate in history and remains standing, and that the efforts against her justify her having set up a private email server in the first place.
Please.
Tens of thousands of emails were deleted. We have nothing more than her word that there was nothing of importance in those emails. Hundreds of emails were found to contain classified information. A couple dozen contained information so thoroughly classified that they cannot be redacted sufficiently for public release, and so sensitive that they were designated Top Secret/Special Compartmentalized Information.
She was the Secretary of State, fourth in line for the presidency. Prior to that, she was a United States Senator and prior to that she was the First Lady of the United States. She has spent her entire career in politics, and decades in positions that had access to classified information. She certainly knows how to handle classified information, and she is required to know what information should be considered classified. If she doesn’t by now, the level of stupidity that would demonstrate is a clear and overt signal that she has no business ever being in public office again. She’s not that stupid, but anyone who believes her I didn’t know pap is.
Based only on what’s already been released and my knowledge of the sensitivity and handling rules regarding classified information (I had a Top Secret clearance when I worked in defense, and know what Special Compartmentalized Information and Special Access Programs are all about), I feel comfortable in asserting that someone who wasn’t so prominent, powerful and connected would already be in jail.
There are only two ways to interpret the Left’s litany of excuses and dismissals en toto. Either her defenders are ignorant on the topic, or they’re lying because they want Hillary to become President. Whether they’re lying to themselves or to others is not something that I will speculate about, because it involves knowing the unknowable. What I do wish her non-ignorant defenders would do is show some intellectual honesty.
If you don’t care that Hillary broke laws regarding the handling of classified information, just say so. Tell me you want her in the White House even if she’s a felon. If your partisanship and loyalty is such that you subordinate the rule of law and the protection of government secrets (including some that might actually cost lives), own it. I can respect that more than I can respect the crazy-straw contortions required to sustain this farcical narrative that she’s innocent of wrongdoing. I don’t care why you don’t care, and I won’t think any less of you than I did when you trotted out the list of garbage excuses. As I titled this essay, don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.
If you’re so bothered by the notion of a Republican winning the Presidency that you’ll tolerate such utter disregard for our laws and utter disdain for national secrets, then you truly deserve the government you get. Just don’t cry to me when she acts the same way in the White House and gores one of your sacred cows.
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