Mueller Is Revenge on Republicans for Bill Clinton Impeachment
When special prosecutor Ken Starr finally presented charges to Congress against Bill Clinton, it was for lying under oath about his sexual escapades with Monica Lewinsky. Did someone really originally authorize Starr to look into this? No, his original mission was to look into any criminal wrongdoing associated with the Clintons and the Whitewater Development Corporation from Clinton's days in Arkansas. But he got nowhere with that, so like a typical prosecutor he looked for something else illegal so he could still score a "kill".
The other day, special prosecutor Mueller staged a very high-profile raid on President Trump's long-time attorney. His original brief was to look into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russians to win the election. Readers will know I have always been skeptical of this. I believe while the Russians were spinning propaganda about the election, its effects were incidental and likely not coordinated with Trump, though he may have benefited. I think one could craft at least as strong a story about Clinton connections with the Russians as you can about Trump connections.
Anyway, the raid the other day made it clear that Mueller is getting no farther with Russia than Starr got with Whitewater. He raided Trump's attorney's office (a pretty aggressive move) to get evidence of ... lying about details related to Trump's Stormy Daniels affair and perhaps for details about the famous Trump Access Hollywood tape. While I am skeptical that there is much in the Russia story, I am more than willing to believe that there may be lying and fraud related to Trump's business and sex lives.
If history does not repeat itself, it certainly echoes.
Postscript: When Republicans see the far Left slate of candidates the Dem's are likely to field for President in 2020, they are going to long for Bill Clinton. Heck, I could list a lot of states that would happily run Clinton as their Republican candidate for Congress in 2018.
The_Big_W:
Regarding 2020 and the Democratic candidates. I really troubles me that we live in a world where not a single one of the leading Democratic candidates will think there is a need, nor even a basic moral standard, to treat Republican voters like they are actual human beings.
And its true, I would long for them to have a candidate like Bill Clinton. Regardless of whether you believed him or not, he'd talk to regular Americans and at least pretend to care about them ("I feel your pain"), current Democrat Presidential candidates, openly talk about wanting Republican voters to die...
April 13, 2018, 10:03 amherdgadfly:
Warren is skeptical of the Russian involvement in our elections but I am frustrated that smart people don't read enough about Trump. It takes a great deal of time to track the obvious criminal activities of Donald and his father. If it had to do with real estate, the Trumps acted illegally first, fought off some opposition, but did whatever they wanted. They engaged with the New York and Russian mafia, bribed officials in New York and New Jersey and used Trump Casinos and buildings to launder money for the likes of the Russian oligarchs and underworld heavyweights. Trump illegally ripped off Trump University students and basically got away with it after the election. His business failures mostly through the 6 bankruptcies ripped off employees, investors, vendors, tenants and tax districts. Everyone loses about 70% percent but Donald gets off easy.
Today - we once again risk war. Smart he is not.
April 13, 2018, 7:00 pmJohn Moore:
Don't forget Fitzgerald's reign of terror against the Bush Administration, resulting in the conviction (by prosecutorial misconduct) of Scooter Libby, while nothing was done against the leaker of Valery Plame's well known CIA position, even though he was known from near the start of the investigation. The leaker was Richard Armitage. The misconduct was revealed today by Judith Miller, whose testimony was used to convict Libby.
Trump did the right thing today in pardoning Libby. George W. Bush should have done that, rather than just commuting his sentence. Naturally, the prosecutor has not been charged.
April 13, 2018, 7:20 pmTanuki Man:
And he’s still better than Hillary.
April 13, 2018, 8:31 pmHal_10000:
"But he got nowhere with that" Well, he did get 40 felony convictions of various Clinton cronies. But he didn't get the Clintons, specifically. However, as I recall, a lot of those investigations came when stuff was handed to him by Reno.
April 13, 2018, 9:01 pmme:
My prediction is that the US two party system is headed to the trash heap of history.
The right and the left are fielding increasingly extreme candidates in efforts to capture and satisfy the most extreme positions. Meanwhile, all of us who are closer to the center get increasingly fed up with the bullshit - and we get to experience far left administrations followed by far right ones, none of which align with our political goals.
April 14, 2018, 6:23 amMaybe one of the parties will split or there'll be a more clearly defined creation of a new centrist party. My money is on the former.
enjayboy:
Trump is an international businessman. To conduct business in many foreign countries, some shady sorts of things must happen. Bribery is rampant, for example, just to get permits.
If they dig deep enough, they can always find something on Trump.
What is the expression? "A good prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich."?
April 14, 2018, 6:51 amCapitalistRoader:
I agree that the Democratic Party has moved pretty far left. I don't see that the GOP moved right at all. Warren's right when he says that the Bill Clinton of the 1990s could easily win the nomination of today's GOP. OTOH I think Republicans would be thrilled if the Democrats would run a hard-lefty like Kamala Harris for the 2020 POTUS election.
April 14, 2018, 7:31 ammlhouse:
The truth is that the Starr team did not pursue the Monica Lewinsky issue. That came to them.
April 14, 2018, 8:45 amGoneWithTheWind:
I don't think this was ever revenge for Clinton's criminal activity being exposed. I think it is as simple as a palace coup. The left has moved very far left and are embracing communist groups and Marxist socialist groups. This is not your fathers Democrat party, in fact they look more like Venezuela's Chavez and Maduro than JFK or Tip O'Neill. The entire Obama administration was one giant crime family and they fully expected Hillary to win and cover up their criminal activity. When Hillary lost they panicked and set into motion both a coverup and a plan to destroy Trump. This is what we are watching right now. Mueller is the main antagonist and in spite or because of his shady past he was selected to do his worst against the American Democratic Republic.
April 14, 2018, 9:07 amCapnRusty:
The raid on Cohen's office came as a consequence of Mueller handing off information to the SDNY, for the stated reason that the information had nothing to do with Russian collusion. I don't know if Mueller will be able to squeeze that toothpaste back into the tube . . .
April 14, 2018, 4:06 pmSamWah:
I don't believe it has ANYTHING to do with Bill. Hill, yes, but mostly a hunka hunka hunka burning hate for TRUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111111111111111111111111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 14, 2018, 5:51 pmToddF:
Trump is the most liberal Republican in history. Both economically (biggest spender) and socially (gay marriage, his own lifestyle).
What he isn't is an America hater, like most Republicans and all Democrats.
April 14, 2018, 7:58 pmMike McDonald:
Trump is an amateur compared to the Clintons.
April 15, 2018, 5:43 amobjection:
From the perspective of the left, Trump is the most rightwing President the US ever has had the misfortune to endure.
He's vastly increased government spending on military and religious priorities while sabotaging and cutting spending on healthcare and education. He's shifted the tax burden drastically to reduce the cost to millionaires and increase taxes spent by the middle class and he has consistently curtailed civil liberties of left interest groups while supporting the extreme right.
April 15, 2018, 6:17 amToddF:
He's also caused fruitcakes like yourself to just make things up, in an effort to schiff on your country.
April 15, 2018, 7:47 amCapitalistRoader:
From the perspective of the left, Trump is the most rightwing President the US ever has had the misfortune to endure.
Only if you think history started in the year 2000. Dem's have gone very far left since this guy left office:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3yesvvYEvs
April 15, 2018, 8:18 amGilligan:
In fairness, Bill was probably the most conservative President since Coolidge. Reagan included - Bill's big accomplishments were GATT/NAFTA and welfare reform. Some also credit him with a semi-balanced budget, too.
April 15, 2018, 9:17 amErikTheRed:
"That came to them."
Ummm... phrasing?
At least they didn't have to dress up the charges or worry about staining a third party's reputation... err...
April 15, 2018, 9:26 amErikTheRed:
Actually, the expression is that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich. Or, as Ken White (former federal prosecutor and now libertarian legal / First Amendment blogger and columnist) would put it: a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich without bothering to look up from their newspapers. People also forget that cases presented to grand juries are entirely one-sided - prosecution only.
April 15, 2018, 9:30 amErikTheRed:
I would agree the Clinton's administration was more conservative that Reagan's economically, but that probably had more to do with the notion that the Republican congress found half a spine for about a year. He was far more progressive militarily, continuing Bush the First's warmongering in the Middle East (never forget his UN Ambassador Madeline Albright testifying that Clinton's embargo policies that resulted in the death of 500,000 children to help stop Saddam Hussein's nonexistent WMD programs "were worth it.") Reagan started with some bad assumptions about interventionism but mostly got them under control (relative to other presidents).
I would argue that people should look harder at Jimmy Carter. Yeah, that guy. He was pretty awesome on deregulation (with Ted Kennedy, of all people - back when Democrats realized that these regulations were anti-consumer sops to megacorporations), and tried to contain the military-industrial complex (a bigger threat to liberty than the welfare state, and that's not to knock the evils of the welfare state).
April 15, 2018, 9:40 amErikTheRed:
As George Carlin was fond of pointing out: "It's a big club, and you ain't in it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKUaqFzZLxU
I've become more and more fond of Ayn Rand's depiction of the two parties in Washington being more akin to street gangs fighting over turf than having any deeper philosophical goals.
April 15, 2018, 9:52 amCapitalistRoader:
The most liberal Democratic presidential candidate since, well, ever, mugged by reality:
How To Create Jobs, By George McGovern
April 15, 2018, 9:53 amme:
That's a really good argument - and by really good argument, I mean pointless ad hominem garbage that doesn't do anything to further discussion.
April 15, 2018, 4:02 pmToddF:
He's vastly increased government spending on ... and religious priorities while sabotaging and cutting spending on healthcare and education.
I'll give you military. The rest you're just making up, because you aren't man enough to argue realty, nor give me actual numbers.
April 15, 2018, 5:07 pmThane_Eichenauer:
Biden/Poe 2020 all the way, because "The price of muffins is too damn high!"
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da1888052ed8a2e321caf0005ae1054edb7910f07e8f0beb212e802529a6cb8c.png
April 16, 2018, 3:28 amAnn_In_Illinois:
Bill wasn't conservative, he was just weak and anxious to please. One of his biggest accomplishments was because his pollster told him that it would be unpopular if he vetoed welfare reform a third time.
In other words, Bill's biggest accomplishment was doing so badly in the first year or two that Newt Gingrich got support for his Contract with America.
April 20, 2018, 2:34 pmuncle_bill:
Yes! Someone who remembers what actually happened in the Clinton years.
April 24, 2018, 9:39 am