Why Bill Disqualifies Hillary for Secretary of State
By Matt Zeitlin - Nov 19th, 2008 at 3:56 pmPerhaps I’m being simple minded, but it seems like Bill Clinton’s recent activities running around the world, giving paid speeches to foreign governments and corporations in combination with his fundraising for the Clinton Global Initiative (and earlier his library), is an ipso facto reason why Hillary shouldn’t be considered for the Secretary of State job.
The reasoning is pretty simple. Why on earth would the governments of Kuwait, Qatar, Suadi Arabia, Canadians with mining interests in Kazakstan, and a host of shadowy, wealthy characters be giving all this money to Clinton’s charitable efforts (and personal bank account) if not for trying to buy influence with him and get in his good graces. Even before Hillary became a presidential candidate, everyone knew that Bill would still be a player on the world stage, and that making investments in him and his foundation would likely pay off.
Another problem, pointed out by Ben Smith and Noam Scheiber in their recent diavlog, is that Clinton could say to countries, “We can’t give you U.S. government aid or assistance for x, y and z reasons, but I’ll see what Bill has to say.” The idea of having a non accountable, extra-governmental aid organization “spousally” attached to the chief diplomat sounds like something they would have in Italy or Pakistan, not the United States.
So unless Clinton basically ceases his work with CGI, or at least the fundraising aspect, and promises to clear all of his speeches and events with the State Department, then Hillary being appointed Secretary of State should be out of the question.
For more on the complications arising from Bill’s charitable activity, check out these Times and Post articles.
[...] as Matt points out, the Clinton Global Initiative presents sort of a conflict of interests problem. And there are [...]
November 24th, 2008 at 6:38 am