The Charlotte Observer’s editorial board disgusts
me. These people are shameless partisans
to the point of being clownish. If you hear another mysterious evil clown
report, just write it off as the circus at the Charlotte Observer.
Here we have a tale of two op-eds from the Clowntown
Observer. One is about Pam Bondi and
Donald Trump’s pay to play and the other is Hillary Clinton’s no pay to
play. First the Trump editorial it
begins:
If
Donald Trump were treated like an ordinary presidential candidate, the
speculations swirling around an illegal donation his charitable foundation gave
to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) might dog his campaign from now until
Election Day. The situation smells of influence-buying. Even if one takes
Bondi’s explanations seriously, the facts already on the record are damning.
It
ends:
The news should,
however, remind voters of two of the many disqualifying elements of Trump’s
record. First is the scandal of Trump University and the Trump Institute, but
voters should also see how Trump once again attempted to use his charitable
foundation, which other people have funded over the past several years, for his
own personal ends. The $25,000 he transferred from the foundation to Bondi was
an illegal donation; charitable groups cannot give to campaigns.
These points, among
others, suggest that Trump’s penchant for lying and deception does not end with
relatively harmless campaign-season overstatement. It is a business strategy,
and it has real-world consequences.
Isn’t that
precious? Now get a load of the Hillary
Clinton scandal, it begins with this:
If you believe public
officials’ doors should be equally open to all, you can’t be happy with the
news that Clinton Foundation donors comprised more than half of the private
citizens Hillary Clinton met with while secretary of state.
There’s no evidence of
pay-for-play, as Donald Trump keeps insisting. It appears no laws were broken
or ethics rules compromised. And yet, giving 85 of 154 private audiences to
donors to your family’s charity sure smells like pay-for-access, if not
pay-for-play.
As bad as that looks,
though, it’s legally OK. If it weren’t, ethical shadows might dog the entire
Congress. Our leaders won’t admit it, but pay-for-access goes on in Washington,
D.C., all day every day. And yet, Congress just can’t seem to pass effective
campaign finance reform to squelch the impact of big money on our politics
It gets even better.
The foundation does
critically important work around the globe. Clinton foes who are reducing it to
a political foil might not literally be bound for hell, as ex-Clinton aide
James Carville suggests, but surely new leadership can step in to continue its
good deeds.
In the meantime, D.C. partisans
who are shocked – shocked! – to find possible pay-for-access in their midst
should pass legislation strengthening safeguards against it.
The Clinton Foundation
spent 10% on charitable grants while pocketing nearly 67%. The only good work that’s being done is
lining the pockets of the Clintons. It’s
time for the Charlotte Observers editorial board to pile back into their clown
car.
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