Clinton survives another Salem trial - By Richard Cohen
Just as there was never any doubt that Bill Clinton had sex with “that woman,” there was never any doubt that Hillary Clinton mishandled her emails. And just as there was never any doubt that the Republicans overreacted to Bill Clinton’s shenanigans, so too is there no doubt that they have done the same over Hillary Clinton’s server. Something about the Clintons sets the GOP to howling at the moon.
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Limitations of space and time force me to skip to Benghazi, where it has been alleged that Hillary Clinton somehow was responsible for the deaths of four Americans and lied to the bereaved and everyone else about what happened and why. This investigation, which like the Jupiter probe went on and on, was the eighth created by the Republican-controlled Congress and, in terms of witnesses called and papers written, may well exceed the numbers produced by all the other investigations combined — but not in vain. The Benghazi committee established beyond a doubt that Clinton was secretary of state at the time the Americans were killed — proof enough, some would have it, of her guilt.
Now we come to Emailgate. Here again, Congress and the FBI have proved that Clinton used a private server, which she should not have done. She may even have lied about what sorts of emails went through it — classified and, if so, to what degree. But the FBI, an agency known for its ecumenical severity — it got both John Dillinger and Martha Stewart — recommended against indictment. This has caused an uproar in the Republican precincts of Congress and in the conservative media. Like spoiled kids on Christmas Day, they didn’t get the gift they wanted.
Even when it comes to the Clintons, this is madness. Hillary Clinton may have lied about her emails, but Donald Trump lies about everything . Still, for the Justice Department to upend a presidential campaign over a matter as trivial as a violation of email policy approaches an anticipatory coup. If there were lies deserving of punishment, let the voters mete it out.
I am tempted to say that historians of the future will have to dope this all out. But they are not up to the job. It should go to shrinks and such, for Clinton has become a human Rorschach: Some people, particularly Republicans, look at her and see the Devil. Their denunciations of her are so at variance with even the contested facts that it suggests a psychosis — congressional panel after congressional panel, investigation after investigation, all of them of the kind once familiar to the good people of Salem, Mass., who knew what it is like to have the purported criminal but not, alas, the crime.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/clinton-survives-another-salem-trial/2016/07/11/62435c92-478c-11e6-acbc-4d4870a079da_story.html
Good Op-ed by Cohen, worth following the link to read it.
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