The Clinton Legacy

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Interesting that while Hillary has been doing everything she can to discredit this port deal her husband has been doing everything he can to make it happen.? Why?? Well he will get a cut of the action:

Former President Bill Clinton is up to his eyeballs in dealings with Dubai, his former top political adviser has revealed. According to Dick Morris, author of the best-selling book, “Condi vs, Hillary,” Clinton is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai, now involved in a firestorm over its deal to take over some of the operations at six major U.S. ports.

“Bill Clinton is a senior adviser – a paid adviser – to a company called Yucaipa which recently set up a relationship with a group called the Yucaipa Investment group to set up a new company called DIGL,” Morris said on “The O’Reilly Factor.” “DIGL Inc. is in charge of managing the investments of the crown prince of Dubai throughout the world. Bill Clinton is paid by Yucaipa a percentage of the profits it makes, and Yucaipa said its profits have exceeded 40 percent in recent years. “He is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai.

That in addition to the roughly million dollars they gave his library, in addition to the probably $600,000 in speaking fees he got, and in addition to the scholarships for Dubai children they endowed through his library. “I have three points about that. First, when Bill Clinton tells us this port deal is kosher, he ought to disclose that he’s being paid by the government. Secondly, he should register as an agent of a foreign principal because he’s giving public relations advice to a foreign company. And thirdly, his wife should disclose how much Clinton is being paid and when he’s been paid, because it goes into a joint bank account and this is in effect a payment to the husband of a senator.

“And then I would raise another question: Didn’t Hillary jump out of the box opposing this port deal because she knew of her husband’s vulnerability and wanted to get out ahead of the story? I was talking to a source of mine who’s very close to the Clintons about seven or eight months ago and the source said that he’s all the time going back and forth to Dubai and getting deeper and deeper into that relationship. She (Hillary) was worried about that and its political impact,” Morris said.

While this is of course news worthy I don’t see much to be surprised about.? Bill and Hillary have alwasys been and always will be a whore to whoever can either pay him the most or give him the power they so desperately craves.

Capitalizing on polls showing widespread opposition to the takeover of six U.S. port operations by Dubai Ports World, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is expanding her complaint about foreign companies operating in the U.S.

“Allowing businesses headquartered in foreign companies to operate in America is wrong,” said Clinton. “It should only be permitted if accompanied by donations that support our electoral processes.”

It was Senator Clinton’s husband who approved a Chinese company’s (Hutchison-Whampoa) purchase of the Panama Canal’s two ports. Then-President Bill Clinton brushed aside security concerns. “I knew they were okay when they contributed to my 1996 re-election campaign,” said Clinton. “Enemies don’t give you money.”

Of course to keep the facade up that Hillary is opposing the deal on principal rather then a power grab she has to issue a statement saying she knew nothing about how Bill got all that money……sure thing:

Hillary Clinton, a leading opponent of DP World’s takeover of some US port operations, was this week forced to admit that she did not know her husband had advised Dubai leaders on how to handle the growing dispute.

But former President Bill Clinton’s ties to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates should not have come as a surprise to his New York senator wife.

Mrs Clinton’s own senatorial financial disclosure forms reveal that her husband earned $450,000 giving speeches in Dubai in 2002.

Officials from the UAE also donated between $500,000 and $1m to fund Mr Clinton’s presidential library in Arkansas.

It was part of an effort by the emirates, said a person close to UAE officials, to forge a close relationship with a former US president who is influential and highly regarded in the region.

[…]Mrs Clinton’s tough stance that the deal represented an “unacceptable risk” to national security has caused UAE officials some consternation.

Regarded as the leading Democratic candidate for the 2008 presidential elections, she has used the deal ? which polls show is disliked by most Americans ? and the anti-Arab sentiment it sparked to attack the Bush administration on national security, an issue that has been seen as a weak point for Democrats.

Although Mrs Clinton has been careful not to criticise the UAE directly, her stance has put her in the same camp as legislators who openly accuse Dubai of helping to finance the September 11 terrorist attacks and deem the UAE untrustworthy.

Privately, some Democrats see the revelations about his ties to the UAE as a classic Clinton dilemma. Mrs Clinton told the New York Post on Thursday that she did not know her husband had been contacted by Dubai officials two weeks ago and offered them advice on the deal. Although both Hillary and Bill Clinton say he stands behind her on the issue and there is no direct conflict, his relationship to the UAE has complicated her political stance on the transaction.

Honey, why didn’t you tell me how $450 grand ended up in our bank account?….sigh

While I have posted often that opposing this port deal is foolish, the fact that these two are taking both sides of the issue for nothing more then political and monetary gain is disgusting.

Has there ever been a slicker political double-play combination than Bill and Hillary Clinton?

Consider how the former president, and the desperately-wants-to-be president, seek to have it both ways in the controversy over the Dubai ports deal.

Sen. Hillary – joined by her New York colleague, Chuck Schumer, and New Jersey’s Bob Menendez – has emerged as a leading voice in opposition to the deal, saying, “Our port security is too important to place in the hands of foreign governments.”

Indeed, she and Menendez are pushing legislation that would automatically ban any company owned by a foreign government from managing a U.S. terminal.

This is more than a security problem, she says – it’s “a larger problem” of ceding “some of our fiscal sovereignty.”

Now that’s an exercise in xenophobia that should cause a Democratic eyebrow or two to be raised in surprise.

Hubby Bill, on the other hand, supports Dubai. Big time.

He not only supports it, he’s even been advising the company on the sly on how to get around the opposition of senators like – well, Hillary.

Better still, he reportedly tried to get Dubai Ports World to hire his former mouthpiece, Joe Lockhart, as its new spokesman in Washington.

(Columnist Robert Novak reports that Lockhart was turned down because he asked for too much money. Lockhart insists he was only recommended by a former top Clinton official who now works as a lobbyist for ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. A Clinton spokesman would say only that “I don’t know for sure, but I don’t know him to generate employment, even for someone he likes and admires as much as Joe Lockhart.”)

Actually, Bill’s been a big fan of Dubai for some time now.

[…]This neat little arrangement keeps the Clintons covered on all sides of the issue. And it helps tuck a little boodle in the family piggy bank, too.

But then, that’s the way the Clintons operate. One hand washes the other, and all that matters is advancing the Clinton self-interest.

Fiscally.

And politically.

(click picture to see it more clearly)

Finally, please people shut up already about?his peace prize.? When he shares company with Carter, Arafat, and Annan as receipants and Tookie Williams as a nominee?then you just have to know it’s worthless.? Nothing more then a paperweight.

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