Scandals: Webster’s dictionary defines a scandal as “an occurrence in which people are shocked and upset because of behavior that is morally or legally wrong.” But here’s a question: Are scandals still scandals if nobody actually did anything wrong? And I think that’s a fair question, because Hillary’s political foes love to point out all the times she has been implicated (directly or indirectly) in scandals. Not surprisingly, they fail to point out that she has always been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Compare, for example, the treatment Hillary is getting due to her private email “scandal” to that of Gen. David Petraeus. Hillary has been accused of hosting a personal email server that “might” have made classified documents less secure, even though the documents in question were not classified as secret at the time she received and/or sent them. For Clinton to have committed a criminal act, she would have had to knowingly and willfully mishandled material that was classified at the time she did so. After months of investigation, no one has accused her of doing that, and it doesn’t appear as if anyone will.
Petraeus, on the other hand, while he was director of the CIA, knowingly gave a journalist, who was also his mistress, a series of black books that according to the Justice Department contained “classified information regarding the identities of covert officers, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and mechanisms, diplomatic discussions quotes and deliberative discussions from high level National Security Council meetings and (Petraeus’) discussions with the president of the United States of America.” Petraeus followed that up by lying to numerous government officials, including FBI agents, about what he had done. And let’s not forget that according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, adultery is itself a court-martial offense. And I remind you that none of this is in dispute. Petraeus admitted to all of it.
Petraeus’ violations were significantly more egregious than anything Clinton is even remotely accused of. And yet Republicans and other Hillary foes are howling about her issue, wearing “Hillary for Prison 2016” T-shirts while insisting that this disqualifies her from public office. Meanwhile, even after Petraeus pleaded guilty to his crimes, conservatives continued to make fawning statements about him. Arizona Sen.John McCain stated that “All of us in life make mistakes, and the situation now, I hope, can be put behind him …” Politico quoted a former military officer who worked with Petraeus as calling the entire situation “silly”. Prominent Republicans have already made it clear that they would call him back to work in the highest levels of government if they win the Presidency. And some are still attempting to convince him to seek the Presidency himself.
Why is Hillary Clinton being held to such an obviously different standard than Petraeus? Is it really only politics?
