Big White House garage sale

By Ervin Hladnik-Milharcic
The Clinton years are not yet over. In the past two weeks, his successor George W Bush has bombed Baghdad, gone to Mexico to visit fellow new President Vicente Fox, accused China of helping Iraq build an integrated radar system, worked on the biggest tax cut since Reagan, criticised Russia after the arrest of an FBI agent spying for the KGB, dispatched Colin Powell to the Middle East and received British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It was an impressive political, diplomatic and military offensive -- and it went practically unnoticed.
Americans are distracted by the consequences of Bill Clinton's last night in office. In the last hours of his presidential mandate, Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of 175 convicted felons, an accomplishment that begged scrutiny.
Already on 20 January, the date of Bush's inauguration, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani raised his voice against the pardon of international financier Marc Rich. Seventeen years ago, then US Attorney for the southern district of New York Giuliani indicted Rich on more than 50 counts of racketeering, wire fraud, $50 million income tax evasion and illegal oil trading with Iran. In response, Rich fled to Switzerland and renounced his US citizenship. Now Republicans, still smarting from their defeat in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, accuse Clinton of pardoning a fugitive from justice who figures on the FBI's most-wanted list. But the story has become even murkier.
A criminal probe into the pardon of Rich and his partner Pincus Green has revealed that Rich's former wife Denise donated more than $1 million to Democratic causes and $450,000 to help build Clinton's proposed presidential library. The money was alleged to have come from her ex-husband. She was also very generous with gifts for the Clintons' new homes. In the United States corporations and rich businessmen routinely buy political influence with donations to both political parties and individual politicians, but this case seems to go beyond customary lobbying efforts, reaching the level of outright corruption.
Clinton defended himself with the usual "I've done nothing wrong." After weeks of silence, the New York Times published a letter in which Clinton explained that he pardoned Rich not for the money but on the merits of the case. He wrote that Rich was prosecuted too harshly; that there was expert evidence that his crimes were much less serious than alleged; and that three Republican lawyers reviewing the case had advocated the pardons. The lawyers denied having done anything of the sort, but Clinton also had an argument that played up his diplomatic efforts. He said that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and other Israeli officials had urged the pardon because of Rich's contributions to the peace process, the Mossad and educational projects in Gaza and the West Bank...
Clinton's self-justification might have worked, but meticulous investigation of the pardons has produced a consistent trail of evidence for possible charges of corruption. Clinton, with wife Hillary present, pardoned four men from a Hasidic community in New York. The entire community subsequently voted for Hillary Clinton in her bid for the US Senate. Two neighbouring Hasidic communities went to her Republican opponent, making a direct link between the pardons and the voting pattern seem obvious. It was then discovered that Mrs Clinton's brother received $400,000 for his work on requests for two other pardons, while Bill Clinton's half-brother Roger was involved in -- but not paid for -- lobbying on behalf of several friends and associates who were seeking pardons. None of these pardons were granted, but the trouble did not stop there. Hillary Clinton's campaign treasurer was paid $4,000 in legal fees to prepare two more pardon applications sent to the Justice Department. Congressional investigators now want to see the names of all the contributors to Clinton's library who donated more than $5,000 dollars. The library has so far refused to disclose the names. The public is left with the impression that, leaving office, Bill Clinton threw a big presidential garage sale in which pardons were granted at cut-rate prices.
Political favouritism was a hot topic in the presidential primary campaign last year, when Republican John McCain and Democrat Bill Bradley proposed a joint effort to limit large financial contributions to political parties. For their part, George W Bush and Al Gore avoided the subject, but it remained on the fringes of political relevance. Political contributions are now back on centre stage, with Bill and Hillary Clinton in the starring roles of co-accused. Americans, who believe in the constitutional right of equal justice for all, are now reminded that those who are rich enough can evade $50 million of taxes and well-connected drug dealers can get a presidential pardon for a small fee.
Already out of office, Bill Clinton risks nothing more than definitive disgrace. Having hoped to leave a legacy, he is more preoccupied with giving a crash course in scandal management. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, started her senatorial career with ambitions of becoming America's first female president and is now fighting for her political survival. But it is the Democratic Party that is the true victim.
Confronted with an ex-president out of control and accumulating stories of corruption, the Democrats are on the defensive. Increasingly disoriented, the Democrats have problems forming a consistent opposition policy even to Bush's most adventurous plans. As for Clinton, at first the Democrats half-heartedly attempted to defend their former leader, but now, one by one, they are dumping him. Even Clinton's most fervent supporter, ex-Mayor of New York Ed Koch, has turned his back on him.
Clinton has made one intelligent public relations move. After the federal government refused to pay the $800,000 annual rent for an office in midtown Manhattan, he fled north to Harlem, where the area's black majority still support him. He will have to learn to live cheaply and alone.
Recommend this page
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Send a letter to the Editor