One marvels at the evil crooked minds of the bribe seekers and recipients the Democrats have sent to the White House this past half century.
It is fascinating how effectively Democrats devise schemes to buy off politicians, passing them millions in bribes in plain sight, and get away with it. We all know that huge donations to a politician gain access. The vast majority of us simply cannot afford the price — even the “economy-class” $1,000 a plate dinner. Therefore, the common folk pick and choose the ones who seem worthy, give online in ranges between $5 and $50, and know that it is a good cause that will not bring access.
So the public find other ways to try influence: sending emails to friends, sometimes with distribution lists, tweeting and posting impactful articles. Some religiously attend town halls and school board meetings. They ask the preacher to speak in church on a topic. They bloviate at the office coffee room.
Yet there are those whose sheer ingenuity deserves recognition for how they have turned bribery — a Biblical sin, one of society’s historically most shunned ethical failures — into an art form. Now, literally so.
Biden: Wouldn’t This Painting Hang Beautifully in Your Home?
They really are something, the presidential Democrats. It takes money. Some, like the Roosevelts and Kennedys, have all the money they need, as do certain Republicans like the Bushes and Trumps. Some make legitimate alternate connections among the rich: the Eisenhowers who lead the Allies to victory in a world war, the Reagans who rise to the top among celebrities in Hollywood. And then there are those who have a Brother Billy, create Foundations, receive speech honoraria, get hired for non-essential jobs that pay enormously and directly, and buy homes half a million dollars below ultimate market value in conjunction with people of conviction.
And then the Bidens. Focus here on Hunter — Hunter Green.
He is in a class by himself. A monthly $50,000-plus stipend to sit on the Burisma board of directors, utterly ignorant about both Ukraine and energy helping direct a Ukrainian energy company. Eнергії? Xабар? A laptop that holds secrets protected by Facebook. And now: Hunter Biden as Artiste Extraordinaire. Connect the dots, and paint by numbers.
It is said that Pablo Picasso once called the police after a break-in at his Barcelona studio. He had seen the suspect, and the police arrived with the usual forensic sketch artist to get the description and draw the crook’s face. But this crime victim was furious: “You police will not insult me this way. Rather, I the Great Picasso shall draw the face of the man who has perpetrated this dastardly deed!”
And, sure enough, the very next day the Barcelona police arrested a man with three noses, four left hands, and two eyes on the back of his head.
So, after all, how price art? A Rembrandt looks as perfect as a photograph. A Kandinsky’s abstract images are exciting. An El Greco landscape of Toledo. The gorgeous impressionism of a Monet Japanese foot bridge, a Renoir outdoor cafe luncheon, a Van Gogh starry night.
Or a Hunter Biden?
How price Hunter’s oeuvre — his body of famous work? Does it matter whether done in charcoal, acrylic, oil, or papier-mâché? Does the easel matter — or the ease? The fixative — or the fix? The palette — or the pal?
So a person goes to a gallery and buys three Hunters for $225,000 at $75,000 a pop. Or maybe just one to access the Pop. Not everyone owns a Hunter Biden — besides Burisma — so the paying owners stand out. Perhaps they get to meet the artist. And how did Bill Clinton put it? And Miss Lillian (i.e., Bessie)? And Brother Billy? We’re all family.
Hillbillary: The Clinton Foundation and Honoraria for Speeches
Hillary and Bill Clinton arrived as corrupt as the day is long in July. Corruption defines them to this day in the American consciousness. Though a United States governor, people even back in Arkansas knew about Slick Willy. The American Spectator exposed Boy Clinton, although he did a pretty thorough job himself. We no longer remember the order — Gennifer Flowers, Paula Corbin, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willy, Monica Lewinsky — but our hearts go out to them, even to the last one, as we think back to Arkansas state troopers, rape allegations, distinguishing marks, even dress stains.
Remember him at the Democrat National Convention telling poor people, the suckers from whom he sought succor, that if they lacked family, they could be part of Hillary’s and his family? Oh how they cheered! Nonetheless, not many of them were invited to join Hillary and him for turkey the following Thanksgiving.
As time unfolded, we got to meet Bill’s better half, too. There was Travelgate, the sudden mass firings scandal in the White House travel office. There was Vince Foster, Esq., the deputy White House lawyer who killed himself. The corruption of the missing billing records of the Rose Law Firm. There was the cow over the cattle futures that saw her pocket a nifty $100,000 — and Tyson Foods later got $9 million in government loans. The 700 FBI background checks on her enemies. Whitewater. Norman Hsu. Jorge Cabrera. Jim and Susan McDougal. And of course the memorable sniper fire in Bosnia. And that she was named at birth for a guy who climbed a mountain several years later.
But it was not enough. It never was enough. There always was another glass ceiling holding more corrupt money waiting to be accessed. But how? Especially after all the media were onto her.
Then came the Clinton Foundation. Brilliance. Suddenly, bribers could transfer millions to the Clintons and their operatives in broad daylight. No need for shady back rooms. No need to use words like “payola” and “pay to play” and “how much for?” Instead, pass the loot to help the poor children of Haiti or whatever is in the news, and the Foundation will take care of the rest. Experts — i.e., Clinton staffers out of jobs — need to fly to meetings. Someone has to sit in the first-class seats. A Foundation needs to be constructed on a foundation of paid employees. To get good people, you need to pay top dollar. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Fittingly, financier Jeffrey Epstein also formed part of the original group that conceived the Clinton Global Initiative. Great minds think alike.
The Clinton Foundation had a unique gift at eliciting kindnesses from those others never could inspire. Who realized that, deep inside the breast of every Saudi oil sheikh, there beats a heart concerned about Haiti? Oil flowed not only through their vanes but their veins Through 2016, the Foundation had raised an estimated $2 billion from U.S. corporations, foreign governments and corporations, political donors, and various other groups and individuals. Hillary was Secretary of State, angling for the presidency, campaigning on a feminism platform. In Saudi Arabia, most women require male guardians to accompany them, may not drive cars, and face stoning for adultery. Yet their was a shared kinship built on sand as the Saudis gave the Foundation between $10-25 million. And — oh man! — more millions from Oman. And a million from Qatar. Philanthropy with a capital “phil” for “Phil the coffers.”
The Clintons knew these things never were going to be investigated, just as no one ever would really investigate the spoliation that saw Hillary destroy more than 30,000 emails — you know, about Chelsea’s wedding dress and Hillary’s yoga classes. Namaste.
Contrast the situation with the Martha Stewart saga, for example. The world is better for her knowing how to iron out wrinkles and maintain late-spring perennials. Yet, despite her Barnard College pedigree, she engaged in some insider trading, then tried to cheat the Securities and Exchange Commission by spoliating evidence. Ended up in the slammer, perhaps consulting on paint colors for the bars. Orange is the new black.
But the Clintons? No need to debate perennials versus annuals because their corruption fits both — always secured by government “investigators” who know that Mum’s the word. Meanwhile, with so many eyes on the emails and the Clinton Foundation, Bill was traveling to East European dictatorships where they paid him millions of dollars in speech honoraria. In less than 48 hours, Bill got $450,000 for a 2006 speech for… charity, $280,000 for another speech in London, and then another $280,000 for a speech in Dublin. Talk about doublin’! Imagine being paid one million dollars in one day for three speeches. When was the last decade or two that your employer paid you a million dollars for 50 weeks of 40 hours per week?
These are the people who say that Donald Trump ran for president to enrich his hotels and casino operations. In one single year from 2014, the two Clintons were paid more than $25 million in speaking fees. Grasp that. Digest that. You just won’t ever see that — just like Hillary’s famous 15-minute closed-door speeches to Wall Street investment bankers who wanted access to the Secretary of State and potential next president of the United States.
Obama: Michelle Can Work at the Hospital
Like the Clintons, Obama was perceived in conservative circles as corrupt from the outset. He had been head of Harvard Law Review without ever authoring a law review article — to this day. A community organizer who somehow was getting richer than entire communities he was organizing. He seemed on his way up. How slip him some cash? Note, too, the difference between bribing someone early-on before he has assets and other bonafides to enter the eminent circles of the upper crust versus after. The Obamas did not have it at first. Community organizing is not a high-paying vocation for most. Unless one has the right friends.
The University Of Chicago Hospital named Obama’s wife, Michele, as vice president of community relations at a salary of $121,910. Good job, great pay. When Obama next rose to become a senator in 2005, her “compensation” rose overnight to $316,962 — for the same job. Think about that. Coincidentally, one of Illinois Senator Obama’s first acts in office was to arrange for the hospital to receive more than million dollars as a government earmark. See how it works? What would stop anyone from engaging in these schemes — except for honesty? With the benefit of valuable hindsight unavailable then, history now records that, when Obama became president of the United States, that vital $316,000 hospital job quietly was eliminated.
Obama: Meet My Friend, “Tony”
Obama not only presented himself as a man of convictions but hung around them. Convicted felon Tony Rezko for example.
At the beginning of Barack Obama’s political career, in July of 1995, three of the first political contributions ever received by the future President included $300 from a local lawyer, a loan from a car dealer totaling $5,000, and $2,000 from two companies owned by Tony Rezko. Over the next decade and a half, Rezko would play a crucial role in helping fundraise for Obama’s various campaigns, most notably in 2007-2008, when over $250,000 came in from Rezko and his close associates.
In June 2007, the Sun-Times published a story about letters Obama had written in 1997 to city and state officials in support of a low-income senior citizen development project headed by Rezko and Davis. The project received more than $14 million in taxpayer funds, including $885,000 in development fees for Rezko and Davis. Of Obama’s letters in support of the Cottage View Terrace apartments development, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, “This wasn’t done as a favor for anyone; it was done in the interests of the people in the community who have benefited from the project. I don’t know that anyone specifically asked him to write this letter nine years ago. There was a consensus in the community about the positive impact the project would make and Obama supported it because it was going to help people in his district.”
Oh, to live next door to such a friend! In 2005 Obama purchased a new home in the Kenwood District of Chicago for $1.65 million — $300,000 below the asking price. On the same day Rezko’s wife, Rita Rezko, purchased the adjoining empty lot from the same sellers for the full asking price. Brilliant.
Jimmy Carter: “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”
Jimmy Carter was among our most incompetent chief executives. The Ayatollah held American diplomats hostage with impunity for so long that they virtually made Ted Koppel’s career. Inflation hit some 19 percent. The bond market collapsed. Housing. The country fell apart. Even the president told us that our moment had passed.
Yet, as bad a president as he was — and, in all fairness for the depths he plumbed, he is right down there with the trio of Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan as among the worst who belong on Mount Flushmore — Jimmy Carter happened to be one of our most honest, most ethical presidents. True is true. The man was honest, even as he was honest-to-goodness that incompetent.
How bribe him? This was the conundrum confronting Libyan strongman Muammar Kaddafi. Carter was incorruptible. But he had a tight-knit Plains, Georgia family. Remember “Miss Lillian”? (Her name actually was Bessie.) And there was brother Billy. In his one run for office, Billy lost 97-71 to be Plains mayor. Instead, he became chief spokesman for Peanut Lolita liqueur. The ways of fate. He later gained a wider following when he publicly micturated on an airport runway, in full view of journalists.
This was the weak link in the Carter stream. Gen. Kaddafi passed as much as two million dollars to Brother Billy. Whether the effort was ingenious, the good general’s tent and family were not bombed until Ronald Reagan came to Washington.
Rabbi Dov Fischer, Esq., a high-stakes litigation attorney of more than twenty-five years and an adjunct professor of law of more than fifteen years, is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County, California. A winner of an American Jurisprudence Award in Professional Legal Ethics, Rabbi Fischer also is the author of two books, including General Sharon’s War Against Time Magazine, which covered the Israeli General’s 1980s landmark libel suit.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.