The Washington Post ran an article focusing on the female members of the Clinton presidential campaign team reassembled from the 1990s with the goal of once again running the White House and the country: “Fifteen years after Clinton first brought these women together at the White House, the ‘board’ has officially reconvened to help map her unprecedented effort to follow in her husband's footsteps. They are acutely aware their work is making history. Once seen as a tight little sorority, today the group -- happily self-described as ‘Hillaryland’-- is at the center of a front-running presidential campaign.”
Among the names referenced in the report: radical feminist activist and Democratic operative Ann Lewis, former Hillary Clinton social secretary Capricia Marshall, and Hillary’s first Chief of Staff Maggie Williams, among others. All three of these women have been involved in some manner with the full range of Clinton scandals.
As a former Deputy Campaign Manager for the Clinton-Gore 1996 re-election campaign, Ann Lewis was linked to the Chinagate scandal, where the Clinton campaign sold access to the Clinton White House to the Communist Chinese in exchange for campaign contributions.
Maggie Williams was seen by a Secret Service agent taking files from Vince Foster’s office the night of Foster’s alleged suicide. Foster, White House Counsel for the Clinton administration, had been a former law partner of Hillary Clinton at the Rose Law Firm and was tied to the Whitewater scandal. Hillary Clinton’s law firm billing records “went missing” from Foster’s office and then later reappeared with Hillary’s fingerprints all over them. Williams also helped broker an illegal $50,000 contribution to the Clinton-Gore campaign from former Chinese intelligence official Johnnie Chung.
Capricia Marshall was involved in Hillary Clinton’s Senate 2000 campaign fundraising scandal, which led to the criminal indictment of Clinton’s National Finance Director David Rosen. The Clinton campaign failed to report $700,000 in campaign contributions from Peter Paul in the form of a star-studded celebrity fundraiser. (Clinton’s fundraising operation was ultimately fined $35,000 by the Federal Election Commission in response to a complaint filed by Judicial Watch.) According to sworn testimony during the Rosen trial, Marshall was intimately involved in all of the event logistics.
While The Washington Post chose to focus on the female members of the Clinton team, there are a number of male members of “Hillaryland” who have sordid histories of their own, including Terry McAuliffe, Sandy Berger, Harold Ickes, Bernard Nussbaum and James Carville, among many others.
If you get a little nervous reading these names, you should. This team would be a complete disaster for our country. I can see the t-shirts now: “I went to Hillaryland and all I got was this lousy subpoena.”
Fix the Border and Enforce Immigration Laws
A few weeks ago, I reported that the Senate immigration reform bill was alive but on life support. Last week, the Senate chose to pull the plug.
According to The Associated Press: “The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush's plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections...Senators in both parties said the issue is so volatile that Congress is highly unlikely to revisit it this fall or next year, when the presidential election will increasingly dominate American politics.”
At first, it appeared early that the bill might just have a shot. Supporters were able to secure enough votes to end debate on the legislation (64-35), a feat they could not accomplish a couple of weeks ago. A total of 24 Republicans joined 39 Democrats and Connecticut Independent Senator Lieberman to back moving ahead with the bill.
However, as the Senate began to consider a series of amendments to the legislation, some of the Senators who helped revive the bill earlier in the week defected. In the end, supporters could only manage 46 of the 60 votes needed to limit debate and move for a vote.
Just two days after sending a clear signal they were ready to move ahead, the Senate abruptly changed course. Why? There are a few theories bouncing around Capitol Hill, but the most likely seems to be good old-fashioned public disapproval. Apparently, the Senate switchboard crashed due to the overwhelming number of calls from American citizens adamantly opposed to providing amnesty and other incentive programs to millions of illegal aliens. (Remember, after they vote, Senators do have to go back to their districts and explain themselves to their constituents.)
This flood of phone calls should come as no surprise to anyone. Judicial watch recently sponsored a poll conducted in partnership with Zogby on the subject of illegal immigration and it is clear to me that the American people speak with one voice on the issue: Fix the border and enforce immigration laws. It’s that simple.
Too bad the president and his allies in the Senate saw fit to bind important border enforcement measures to amnesty for illegals. Senator Kennedy, for one, claims the two go hand-in-hand, but on what planet does that make sense? In what other instance do you hope to curtail a certain behavior by rewarding it?
President Bush and Congress should forget about complicated amnesty proposals and do now what they should have done from the beginning, what the American people want them to do: enforce the law.
Judicial Watch Files Brief in Support of Law Banning Same Sex Marriage
Judicial Watch filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief with the California Supreme Court in support of a California state law banning same-sex marriage.
The California High Court decided to take on the issue of same-sex marriage after the state’s appellate court overturned a 2005 decision by California Superior Court Judge Richard A. Kramer, who ruled that same-sex couples had a constitutional right to marry. Judge Kramer’s decision completely invalidated a law approved by California voters in 2000 stipulating that “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
Judicial Watch, of course, supports the appellate court decision to overturn Judge Kramer’s decision. As we wrote in our brief: “…The Court of Appeals prudently exercised judicial restraint and refused to usurp the power of the legislative by redefining or otherwise expanding by judicial fiat the concept of marriage to include the idea of same-sex marriage which has been rejected directly by the people of California…”
Here is the bottom line: Judge Kramer has no authority to create new rights that suit his personal and political agendas. His job is to interpret the law, not to innovate social policy. Crafting laws is left to the legislature, which is accountable to the voters.
The fact is liberals have had little luck pushing their extreme agenda at the ballot box. So, instead, they are increasingly turning to judges do it for them. (Personally, I like what former Chief Justice Marshall had to say about holding activist judges accountable. During the impeachment hearings of Justice Samuel Chase for arbitrary use of judicial powers, Marshall wrote: "a Judge giving a legal opinion contrary to the opinion of the legislature is liable to impeachment.")
Gay rights groups, with help from their friends in the American Civil Liberties Union, have filed lawsuits in 9 states in an attempt to redefine marriage. Gay rights activists are, of course, focusing on the nation’s most liberal states where activist judges tend to be in greater supply. Once legal precedent is set, however, they will not stop until every state endorses their political agenda and their lifestyle.
By the way, you may want to check out this article by conservative syndicated columnist George Will. Apparently, the extremely liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled the following statement akin to a “hate crime”: “Marriage is the foundation of the natural family and sustains family values.”
Yet another legal victory for the anti-marriage, anti-family crowd.
In closing, I just want to take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy 4th of July holiday. We have much to celebrate. After all, even with all of its problems this is by far the greatest nation on earth.
Tom Fitton is president of Judicial Watch, Inc., a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation that promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.