Hey, remember the last time Bob told us something wasn't a real scandal?
The outing of Valerie Plame wasn't a real scandal.
The administration (Bully Boy Bush's administration) outed a CIA agent.
Bob thought it was nonsense.
Bob forgot to explain that one of the collaborators with the administration -- 'journalist' Matthew Cooper -- was his friend.
Bob forgot to tell readers that.
And that's why we never take Bob Somerby seriously on what is or isn't a scandal.
Do Hillary's e-mails matter to Benghazi?
We were all going to say "no" or most of us were.
Then Ava and C.I. piped up, "Is John Kerry giving Congress a wrong answer on the record important?"
See long before Hillary turned over some of her e-mails to the State Department, John Kerry appeared before Congress and was asked about Hillary's e-mails and said they'd been turned over -- they'd all been turned over.
At a subsequent appearance, he began shouting that they'd been turned over.
Does John Kerry want to stick with that answer now?
We doubt it.
It's a scandal, it's a genuine and real scandal.
Hillary wasn't supposed to use a private account unless she was immediately turning business e-mails over to the State Department.
She didn't do that.
Some have whined that Colin Powell did something similar.
Is Powell trying to run for president?
If Hillary wants to announce she's not running for president, this whole nightmare can go away.
But if she's planning on running for president, her latest attempt to circumvent transparency?
It matters.
It is a character issue.
If she wants to be president, the claim that she did the same thing that Colin Powell did doesn't cut it.
She ran for president in 2008.
She always knew she might in 2016.
She needs to be above board.
Instead, she's crafty and craven and lying yet again.
Conor Friedersdorf (The Atlantic) noted earlier this month that "the episode already confirms what attentive observers have long known: If the Clintons return to the White House, we can expect more suspicious secrets, stonewalling, and opaqueness, much as we've seen in the past. Voters have been given ample warning."
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Illustration is Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Got War?"