The latest news about the Clinton Global Initiative formally filing its intent with New York State to shut down and lay-off 22 employees reminds me of what I said in my last piece — the Party of No Guts will have to exorcise the demons of its past to regain relevance among voters.
CGI would have a problem staying afloat going forward since donations to the organization have been slowing down to droplets lately.
These two events, along with the infamous 12-page memo that was written by CGI co-founder Doug Band and published by the Washington Post, say plenty about the Clintons’ appearance of pay-to-play [neologism alert] shadiness.
It’s not like corporations and foreign governments are willing to have their names attached to a nonprofit entity that solicited for both the organization AND personal revenue for a former US President!
You simply have to read Band’s memo [grab the attachment] to get the grimy details behind what he called “Clinton, Inc.” Band explained that he not only solicited CGI donations from corporations, foreign governments and other large institutions, but he also collected millions of dollars in personal business revenue for President Clinton in the form of high-ticket speaking engagements, board appointments and consulting agreements.
Band summarizes:
Of [President Bill Clinton’s] current 4 arrangements, we secured all of them; and, we have helped manage and maintain all of his for-profit business relationships. Since 2001, President Clinton’s business arrangements have yielded more than $30 million for him personally, with $66 million to be paid out over the next nine years should he choose to continue with the current engagements.
Many of those “arrangements” coincided with donations made to the Clinton Foundation.
The evidence points to an appearance of geopolitical payola.
Could you run an organization this way without being placed under investigation for at least the appearance of wrongdoing?
Some media organizations only focused on the “spoiled brat” comment that Band made about Chelsea Clinton, known as “cvc” in his follow-up email, but the 12-page memo is the star of this show.
None of this news reflected well on Secretary Hillary Clinton as a Presidential candidate last year.
Yeah, I’m sure you’ll say the appearance of pay-to-play isn’t exclusive to the Clintons or their close circle of PoNGs friends.
I wouldn’t disagree with you. These are simply current casualties of the digital dragnet …
But this line of reasoning sidesteps the question that comes from the Wikileaks email drama: how can the PoNGs regain relevance?
Wait for the scandal winds to shift towards the other side of the aisle?
Still sounds like sidestepping.
Hope for a huge halo effect from anti-Trump fears and donations?
A likely outcome, but the option still looks like dancing to me.
How about this idea: the PoNGs should stop acting like the trickle-down party with blue filters …
song currently stuck in my head: “mommy, what’s a record?” – kerri chandler
mentalunrest.com 