Robert Scheer: Married to the Clinton Mob

[marmar]

from truthdig:




Married to the Clinton Mob

Posted on Aug 3, 2010
By Robert Scheer


Out of respect for privacy, even concerning famous people, I wasn’t going to write about the marriage of Chelsea Clinton to a Goldman Sachs alum and budding hedge-fund hustler with the resources to buy a $4 million loft so soon after graduating from Stanford. Hopefully Marc Mezvinsky won’t follow in the footsteps of his financier father, “Fast-Talkin’ Eddie,” as they called him back in Iowa, a former Democratic House member who just completed a five-year federal sentence for dozens of fraud felonies.

Anyway, Chelsea also worked at a hedge fund, her mother dabbled in banking shenanigans in her Whitewater days and father Bill’s radical deregulation made it a lot easier for financial plunderers to stay on the right side of the law. So the Clintons and the Mezvinskys have a lot in common. I hope their children will do better, and I was going to simply wish them well until I read Tina Brown’s paean to power, “Why America Needed Chelsea’s Wedding,” in the trend-chasing Daily Beast, which she edits.

It was then that I realized that the revival of the Clinton legacy was on in earnest. Brown, a prominent Brit import, is an expert on refurbishing tarnished royalty, as she demonstrated with her gushing tribute to the Clinton wedding as “a happy throwback to the carefree 1990s.” So carefree that no one of importance, certainly not in the Clinton White House, took serious stock of the collapse of hedge funds like Long-Term Capital Management, a harbinger of disasters to come.

In what I assume was not self-parody, Brown stated that “the Clintons are enjoying political rosy-glow syndrome. In the light of what’s happened since—two grueling wars, the implosion of debt, 14 million unemployed … Chelsea’s wedding allowed us to remember all that prosperity, those continuous Clinton surpluses.” But not, as I the party pooper must add, the Financial Services Modernization Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which enabled the financial bubble that caused those 14 million to be unemployed. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/married_to_the_clinton_mob_20100803/

[zipplewrath]

1. But it was a win!

"Clinton nostalgia is dangerous nonsense, and for Democrats to go down that road is to avoid serious assessment of their own party’s role in the economic debacle that haunts the nation."

I'm afraid the democrats tend to love a winner, no matter what he does. True then, true now.

[Demeter]

2. I Didn't Expect Chelsea to Be Shallow

I thought someone raised on the precipice of disaster would have some depth and resiliency and insight. But if this is who she is, so be it.

I hope he's a better man than his resume, but the odds are against it.

I give them 5 years.

[hedgehog]

3. Ouch! That;'s going to leave a mark! Out of all the discussion about the

cost of Chelsea's wedding, I thought the most significant comment was the question of where the money came from to pay for it.

[LongTomH]

4. Speaking of the Clinton Mob..................

People have begun to talk up Hillary as the replacement for Joe Biden on the 2012 ticket, which would place her in the most favored position to run for president in 2012.

Here's something I just posted for another thread:

Hillary Clinton is the perfect model for the new generation of corporate-owned-and-operated congresspeople. She was the senator for Tata, the Indian company that does much of the outsourcing of US IT jobs.

She made her pilgrimage to India during the 2008 campaign to 'woo India' and to promise to keep sending them American jobs. Quoting from the Asia Times article:

Hillary Clinton made it apparent where she stood on outsourcing during her India visit, in an attempt perhaps to clear the Indian misgivings received during the Kerry campaign. "There is no way to legislate against reality. Outsourcing will continue," she told an audience of Indian big-wigs. She pointed out that there were 3 billion people who feel left behind and are trying to attack the modern world in the hope of turning the clock back on globalization. "It is not far-fetched to imagine ... if the Indian miracle would be the one of choice of those who feel left behind," said Hillary.

Hillary has been at the forefront in defending free trade and outsourcing. During the height of the anti-outsourcing backlash in the US last year, she faced considerable flak for defending Indian software giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for opening a center in Buffalo, New York. "We are not against all outsourcing; we are not in favor of putting up fences," Hillary said firmly, despite inevitably invoking the ire of the anti-free trade brigade.

Actually, both the Clintons have a long history with India:

Perhaps one of the biggest friends of the Indian American community has been former US president Bill Clinton. Clinton is closely associated with the American India Foundation and visited India in 2001, as head of an Indian delegation to collect funds for victims of the Gujarat earthquake. There was considerable talk at that time that the Clinton visit was a well-orchestrated plan to cultivate the Indian American community to prepare for Hillary Clinton as president of the US.

One of the big donors to her campaign was Indian born Rakesh Gangwal, who also worked for her campaign.

Gangwal was the CEO of my old company, Worldspan. He downsized American workers, first to get the company ready for an IPO; when the market wouldn't pay what he was asking, he tried to get the company ready to sell, downsizing even more workers in the process. I was 'downsized' in 2005. Apparently, he did the same thing at his old company, USAirways. When he left, the company was in bankruptcy; Rakki walked away with a cool $15 million in his piggybank.

Is it any wonder that people are talking up the idea of Hillary as the Vice President on the 2012 ticket to replace Joe Biden? With her on the ticket, they will get big bucks from Tata and the corporations profiting from outsourcing. And they're talking up Hillary as a presidential candidate for 2016.

Be afraid! Be very afraid! Be very, very afraid!

[uberblonde]

6. Because Obama's so much better, right?

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/integration/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226500202

This isn't a matter of candidates. It's a matter of a deeply corrupt system, and we're at the mercy of politicians who are steeped in it. This is a disease of capitalism, not the personal failings of politicians.

[LongTomH]

7. Agreed, but...................

Hillary Clinton should not be considered as a VP or presidential candidate. We need to find a real progressive and begin working to put him/her in the White House.

[SusanaMontana41]

12. uberblonde, I agree 100 percent.

This isn't about liberals vs. conservatives, or even the GOP vs. the Democrats. Its the elite vs. the working class.

The system is skewed against the working class. Thanks to outsourcing, we are nearing extinction.

And we call it progress.

[uberblonde]

5. What a vague, smeary piece of innuendo.

First of all, Ed Mezvinsky is bipolar, and it came out in his trial that his frauds took place during acute manic spells. His wife didn't know about any of it, and divorced him after she found out. So to imply that this is some kind of wedding of Mafia dynasties is a smear worthy of Fox News.

Second, Bill Clinton is the first to admit he has regrets. He also said that the finance bill was dependent on strict oversight -- which of course didn't happen during the Bush era. Well, there's not a whole lot you can do about a successor who won't enforce the law.

He's also taken responsibility for the trade agreements that left Haiti such a mess. He's shown a consistent ability to learn from his own mistakes.

Bill Clinton isn't perfect. Neither is he the devil personified.

[Beacool]

10. I didn't know this.

"First of all, Ed Mezvinsky is bipolar, and it came out in his trial that his frauds took place during acute manic spells. His wife didn't know about any of it, and divorced him after she found out."

:(

[DonCoquixote]

18. as a bipolar person

I am really insulted when people try to use it as an excuse to be sleazy. Yes, I will admit it is easier to do silly things in a manic mood, but that does not mean I can avoid responsibility for them.

[suzie]

15. People were predicting disastrous outcomes from the deregulation of the banks

at the time that Clinton signed the legislation. Perhaps they didn't foresee the extent of the meltdown of the financial system, but I remember predictions of giant bailouts.

Good for Bill Clinton that the was able to "learn from his mistakes", while raking in $100 million in payoffs from the people he sold out the American public to.

[Alcibiades]

20. +1

"But no one could have possibly foreseen this!" The last refuge of people who blindly ignore all critics.

[shireen]

8. they live in an alternate reality

certainly not in the same world as the rest of us working stiffs.

[SusanaMontana41]

13. ... or us former working stiffs

who lost our jobs because of the system they helped to put in place.

Wealth and power protect wealth and power. We live under an oligarchy. I'd vote for Obama again over someone such as McCain, but Barack is no progressive. He's a pragmatist who seems to be willing to bargain away the principles he was elected to protect — our principles, Democratic Party principles, working class principles. And compromising our principles suits the oligarchy.

I was an Obamapologist for months. Watching our government work for/protect BP soured me on Obama pretty quickly. We need to elect a progressive who will fight for US.

[Beacool]

9. I only have one comment:

Scheer, go screw yourself!!!

:thumbsdown:

[alarimer]

11. The Clintons and Obama are why I am an independent now.

First of all, Clinton gave us NAFTA and "welfare reform". More "screw the middle class and help the banksters". Now it turns out their offspring is a bankster herself and married to one. Probably both will end up defrauding lots of people before they are done, unless they have an attack of conscience somehow.

Fuck ALL politicians. Throw them ALL out.

[SusanaMontana41]

14. I'm with you, alarimer.

n/t

[shireen]

16. +1

[tonybeme]

17. Live Q&A

Just saw this on Facebook..

Live Q & A Chat with Robert Scheer on the Clinton's

http://www.truthdig.com/q_a/

[DFLforever]

19. Envy? Hatred? Malice? Greed?

What feeds the anti-Clinton cauldron most these days?:puke:

[KoKo]

21. We Dems need to "Move On" from the Clintons. It's old news and

them pushing themselves in our face doesn't help Democrats. It DOES, however help the Clintons who allied themselves with the Bushes after Ken Starr trashed them and our Dems so bad we couldn't REGAIN THE WH for EIGHT YEARS!

Clintons are redeeming themselves and their Reputations...but, we shouldn't allow them to do it on OUR BACKS..with OUR PRESIDENT and work AGAINST us DEMS RE-BUILDING OUR DEMOCRATIC PARTY in OUR OWN FASHION...OUR OWN WAY.

The "Clintons" had their "Day in the Sun" and they FUCKED UP...let's work towards something else for Dems than TRIANGULATION! SCANDALS!

[quickesst]

22. Clinton haters.....

...oh well, on the bright side, as long as there are tea-baggers they'll never be on the bottom. Thanks.
quickesst