American Politics Journal

News You'll Never See on TV!

Hugh Rodham Cleared...
GOP Congressman's Young Female Staffer Found Dead Under Mysterious Circumstances

By Tamara Baker

Monday, July 23, 2001 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA (APJP) -- Remember how, in the effort to distract attention from Usurper Boy's obviously illegitimate takeover of the White House, we were subjected to a sudden uptick in FauxGates -- phony scandals -- involving Bill and Hillary Clinton?

Remember the wall-to-wall, 24/7, utterly incessant coverage given such things as Marc Rich's being pardoned, and whether Hillary's brother Hugh Rodham did anything naughty in trying to secure a pardon for a fella?

Well, now that these FauxGates are being exposed, one by one, as utter nonsense, isn't it interesting that you're not seeing the Clintons' vindications being given the same 24/7 coverage that the original smears got?

For instance:

Hugh Rodham had thousands of microphones shoved in his face a few months back when the GOPMedia was trumpeting their smearing of him on the evening news shows and the cable RNC liefests, but when it comes to his vindication, we only get a teeny little blink-and-you'll-miss-it article that I would never have known about if some kind soul hadn't sent it to me:

Hugh Rodham was cleared by the Florida Bar of violating rules of legal ethics in pocketing $400,000 from two convicted felons after successfully lobbying his brother-in-law, then-President Bill Clinton, to pardon them, The Miami Herald reported on Saturday....
The bar began investigating Rodham in February following news reports about the deals. On Friday, a bar committee cleared him of rule violations that could have led to disciplinary actions after deciding "the clemency process is not a judicial proceeding" and the case did not involve a "compelling public interest."
"What he did was not unethical for a lawyer to have done, because what he did was not the practice of law," Rodham's attorney, Andrew Berman, told the Herald on Friday.

Now, why aren't the GOPMedia lapdogs shoving microphones in Hugh Rodham's face NOW, now that he has been declared innocent, now that the big media-fueled smear has been debunked?

They're too busy pounding on Gary Condit's door, that's why. (Even after Dick Cheney himself has stepped forward with the Mother of All Alibis for Congressman Condit.)

And speaking of Congressmen:

Back in May, Joe Scarborough, R-FL, announced he wouldn't be running for another term in 2002, citing family reasons. (This was after rumors had been flying around that he was on the verge of resigning.)

Now, at the time this happened, I got a ton of e-mails from various folks stating that he was forgoing another term because of a scandal involving a female staffer whom he had gotten pregnant. I blew off these rumors and didn't save any of the e-mails.

I'm regretting doing that.

Why?

Because suddenly, a young, apparently healthy-as-a-horse female staffer in Scarborough's office up and died there last week for no reason that anyone can see at this point:

Results of an autopsy are expected today to explain the death of a 28-year-old aide to U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough. The woman was found dead Friday morning in the congressman's Fort Walton Beach office.
Law enforcement officials said the death of Lori Klausutis of Niceville is not suspicious.

Yeah, riiiiiight. A 28-year-old with no known health problems suddenly ups and croaks -- and she works for a Congressman alleged to have impregnated a female staffer?

Uh-huh. Officially, Gary Condit's "not a suspect" in Chandra Levy's disappearance -- but you'd never know that from the way the media, after giving him a free pass for two months because of his conservative beliefs, suddenly latched onto the California Dixiecrat.

But I digress.

Paul Lux, 34, was surprised to hear of Klausutis' sudden death. They went to high schools about 20 miles apart in Ohio, and they met in Okaloosa County when they joined Emerald Coast Young Republicans.

"From what I knew of her ... she was in excellent physical condition," Lux said. "If she had any debilitating illness, she never shared it with me or anyone we associated with."

Dear reader, I want you to do the following exercise:

Imagine what the media would already be doing to Joe Scarborough, were he a Democrat.

Imagine how the rumors about his impregnating the staffer would be all over MSNBC, the same way the lurid tales of neckties-on-the-bedpost and such got spread about Condit.

Now, imagine what would have happened -- or rather, what would NOT have happened -- to Gary Condit, had he switched parties back in January, as the GOP was begging him to do, in order to get a plum seat on the House Agriculture Committee?

No one would have looked into the stories of Chandra's boyfriends, no matter how loudly her parents urged them to do so. Chandra's story would never have it out of the Beltway. Condit wouldn't be facing political ruin.

And the GOPMedia would have been pumping up another sex scandal.