Politics / Opinion
Political Investigations
And politics.
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This isn’t my usual writing genre. If you’re looking for leadership stuff, like performance feedback, try here instead.
All of these political “investigations” in the past thirty years have amounted to nearly nothing except to demonstrate the abuses of partisanship. Let’s look at three key ones.
Whitewater
Kenneth Starr was appointed as special prosecutor to investigate President Bill Clinton and his dealings with the Whitewater Development Corporation. In over four years, the investigation cost about $52 million and resulted in 15 convictions and the impeachment of Clinton based on his affair with an intern. The impeachment had nothing to do with the original allegations but came to light during the investigation. Coincidentally, Republican Congressmen Henry Hyde, Bob Livingston, Bob Barr, Dan Burton, Steven LaTourette, Helen Chenoweth-Hage, and New Gingrich all later admitted to having extramarital affairs. Gingrich’s affair occurred at the same time as the impeachment. All seven were forceful, vocal advocates for the impeachment and demanded Clinton’s resignation. Hmmm.
Clearly Clinton’s behavior with the intern was grossly inappropriate and conduct unbecoming the Oval Office. The Whitewater stuff? Zero stuck to the Clintons but there were 15 convictions. Starr declined to press charges against the Clintons. Score: America 0, Democrats 0, Republicans 0.
Benghazi
This was a bargain at only $7 million, except . . . zero findings. Zero charges. Just a big fat zero. Except it did a great job of dragging Hilary Clinton through the mud for two years to try and smear her for the 2016 presidential campaign. As with Whitewater, the most damaging thing to come out of the proceedings was tangential. Hilary’s private email server came out as a quasi-related issue. Some say that’s what cost her the 2016 presidential election. Score: America 0, Democrats 0, Republicans kind of 1.
Mueller
This thing cost $32 million. Mueller found that the Russians attempted to influence the 2016 election, both via social media as well as hacking Democratic email accounts. There were 8 convictions or plea deals plus the…
