Emailgate Update
When news broke that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had used a private e-mail address for her official work, many in the media were quick to defend her. It was nothing unusual and did not violate any rules, her supporters claimed. Not so fast.
Last night, Jonathan Karl reported that a senior official at the State Department confirmed to ABC News that Hillary was in fact violating communications policy for "all four years she served" as secretary of state.
Using a private e-mail account is not a violation by itself, IF the e-mails are quickly turned over to be archived. But Clinton did not do that, Karl noted, "until late last year, nearly two years after she stepped down as secretary." Her failure to disclose her e-mails was the violation of policy.
The State Department has had guidelines in place since 2005 discouraging the use of personal e-mail accounts for government business. And in 2011 a memo was issued warning State Department employees to "avoid conducting official Department [business] from your personal e-mail accounts."
Who signed the memo? Secretary Clinton. So it seems she was violating her own policy!
And this policy was enforced. In 2012, the ambassador to Kenya was forced to resign for, among other reasons, according to the Washington Post, the "use of private e-mail for public work," which "was a violation of agency rules and created security risks."
But wait, there's more!
Fox News is reporting that there may be at least nine additional e-mail addresses connected to Clinton's private e-mail server that she may have used. So even after she handed over 55,000 pages of e-mails, it is not at all clear that the State Department has everything that it should. The department is reportedly reviewing Clinton e-mails -- at least the ones it has -- to see if any contained classified information.
Arguing Over Annihilation
Several months ago, even as the United States was negotiating a deal over Iran's nuclear program, the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a series of tweets calling for the elimination of Israel.
That fact should have caused Secretary of State John Kerry to get up and walk away from the negotiating table. When your enemy demands the destruction of a key ally, what exactly is the common ground for continued talks? Nevertheless, the talks continued.
Did the Iranians abandon their desire to eliminate the Jewish state? Ann Curry of NBC News asked Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, about that very issue during an interview this week. Consider this exchange:
ANN CURRY: . . . the supreme leader's Twitter page has, quote, "This barbaric wolf-like and infanticidal regime of Israel . . . has no cure but to be annihilated." Mr. Foreign Minister, can you understand why Jews and others would take umbrage at that kind of language?
JAVAD ZARIF: No, I won't. Because this is a regime. We're talking about Mr. Netanyahu. . .
ANN CURRY: So how does Iran want to annihilate the regime of Israel, since you're making the difference? . . .
That seems like a difference without a distinction to me. After a lot of back and forth interruptions, Mr. Zarif said, "It -- it should be annihilated."
As long as Iran's leaders talk like this, the United States should not be talking to them. As Prime Minister Netanyahu said this week before Congress, "If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country."
2016 Update
Quinnipiac University released a new poll on the 2016 presidential contest yesterday.
Hillary Clinton continues to dominate among Democrats, leading her closest potential rival, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, by 42 points -- 56% to 14%. Vice President Joe Biden is third at 10%. Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders gets 4% while 14% of Democrats are undecided.
In contrast, the Republican contest is a free-for-all. Two candidates are clearly in the first tier, battling it out for front-runner status: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker leads the GOP field with just 18%, followed closely by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at 16%.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee tie for third at 8%. Dr. Ben Carson is 7%, followed by Senators Ted Cruz (6%), Rand Paul (6%) and Marco Rubio (5%). Seventeen percent of Republican primary voters remain undecided.