March 7, 2014

"'We're processing the papers as fast as we can, and we just won't be able to get to these papers in time for the 2008 election.'"

"Do you accept that answer? Do you think the opposition's hunger for these documents is ugly, that they'll only rummage through it all to pull a few things out of context to make Hillary Clinton look bad?"

From a post I wrote in August 2007 about the "mother lode of opposition research... locked up at the Clinton Library." I didn't believe the "processing the papers as fast as we can" assertion from the chief archivist at the library, and that was 7 years ago.

Yes, we recently got 4,000 pages of documents from the Clinton Library, but there were, according to the article I linked back then, "2 million pages of documents covering [Hillary's] White House years" that were "locked up in a building here, obscuring a large swath of her record as first lady."

72 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why be surprised? Teh Administration hasn't figured out how to declassify His Holiness's College Transcripts or John Kerry's DD214...

Ann Althouse said...

"Why be surprised?"

I don't think surprise is the attitude I'm conveying here!

Mark said...

Locked away next to Walkers emails and testimony from John Doe 1. She even refuses to answer a single question about it just the same.

Don't try to tell me that Rindfleisch's email dump is all of Walker s emails, it's clearly identified.

The Crack Emcee said...

How are the Rs hoping to prove there's something wrong with Hillary's climb - minus accomplishments - when Mary Katherine Ham is CPAC's Blogger Of The Year?

I forgot - they aren't - they're just going to barrel ahead, as usual, making no damned sense at all.

And, hey Ann - can I pick 'em or what?

I'll say it:

The man's aim is uncanny,….

PB said...

Really pretty stunning they way the Clinton Library is dragging it's heels, given that the 10-year time period for control of those documents (paid for with public funds) has passed and it's under the control of the Library of Congress now.

Everything should be online by now - papers, pictures, audio, video, and images of gifts.

Bob Ellison said...

After yesterday's questioning of Lois Lerner, someone (I think Cummings) said something about hundreds of thousands of documents having been reviewed.

There's a misunderstanding of orders of magnitude. Even a person as important and complex and long-lived as Hillary Clinton can't possibly merit two million pages of documents. Assuming, say, 100 words per page (just a third of one double-spaced page), that amounts to two hundred million words. Adults read about 300 words per minute on average. That would take about twenty years for 100 people to process, operating 24/7, if my math is on.

From another angle, Hillary has lived roughly 100 words per day all her life. We should all strive to be so consequential.

Bob Ellison said...

No, my math is way off. 100 people could review Hillary's papers in just a couple of months. Maybe they have slow readers at the Library.

Bob Ellison said...

Of course, if the readers are Professors and Teaching Fellows and History and PoliSci majors, they could finish the job in a matter of minutes.

Illuninati said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Heyooyeh said...

There isn't really a wealth of archivists working in Little Rock.

Something tells me there's more to the story, but Althouse's curiosity died when she came up with the answer (conspiracy!) that told her she was right in the past.

There is nothing Althouse loves more, except maybe remembering her provocative glory days in the thick if the Wisconsin protests, than desperately telling her paranoid readers that she was right. She'll trot out the past post to prove it, like a child -- "remember that post--I was right!" She won't remind you when she's wrong though, because, according to her, she's never wrong. Which makes you wonder if someone so insanely narcissistic with respect to their own genius is ever right.

Illuninati said...

I'm not sure what the big deal is. Their record has been in plain sight for a long time. Part of that record is that the Clintons came into office poor and after spending their lives helping the little people they are now millionaires many times over. On the left there is good money and there is bad money. Money made through politics is good money.

Matt Sablan said...

If I were hiring someone for a job, and they refused to let me review their past work, I'd find a candidate I could properly consider.

Michael K said...

Blogger The Crack Emcee said...

"How are the Rs hoping to prove there's something wrong with Hillary's climb - minus accomplishments - when Mary Katherine Ham is CPAC's Blogger Of The Year?"

I actually looked at your link and, as usual, it made no sense.

The hiding of Hillary papers goes along with the hiding by Disney of "The Path to 9/11." The mini-series was powerful and, thus, disappeared after one showing. It might resurface after Hillary retires but it has probably been sent down the memory hole.

We have a lawless bunch running the country now.

David said...

Pant-suit on fire.

Bob Ellison said...

What motivates atheists to secure their places in history?

Why would an atheist care a whit about how history will judge?

He or she wouldn't.

So his or her motives lie in the mortal world. Money and power. That's all that matters.

Except...even atheists want to leave a mark, for some reason. Christopher Hitchens seemed to want to convince people that he was correct. He didn't make a lot of friends that way.

Hillary Clinton probably wants to leave a mark; she knows not why. Al Gore wants to leave a mark; he knows not why. The universe will spin on, so why should they care?

The Crack Emcee said...

Michael K,

"I actually looked at your link and, as usual, it made no sense."

I hate to say it, Mike - because I thought (after your earlier apology) we'd found some understanding - but, if you think rewarding conservatives for guiding us to ruin is the way to go, then obviously what I write isn't going to make sense to you.

Toby said...

Some conservative group ought to very publicly offer a donation to the Clinton Library to cover the cost of hiring more reviewers & archivists for these papers. Hell, if there's a conservative fundraising sight similar to Act Blue, this would be a pretty good project. How could the library turn it down?

RecChief said...

The "I'm skeptical" tag seems understated. How about a "Holy Shit, do really think we're that stupid?" tag

damikesc said...

It took her how many years to find the Rose Law Firm records...IN THE WHITE HOUSE RESIDENCE?

Why do Americans seem so infatuated with people who oppose any transparency in their official duties?

And Crack is, as usual, comparing apples and retarded bullshit.

Fen said...

These are the people that greenlighted Sandy Berger stealing Clinton docs from the national archives. You really think they haven't been deep sixing anything incriminating down the memory hole?

Fen said...

It takes a village to whitewash Hillary.

Fen said...

It takes a village 10 years to whitewash Hillary.

Fen said...

Hmmm. IRS at my door. brb...

phantommut said...

I think the stonewalling is funny more than anything else. Sure, it might be a brilliant strategy to have Republicans waste resources chasing wild geese, but more likely it's just paranoia on Hillary!'s part. Just in case there is something damning in there, obfuscate.

In my humble opinion, simply running against Hillary!'s public track record would be good enough. HillaryCare, a lackluster (and very short due to pressing ambition) Senate career, and her quite remarkable run as Secretary of State should make her immanently unelectable, even without the People Magazine-style taint of standing by her man through all his demeaning escapades.

It's going to be a long season of "Conservatives are Evil!" because with figures like Obama, Hillary!, Reid, and Pelosi leading the Democrats that's really the only thing they have and the Press (who really are in the tank for the Demos, because, well, Conservatives are Evil) knows it.

Paul said...

"In my humble opinion, simply running against Hillary!'s public track record would be good enough. HillaryCare, a lackluster (and very short due to pressing ambition) Senate career, and her quite remarkable run as Secretary of State should make her immanently unelectable, even without the People Magazine-style taint of standing by her man through all his demeaning escapades."

This would be true were we not a confirmed idiocracy.

Confirmed by the last two presidential elections, the last one in particular.

The Crack Emcee said...

phantommut,

"It's going to be a long season of "Conservatives are Evil!" because with figures like Obama, Hillary!, Reid, and Pelosi leading the Democrats that's really the only thing they have and the Press (who really are in the tank for the Demos, because, well, Conservatives are Evil) knows it."

Until the Right actually accepts the idea - that the people telling them they're wrong may have a point - the people telling them they're wrong may have a point.

The obvious seems to escape the Right-Wing mind, even when they state it.

That's weird.

cubanbob said...

One doesn't need to go through a treasure trove of documents to make Hillary look bad. One only needs to go through the treasue trove to make Hillary look worse.

@Crack, seriously you are supporting that grifter? The Great White Hope of the delusional left?

RecChief said...

One would think, if a person had a blog of his own, that person would spend his time over there, improving it.

The Crack Emcee said...

cubanbob,

"@Crack, seriously you are supporting that grifter? The Great White Hope of the delusional left?"


I'll say it again - until the Republican Party renounces it's racism (and racists) I'll support anyone who will.

I am currently not voting - if anyone wants to change that, keep it up:

The open hostility to my assistance is definitely straining my allegiance,...

The Crack Emcee said...

RecChief said...
One would think, if a person had a blog of his own, that person would spend his time over there, improving it.


Said about 19 minutes after my last post.

I changed my mind, cubanbob - I will support Hillary.

SteveR said...

Good potential topic derailed.

RecChief said...

I noticed that too SteveR.
Almost like someone doesn't want to talk about the real issue.

I for one don't think that there is anything all that damaging in there. Anymore. There might have been at one time, but 10-12 years is a long time to let Hillary! supporters rummage through and sanitize it all, to the extent they can.

RecChief said...

also, math is hard. for some folks.

The Crack Emcee said...

SteveR said...
Good potential topic derailed.


It's always the same shit - doesn't matter if I talk about race or not - the racists focus on me.


RecChief said...
I noticed that too SteveR.


And the people I've already outed as racists agree with them.

Will you guys just pay the fucking reparations for being dicks and get it over with?

phantommut said...

Crack, no one on the Left bothers engaging those on the Right on the field of ideas. You want to tell me that Social Cons are poisoning the well, I will surely listen to your arguments; probably agree with them for that matter.

You want to tell me I'm evil because I find myself pulling the same levers as do the Social Cons (though for reasons that probably differ from theirs) well screw you too.

My point stands that so far in this political season, no one on the Left is running on the strength of the Left's record these past six years. (Quite the contrary, Obama keeps trying to shield his party from the effects of his signature legislation.) Instead it runs against those un-American Koch brothers, against the racists trying to undermine Dear Leader, etc. etc.

I liked you better when you were batshit crazy about cultists. What do you call a group of people who defend a charismatic leader when all evidence indicates he's a manipulative charlatan obsessed with his own aggrandizement?

SteveR said...

It's always the same shit - doesn't matter if I talk about race or not - the racists focus on me.

Its not racism Crack, its narcissism, yours. Don't try to buy credibility using your race.

The Crack Emcee said...

phantommut,

"My point stands that so far in this political season, no one on the Left is running on the strength of the Left's record these past six years."

I've made this point, over and over again, as well:

You're gauging by the wrong metric.

Have they put the racists in "their place"? Most assuredly so.

Whether the obstructionists stopped anything else doesn't really matter - they've been stopped. They now whine, and deny, and try, and call names, but they can't win.

And, as Chris Christie is now saying, to cheers - after the Right has damaged him beyond recognition - you have to win.

That the Right never gets that until it's too late - alone - is worth four more years,...

The Crack Emcee said...

SteveR,

Its not racism Crack, its narcissism, yours. Don't try to buy credibility using your race.


Why not? Are you going to give me credit for understanding politics?

I called Romney correctly - did anyone listen to me? No, they shouted me down to lose instead.

I called Romney's racist cult correctly - did anyone listen to me? No, they shouted me down to lose instead.

I called Cruz's shut-down correctly - did anyone listen to me? No, they shouted me down to lose instead.


If you'll excuse me, my race gets waaay more traction than logic and common sense does, with you idiots,...

Illuninati said...

The Crack Emcee said:

"Have they put the racists in "their place"? Most assuredly so."

You got that right. The Democrats are masters at playing the race card. Anyone who disagrees with them is by definition racist.

SteveR said...

No Crack, you dilute the value of your points by making them about race all the time, when often they are not AND by making it all about you. As if you are here to point out how brilliantly you've pointed it out. We don't need lecturing. We already know you think you are right. Get a new act

Sam L. said...

If they were innocuous, they'd be available.

RecChief said...

so, anyone think that Hillary!'s papers show anything really damaging? there must be some speculation. Also, given the politicization of seemingly every branch of government, mostly by supporters of one ideology, how do we know that Lois Lerner's emails aren't being sanitized? It's been a year (almost)since that broke.

The Crack Emcee said...

SteveR said...
No Crack, you dilute the value of your points by making them about race all the time,…


Except here, where I didn't (!) and you still cracked on me.

Lying doesn't cover racism, Steve.

And - considering all the damage your dumb positions are doing to the party - yes, you DO need a lecture and more.

RecChief said...

Sam- It is true that, for someone like me, Hillary's past dealings don't pass the sniff test. As such, what may look innocuous to her supporters and the media (sorry, I repeated myself) look like damning evidence to me.

However, I think that anything that might have been damning has been disappeared by now. The rose law firm records disappeared and reappeared in an age where most records were still kept as paper. What we have now is enough to convict her in the court of a campaign, not a court of law, at least in the eyes of this voter.

I am also not sure, yet, if the next 3 years will be a vindication or an indictment of Progressivism/ Liberalism.

gadfly said...

The Hillary Rodham campaign slogan should be "One in 31 Million" which were the odds that she could parlay a $1,000 investment in cattle futures into a $100,000 profit - mostly by selling short.

It is likely that she had some shady, um ... less than legal, help from the broker that Tyson lawyer, James Blair, set her up with. But hey, she has no control over the market - so she must be the smartest woman in the world. We always knew that because we have heard that characterization since the late 1970s.

RecChief said...

What is interesting to me about the cattle futures thing is that, with such a pay day, why didn't she continue to invest in cattle futures? Or other commodities. One would think, with that kind of success, the investor would keep going back, kind of like a gambler (I'm not suggesting that trading in commodities is like gambling). It's a rare person indeed who can take a 1,000 investment, realize a 99,000 profit, minus brokerage fees but still, then walk away, never to go back to that well again. It's just odd..at least in my mind.

gadfly said...

Crack Emcee is sounding especially racist today - but I must be confused because minorities cannot be racist - just ask them . . .

What say you, Crack?

Birkel said...

In this instance The Crack Emcee didn't derail the discussion. After all, none of us can contribute anything of substance because the curators (aka scrubbers) at The Clinton Library won't allow any of us to see the original documents to draw our own conclusions.

So all we're left to do is draw inferences about why the documents are withheld. Occam's Razor suggests there is something to conceal. Perhaps it is a double bank shot distraction to make the Republicans look foolish as they chase "Squirrel!" while the real action happens elsewhere.

The fact that The Crack Emcee offers nothing of substance on this thread matters not. The fact that he's not currently offering me reparations for living on Native American's land is troublesome, however. Get off my land, The Crack Emcee. I don't care where you go but my people no longer want you here.

RecChief said...

In other news, NASA finally admitted, after several months, that they had been selling jet fuel to a company owned by Google executives for the same price as 87 octane gasoline, or less if you live on the coasts.

Several months...

on a minor matter of stupidity in the government (or maybe corruption, who knows)...

So maybe Issa doesn't need to be in a hurry to close investigations, and we can afford to be patient enough to keep pushing to finally read Hillary!'s papers.

Anonymous said...

I am glad that Crack posts here; it allows me to scroll past so many comments of his or people responding to him that I save hours every week.

never look the nutter in the eyes, folks.

cubanbob said...

I'll say it again - until the Republican Party renounces it's racism (and racists) I'll support anyone who will.

I am currently not voting - if anyone wants to change that, keep it up:"

I'm not quit sure what it is that you believe makes the Republican Party racist but taking it at face value I still don't see what the Democrats are offering blacks other than condescension and lip service.

What I'm voting for is for one thing only: economic growth, real economic growth and not make believe government work. I don't have your background or your like experience. But common sense tells me that blacks, gays, hispanics and insert whatever other minority you wish to insert first and foremost need jobs. I want to see an economy that growing to the point of having across the board labor shortages. With labor shortages comes jobs for even the most chronically afflicted by unemployment (other than those who are just plain crazy or hopelessly drug addicted, brain dead stupid or the disabled).

37% of the adult population in this country that could be working isn't. That is a terrifying number of people and they all aren't white reactionaries. Lets focus on the big picture first and then when the economy is back in swing then we will have the time to focus on the other issues. Hillary isn't going to lead the great economic revival, its not in her nature. She is at best another grifter crony capitalist and at worst more of an economic dunce the current guy.

Gahrie said...

Who cares at this point?

Besides, Althouse will find some form of Republican racist/sexist/classist outrage to use as an excuse and will end up voting for Hillary anyway.

Drago said...

Heyooyeh:"Which makes you wonder if someone so insanely narcissistic with respect to their own genius is ever right."

We're talking about obama, crack and Inga, aren't we?

SteveR said...

I apologize for my once every four year, Crack hijack.

Yes I'm skeptical. But no matter since who's going to hold her to account? It did not happen in 08 and 12 for all the obvious reasons and likely won't in 2016. Not that she will win, she's a terrible campaigner and her record has issues notwithstanding all the buried stuff

damikesc said...

The only way to see her docs is for a Republican to gain the WH and inform the Library of Congress that they will make everything public...immediately.

In fact, make EVERYTHING public. Very little info needs to be kept secret and nothing involving pols directly.

paul a'barge said...

... and then you went and voted for Barack Obama, didn't you?

Carl said...

Who cares? Everyone knows Hillary! by now. You're either in the tank for her, or you loathe the ground she walks on, or you're very young and/or ignorant. In the latter case, you might be persuadable, but not by some tidbit from the Stone Age. It will be how she handles herself on the campaign trail, and what burns and/or goof-ups her opponents commit.

I think the ugly situation for the donks is that they have such a thin bench. Who would actually replace Hillary! if she turns out to be a dud, too old, sick? Joe Biden? Elizabeth Warren? Jerry Brown? Ah ha ha ha ha ha.

RecChief said...

Carl, I tend to agree with you. Regarding the young though, my 14 yr old son informed me last night that CAGW is being taught as "settled science", so you never know. Also, you have forgotten that the media outlets are in the tank for the Democrat Party. Candy Crowley just received an award for her...work. Any reason to believe that journ-o-list 2.0 won't work hard for whoever the Democrat Party nominee is?

damikesc said...

In other news, NASA finally admitted, after several months, that they had been selling jet fuel to a company owned by Google executives for the same price as 87 octane gasoline, or less if you live on the coasts.

But let's give the government MORE power. Because petty corruption doesn't exist.

RecChief said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RecChief said...

NASA lost between 3.5 and 5.5 Million dollars on the deal that lasted 7 years. I don't think of that as "petty corruption". And NASA claims it is unrecoverable

SteveR said...

Carl, don't forget Bernie Sanders

Anonymous said...

Bernie Sanders isn't going to run for anything.

He is threatening to take away 2-3% of the vote from Hillary so she will offer him something not to run.

The Crack Emcee said...

gadfly said...
Crack Emcee is sounding especially racist today - but I must be confused because minorities cannot be racist - just ask them . . .

What say you, Crack?


After 400 years of white bullshit - nah - after slavery, rapings, torture, terrorism, deception, mutilations, rip-offs, outright lies, betrayals, etc., whatever blacks think of whites at this point, good or bad, is justified.

We have every reason to hate them and I wouldn't take that away from anyone who's suffered.

That would be cruel.

ken in tx said...

I feel sorry for Crack. He is stuck in his race. I am not. I can pretend to be a Jew, an Arab, a German, a Celt, or even a high yellow negro. Crack can not do that. He must accept responsibility for all the bad qualities of people who look like him. I feel sorry for him.

The Crack Emcee said...

ken in sc,

"He must accept responsibility for all the bad qualities of people who look like him. I feel sorry for him."

I do already, or can't you tell? But I also know what's happened to us, and I know I didn't do that. Dehumanizing us was white's doing.

You can run all you want, delusionally tell yourself you're this or that - I study NewAge, remember? White people are silly that way.

Ken, you can't take history away, and it'll keep poking it's nose in our business until it's rectified.

So save your pity, your guilt, whatever the fuck else your undernourished white brain says you should be feeling, and try to gaining some real ethics for a change.

The ability to tell right from wrong - without prodding.

That's what white people lack - not new identities,...

The Crack Emcee said...

By the way, Ken:

I LOVE black people.

I don't know what's wrong with white people, but I LOVE black people.

Why you would pity anyone for that is beyond me.

You got your folks, whoever they are, I've got mine.

And mine aren't history's greatest killers.

For that, I pity you,...

Anonymous said...

Crack writes:

"And mine aren't history's greatest killers."

One of my favorite books, written by a white guy (and I'm sure nothing else about him is important), makes a point I'd like to share here. He talks about how, given time, small vices, like grumpiness, can become quite demonic if allowed to grow and fester.

Further, he talks about how, while Hitler was certainly a really bad man, many of us would be just as bad, if we only had his power. But the man in the wheelchair, who may be just as awful as Hitler, we'll never know about because he doesn't have that power.

I can't help but wonder, if black people had the power throughout history that white people, or asian people, have had, would they be any different?

Somehow I imagine black people are people, just like everyone else.

Anonymous said...

"Ken, you can't take history away, and it'll keep poking it's nose in our business until it's rectified."

I posit that as long as there are White people, for Crack, it shall never be rectified.

And because Crack knows this as true, he cannot tell us how it could ever possibly be rectified.

Hyphenated American said...

"I LOVE black people.

I don't know what's wrong with white people, but I LOVE black people."

Crack, I think I asked this sometime ago... The reason there were black in America was simple - Black Africans enslaved other Black Africans and sold them to anyone who would buy them.

In short, black slavery in USA was a result of actions of Blacks. Do you agree? Do you plan to ask reparations from Black people in Africa?

Hyphenated American said...

Can someone explain to me - how did Crack manage to turn the discussion about Hillary's papers to slavery? How did he connect it this time? Is he claiming that the library was built by black slaves?

Hyphenated American said...

Another one for Crack about slavery.

You claim to be a student history. You also said that people outside of US (in Africa and Asia) called slavery in America "peculiar institution" because they were so appalled by it. Did you find any historic evidence to support this claim, or do you concede that you just made it up?