If you have been following the so-called Clinton email “scandal” you have likely learned two things: the Republicans are lying through their teeth (Exhibit A: Darrell Issa), and that the only real scandal is that the mainstream media has been dancing yet again to the GOP’s and Fox News’ tune.
Forget for a minute that John Boehner and Republicans are prepared to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money on yet another fabricated scandal, and that the public doesn’t even care about the emails.
What people should care about is a Republican presidential candidate not only lying about Clinton’s emails but about his own, making him not just a liar, but a hypocrite. I am talking about Exhibit B: Jeb Bush, alias “Jeb!”
You might remember Bush’s own email problems from earlier this year when it turned out the Republican candidate had a previously unknown secret email account during his time as governor of Florida.
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This is the same guy who just said at the Iowa State Fair that he wants “more transparency in politics.”
“When I was governor of the state of Florida, I released all my emails. I’m writing an e-book about my emails. I think we need a lot more transparency in politics today.”
Right.
It not only took Bush seven years to actually comply with the Florida statute that required him to turn over his emails…
“It took Mr. Bush seven years after leaving office to comply fully with a Florida public records statute requiring him to turn over emails he sent and received as governor, according to records released Friday. Mr. Bush delivered the latest batch of 25,000 emails in May 2014, seven and a half years after leaving the Statehouse and just as he started to contemplate a potential run for the White House, according to a newly disclosed letter written by his lawyer. A Florida statute governing the preservation of public records requires elected officials, including the governor, to turn over records pertaining to official business ‘at the expiration of his or her term of office.'” [The New York Times, 3/14/15]
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…and he did not turn over all of them – only 250,000 out of 550,000 emails on his private account, according to the Naples Daily News, 7/12/07…
…but he is the one who actually decided which emails out of that total to turn over:
“The former governor conducted all his communication on his private Jeb@jeb.org account and turned over the hand-selected batch to the state archives when he left office. Absent from the stash are emails the governor deemed not relevant to the public record: those relating to politics, fundraising and personal matters while he was governor.” [Tampa Bay Times, 1/3/15]
And CNN has revealed that,
“…a CNN review of those emails turned up evidence a number of his official aides and family members also had email addresses housed at Jeb.org — and used them to conduct both official and political business — raising questions about how transparent that email dump ultimately was.” [CNN, 3/5/15]
On top of it all, Jeb, in contradiction of all the focus on supposed “classified” information in Hillary’s emails, had sensitive material on his own server:
“An unknown number of the e-mails housed on Bush’s server were redacted or withheld from public release because they contained sensitive security issues, Bush representatives have said. Communications director Tim Miller said general policy was for Bush to discuss sensitive National Guard issues in person with only occasional briefings by e-mail that ‘wouldn’t contain information that should not be in the public domain.'” [The Washington Post, 3/14/15]
It would appear that Jeb Bush wants anything but transparency in politics, at least, where he himself is concerned. As the Times said, he “rebuked” Hillary Clinton, but you can hardly call seven years any form of transparency. And After all, Jeb doesn’t even want it readily transparent that he is a Bush.
It is clear that this is a pile of something very unpleasant that Jeb Bush should never have stepped into. He clearly did not put a lot of thought into this, but then, his family is not known for its deep thought. If he intends to fly by the seat of his pants, he’s on the right track, but it is not a track which will take him to the White House.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
