Hillary's emails not so Controversial?

A real head scratcher. With all the former Secretaries of State, politicians and reporters, you’d think someone would have brought up the point made below by “Jay Hatheway is a professor of history and chairs the Department of History at Edgewood College in Madison. He previously served in the military as a Special Forces top secret control officer in Europe.”

Hatheway’s comment isn’t exactly a defense of Hillary Clinton’s use of emails, but explains that it may not be as careless, or as flippant about secret or confidential government information as many have been led to believe. She could classify or declassify at will. The thing is, he brings up some very good points:

The partisan attacks against Hillary Clinton and her alleged misuse of classified documents is fundamentally flawed.

For the most part, journalists and politicians have avoided any discussion about the actual process of classification: Documents do not simply appear as classified on a server; someone must be the classifier. In the case at hand, Secretary Clinton was an original classification authority.

She was given this authority by Executive Order 13526, signed into law Dec. 29, 2009, by President Barack Obama. It allowed the secretary a free hand to classify or declassify at will as long as classification guidelines were followed. All Cabinet members have this authority.

What is missing in the current discussion is precisely an acknowledgement of this authority. While one may disagree with what is or is not classified, many of Clinton’s critics assume documents are self-classified. Who exactly do the critics believe assigned a classification level in the first place?Absent a discussion about this process, it is obvious that the attacks on Clinton have no real merit. That the FBI could judge certain email chains classified is obfuscation. How can anyone second guess an original classification authority or designate except to argue that there is a disagreement over what ought to be classified?

But that is the point: the classification level was not the FBI’s to determine. It was exclusively the business of the secretary of state in virtually all of her electronic communications.

In a similar vein, how can members of the House claim to know what the proper classification level was or wasn’t. They couldn’t know unless they were inside of Clinton’s head. Should the secretary determine that her communications were in fact not to be classified, then they are not, all objections aside.

The intent of designating a person as an original classification authority is to give that

person the specific ability to classify as she or he sees fit. The issue then boils down to whether or not something should be classified or not classified in the first place, and the guidelines give original authorities wide latitude depending on the subject matter in question.

As if to confound the issue, critics also challenge the secretary on her use of a private server, something which even our current Wisconsin governor seems to have done.

In short, this endless saga seems to be a misdirection, and since most Americans do not know about the classification process, they can be manipulated when they hear “top secret.” The entire affair is political theater at its worst, and the real losers are the American people.

Flip Flop: Republicans were for Hillary Clinton, before they were against her!!!

Republicans should be having a harder time trashing Hillary Clinton if the press did their job reminding them of all times they praised her as Secretary of State. I’m shocked no one’s brought this up yet. So let's take a look at before Hillary become Secretary of State:

CNN: Republicans praised the prospect of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Sunday: Former Nixon and Ford Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Clinton would be an “outstanding” selection - “She is a lady of great intelligence, demonstrated enormous determination and would be an outstanding appointment."  Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn said “I think that she is well qualified. She does have a certain standing in the world that is required in order to be able to demand the respect from other countries to deal with issues that are going to be affecting not only us but other of our allies, our trading partners. And I think that she would be a well placed in that position.” Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona said “It seems to me she's got the experience, she's got the temperament for it," he said on Fox News Sunday. “She would be well-received around the world."

The praise she was given when she left the post, with a few other comments before and after:

Bipartisan praise for Hillary Clinton as she moves on: Kind words are coming from everyone - including Republicans. Rep. Paul Ryan lauded both Hillary and Bill Clinton on NBC's Meet the Press, arguing, "Look, if we had a Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles as Chief of Staff of the White House or president of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took to "Fox News Sunday" to run interference on Hillary Clinton's behalf (about Benghazi) noting, "The deception around the Benghazi issue did not come from the State Department and on others...It was more of a White House political operative deception … not from the State Department."

Condoleezza Rice: “Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said Clinton has done a ‘fine’ job. The problem isn’t Hilary Clinton, who’s great.” The Hill: Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said he always had “productive’” meetings with Sec. Clinton when he was in the Cabinet. Jeb Bush: ‘These efforts as a citizen, an activist, and a leader have earned Secretary Clinton this year’s Liberty Medal.’” Gov. Mitch Daniels: “She is comprehensively experienced and has advantages that some of the other contenders would have to scramble to match in terms of her exposure to the world and… foreign policy.” Gov. Mike Huckabee described Sec. Clinton as “smart” and “tough.” ‘She’s a policy genius,’ he said. Jon Huntsman: I’ve worked around Hillary Clinton while serving as ambassador to China, and all I can tell you as a Republican is she’s pretty good. She’s smart. She’s hardworking. She – she relates to all kinds of people, and I was very, very impressed working with her as a Republican. Gov. Perry, on Sec. Clinton’s stance on Syria: “I think on that issue she was closer to being right than she has been on some other ones.” Gen. Petraeus, on Sec. Clinton: “She’d make a tremendous President.” Clinton was ‘extraordinarily resolute, determined and controlled’ in the wake of the attack. Sam Brownback: “Thank you, Madam Secretary. I appreciate the way you represent us around the world and your high energy levels.” Jim DeMint: “You've, I think, taken an international leadership role in, I think, raising the pressure levels in Iran.” Lindsey Graham: “I think she’s represented our nation well. She is extremely well respected throughout the world, handles herself in a very classy way and has a work ethic second to none.’” McCain: “She is a great representative of America, kind of a rock star status, visited more countries than any other secretary of state.” 

Republican runs to restore office destroyed by Republicans. Dizzy yet?

Republicans hate the office of the Secretary of State so much they stripped it of almost every duty, without going through the trouble of changing the state constitution.

The remaining duties include publishing bills into law and keeping the state seal. Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette has served as secretary of state since 1975.

GOP candidate Julian Bradley is all about taking back the office his party spent so much time destroying, mostly because a Democrat has held it so long. Bradley also went on a "Shattering Stereotypes Tour" to prove Republicans aren't the maniacal closeted racists most people think they are because well, he's black. Wow, I'm convinced now. It looks like he caught on to the old liberal trick; we leave racist signs on the ground, and when a conservative picks one up, we take a picture of them waving it around proudly. It works all the time too.

Bradley also wants to pull the GAB under his wing, kind of politicizing it a just little, because that's what other states do. Hey, is that plagiarism (hot word now)? Those independent retired judges need a guy like Bradley to keep them in line with the party philosophy.

Bradley wants to "rebuild" the bridges La Follette burned with Republicans.  Mike Gousha asked Bradley if that didn't just make government bigger again, by adding more duties to the office. Bradley's said his new powers would make the office more efficient. That makes perfect sense.

This whole interview is surreal and an amazing example of having it both ways, but only if you're a Republican. From Upfront with Mike Gousha, this slide show (not a video clip):



Note: Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett also floated plans to retire the office, but not out of retaliation for delaying the publication of Act 10.