Mother Jones Pundit: Hillary’s Reputation For Scandal an ‘Invention’ of ‘Conservative Cranks’ and Arkansas ‘Lowlifes’

June 11th, 2016 11:20 PM

If there were a restaurant called Clinton Scandals, Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum has an idea of what the house specialty would be. “Whitewater was a nothingburger. Travelgate was a nothingburger. Troopergate was a nothingburger. Filegate was a nothingburger,” asserted Drum in a Wednesday post. “The Vince Foster murder conspiracy theories were a nothingburger. Monica Lewinsky was Bill's problem, not Hillary's. Benghazi was a tragedy, but entirely nonscandalous…Emailgate revealed some poor judgment, but we've now seen all the emails and it's pretty obviously a nothingburger.”

Drum’s overarching point is that when voters hear Hillary’s name and think “scandals,” almost none of that is her fault. Instead, the “constant cloud” over her “is the very deliberate invention of lowlifes in Arkansas; well-heeled conservative cranks; the Republican Party; and far too often a gullible and compliant press…The plain fact is that there's no serious scandal on her record. There's no evidence that she's ever sold out to Wall Street. There's no corruption, intrigue, or deceit. And if anything, she's too honest on a policy level. She could stand to promise people a bit of free stuff now and then.”

Anyway, Drum added, this isn’t just his opinion: “If you don't believe me, then for God's sake, at least believe Jill Abramson. If she thinks Hillary is ‘fundamentally honest and trustworthy,’ then you can probably bank on it.” For a contrary take on Abramson’s assessment of Hillary, see this post by NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham.