Amid MSM Julian Castro Frenzy, Henry Cisneros Becomes Nonperson

May 18th, 2014 1:25 PM

The similarities between the two politicians are absolutely eerie.

Both are Mexican Americans from San Antonio who at age 27 became the youngest city councilmen in their city's history at the time of their elections. They both went on to serve as mayors of that city. While mayor  both were prominent speakers at the Democrat national convention and were touted as future vice-presidential nominees. Later both were appointed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development amid much media hype as "rising stars."  One would be hard pressed to find two political figures so similar as Julian Castro and Henry Cisneros...with the exception of his own twin brother, Joaquin Castro. However, during all the reports about Julian Castro's announced appointment as HUD secretary (with the notable exception of The Atlantic), there is nary a word about Henry Cisneros who seems to have become a nonperson as far as the mainstream media is concerned.

So why has Henry Cisneros been tossed down the MSM memory hole? The likely answer is that he was involved in a sex scandal in which he was found to be lying to the FBI about payments he was making to his mistress.  As a result, Cisneros resigned from his HUD position in November 1996 which makes the MSM reluctant to "ruin" their party for Castro by bringing up the memory of Cisneros. In addition, since his HUD appointment was during the Bill Clinton presidency, any mention of it would bring embarrassment to Hillary Clinton especially since the scandal involved sex. In fact there was a popular joke making the rounds of San Antonio after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke that went like this:

QUESTION: How do you say "Bill Clinton" in Spanish?

ANSWER: Henry Cisneros.

Oh, and in January 2001, Cisneros was pardoned by Bill Clinton for lying to the FBI which is yet more reason for Hillary and her media enablers to forget he even existed, especially since there is a lot of current buzz about her picking the eerily similar Julian Castro as her running mate should she get the nomination.

UPDATE: A Politico story mentions Cisneros but without a whiff of scandal.