Jerry Kremer

Throwing everything they’ve got at Hillary

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The people who study age patterns often point out that as we grow older we can easily recall many things dating back to our childhood. Reading all the media stories about Hillary Clinton brought to mind one of my favorite expressions: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”

Right now, because the Republicans don’t have a chosen candidate to challenge Mrs. Clinton, all they have at their disposal are stories, real and imagined, about the Clintons. My latest favorite comes from Wisconsin Republican Congressman Sean Duffy. At a recent Congressional hearing, he invoked the Clinton name in connection with the Boeing company.

It seems that when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state, she told Russian government officials that they should buy more American jets like those made by Boeing. A year later, Boeing got a $3.7 billion contract from Russian buyers. Shortly thereafter, Boeing made a $900,000 contribution to the Clinton Foundation.


In the middle of the hearing, Duffy declared that the foundation had gotten “a $900 million contribution from Boeing.” When reminded by the Republican chair that it was $900,000, Duffy said, “It doesn’t matter if it’s $900 million or $900,000, it’s outrageous.” That’s the level to which the Clinton naysayers will go to create the scandal of the day.

I would bet anyone that if I looked at the Clinton Foundation’s contributors over the years, I could make up a scandal an hour. There is no doubt that people and companies give money to charities and foundations to curry favor with them. If a nonprofit is legitimate and isn’t a personal piggy bank for someone, giving money to it doesn’t break any laws.

The more you look into the Clinton Foundation and its activities around the world, the more you realize how effective it has been. Helping people get medical care and clean water, teaching them how to grow crops and putting roofs over their heads isn’t exactly the equivalent of selling illegal drugs. I suspect that former President Bill Clinton is a little exhausted at this point from telling people what the foundation does, but he has no choice but to continue to explain what it is all about.

Eugene Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post, recently made an interesting observation about the Clintons, saying, “That which does not kill them makes them stronger.” And even though some recent polls show that Mrs. Clinton’s trustworthiness has taken a small hit, she continues to out-poll all of her potential challengers.

There is no doubt that the knocks on the Clintons will continue, but my late political mentor once told me that “You can’t beat a somebody with a nobody.” And taking a look at the Republican field, there are quite a few nobodies lined up to run for the White House. You can scratch Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, George Pataki, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum from the list of possible winners if you’re keeping such a list. In advance of their announcements, you can also delete Govs. Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal and John Kasich.

The challengers that Hillary Clinton currently faces on the Democratic side are Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Neither one will get more votes than “none of the above,” but they will attempt to push her to the left on a variety of hot-button issues. Considering that she needs campaign money from moderate donors, moving too far left would be a disaster, as it would be for any serious candidate for president.

It’s a long time until November 2016. So much can happen to any frontrunner, and it usually does. For now, every knock on Hillary Clinton is really a sign that, once again, the national Republican Party is bankrupt in the candidate department. Yes, there are many dark horses out there, but anyone on the leftover list has issues that will be hard to overcome. I keep looking for the Republican version of American Pharoah, but so far none have emerged from the stable.

Jerry Kremer was a state assemblyman for 23 years, and chaired the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee for 12 years. He now heads Empire Government Strategies, a business development and legislative strategy firm. Comments about this column? JKremer@liherald.com.