World Wide William: Clinton on the Net
By Staff, USA Today
USA TODAY,
23 Feb 2001, 12:23 PM CST
Bill Clinton's Op-Ed in The New York Times sure didn't work. Now comes the news that Hillary Rodham Clinton's troubled brother, Hugh Rodham, took at least $400,000 to lobby successfully for the pardons of a big-time cocaine dealer and an herbal-remedy quack who is currently under investigation for ''a massive tax-evasion and money-laundering scheme,'' according to court documents.
Newsweek magazine reports that Roger Clinton also tried to peddle his influence, but couldn't even keep the FBI interested. Time.com, meanwhile, digs into the pardon of Manhattan lawyer Harvey Weinig, ''sentenced in 1996 to 11 years in prison for facilitating an extortion-kidnapping scheme and helping launder at least $19 million for the Cali cocaine cartel.''
So many pardons, so many press releases. What's an embattled ex-president with no infrastructure to do?
Set up his own Web site, of course! He can call it ''ClintonsPardons.com,'' or better yet, ''PardonsToGo.'' (If he likes one of those names, however, he'll have to buy it from me; I just grabbed them.)
Armed with such a Web site, the former president could address congressmen and other critics in his own words. He could, for example, post answers to subpoenas and congressional interrogatories and link to supporting documents, such as the $100,000 tax analysis paid for by Marc Rich's own attorneys. The historically minded would be able to click on ''The History of Presidential Pardons: From George Washington to George Bush,'' or watch a preview of A&E's sure-to-come biography, Hugh Rodham: Little Big Man. And the site could include such whimsical features as ''My Top 10 Pardon Picks'' and chat rooms tailored to readers' interests -- a room for disgruntled prosecutors, another for disaffected Clintonites, and one just for Barbra Streisand.
A Web site would also solve two of Clinton's biggest problems: avoiding an appearance before that Scottish law enthusiast, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and raising funds for the $200 million Clinton library budget that, according to reports, is floundering. Clinton's site undoubtedly would become some of the Web's most valuable advertising real estate, perhaps even beating out that of his nemesis, Matt Drudge.
The former president told Web gurus this week that, despite the raft of dot-com meltdowns, he believes the Internet is the future. I say build that bridge!
ClintonsPardons.com could revolutionize political communication and provide Clinton with the mass audience he adores and a legacy for the history books.
At the very least, it would change the subject.
Amy Holmes is a Washington-based writer.
Reported by USA Today, tech.usatoday.com
12:23 CST
(20010223/Copyright 2001/WIRES ONLINE, LEGAL/)
newsbytes.com |
