Jail for Noelle, Not for Roger
Thursday July 18, 2002; 10:35 a.m. EDT
newsmax.com
Left-wing conspiracy theorists who contend that the all-powerful Bush family is able to pull strings, influence peddle with reckless abandon and ultimately subvert the law have some explaining to do in the wake of the jailing yesterday of 24-year-old first niece Noelle Bush.
Ms. Bush crime? Violating the terms of her plea bargain after pleading guilty last January to forging a prescription for Xanax. It seems the Bush family desperado had been accused of purloining some new pills from a medicine cabinet at her Orlando, Florida rehab center - a charge which she reportedly denies.
"There is a concern about her lack of honesty," the rehab program's director wrote Orlando County Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead, who promptly sentenced Noelle to 72-hours behind bars.
Apparently Ms. Bush's presidential connections didn't carry much weight with Sunshine state law enforcement, let alone the fact that her father just happens to be Florida's governor.
Contrast the swift justice meted out to Noelle with the case of former first family drug dealer Roger Clinton, who managed to beat a drunk driving rap last year despite having confessed on tape.
"I probably couldn't pass the Breathalyzer," he told Hermosa Beach, Calif., cops after they pulled him over sixteen months ago as he weaved down the street in his SUV. "I probably (had) about four or five beers."
A police tape recorder captured every word of Roger's confession.
The former first brother's prediction turned out to be right on the money. After being taken back to the station house, he failed three separate sobriety tests, including two breathalyzers that showed him with a 0.08 and a 0.09 blood alcohol level - over the legal limit in California.
The DUI charges meant Clinton faced a year in jail. But after first pleading not guilty, Roger was allowed to cop a plea which allowed him to escape any time behind bars.
Apparently the California authorities weren't anywhere near as concerned with Clinton's lack of honesty as their Florida counterparts are in the Bush case.
Prosecutors struck the deal even after Roger lied on national television about the amount of alcohol he'd consumed. "I had had about two beers - two Coors Lights - maybe two," he told "Larry King Live" a month before he copped his plea. "I wasn't driving erratically. That's the biggest bunch of crap I ever heard."
A month after he wriggled off the hook, Roger checked himself into Arizona's Cottonwood de Tuscon drug rehab center with what he reportedly described to doctors as "a frightening cocaine habit."
One local law enforcement source told NewsMax last year that Hermosa Beach prosecutors declined to pursue jailtime for the former first brother out of concern that the Clinton family media machine would be able to persuade at least one juror that Roger had been unfairly targeted by police and prosecutors.
While that may sound like ex-post-facto excuse making, consider how the press has worked overtime covering up the Clinton sibling's past brushes with the law.
While Roger is usually portrayed sympathetically as the Clinton brother who turned to drugs after growing up in an abusive household, in fact, he was a hard core cocaine dealer.
A 1984 police surveillance videotape, which the mainstream press has steadfastly ignored, shows Clinton actually boasting about his drug dealing:
ROGER: Beggars can't be choosers ... and I'm out of a deal. It was just like Sam except this is some good stuff, see. Sam doesn't have any good stuff.
FRIEND: You mean that s--t?
ROGER: Hey, it wasn't bad.
FRIEND: I thought that was f--king pretty good....
ROGER: ....Yeah. But see, that wasn't as good as I get. That wasn't near - No, no, that's just what I had left ...You know what I sold him? I'll be honest with you. You know what I sold him? I gave him a quarter (gram). You know what I sold it to him for?
FRIEND: $650?
ROGER: $650.
FRIEND: And you charged me $750. I know your scam. (End of Excerpt)
If the media had Noelle Bush making similar statements on tape, you can bet the electronic press would have been broadcasting it day and night after she was arrested a second time.
Perhaps Noelle ought to consider legally changing her last name to Clinton. |
