Those of us old enough to recall the 1990s can remember presidential half-brother and pardon recipient Roger Clinton, as well as presidential brothers-in-law Tony and Hugh Rodham — all of whom were caught up in the pardon-gate controversy.

None of them has been seen much (or at all) during Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, not without good reason. I don’t want to be too harsh, but let’s just say they all firmly seem to fall into the Bill Carter mold of presidential siblings.

The reason I bring them up is because according to Bill and Hillary’s just-released tax returns from 2000-2006, the Clintons paid interest on loans to family members every year from 2001-2006. (The Clintons applied for an extension on their 2007 filing.)

Who were these loans to and how much are they for? Were Roger, Tony and Hugh among the recipients?

Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson politely says that’s none of our bee’s wax.

“The Clintons made interest-free loans to some of their family members,” Carson says. “The amount reported is imputed interest on those loans. The IRS requires that an amount of interest be assigned to interest-free loans; it then taxes the loan giver as if he or she actually received that ‘imputed’ interest. Thus, imputed interest is not actually paid by the loan recipient nor received by the loan giver. The loans to family members are personal; the Clintons are going to respect their family members’ privacy.”

Roger Clinton received a presidential pardon from his brother; Tony and Hugh were involved in that pardon controversy. Is it really none of the public’s business if Sen. Hillary Clinton and her husband “loaned” any of them money?

- jpt

April 5, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (75)

Except, it turns out, it didn’t happen–at least, apparently, not the way Clinton said it did. There was indeed a tragedy last August in Athens, Ohio, in which a woman, Trina Bachtel, gave birth to a stillborn baby and subsequently died herself. But the New York Times reports this morning that the hospital involved says Bachtel had coverage,and received treatment. And here’s the remarkable part, given how important this story has become to the overall narrative of the Clinton candidacy:

Linda M. Weiss, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit hospital, said the Clinton campaign had never contacted the hospital to check the accuracy of the story, which Mrs. Clinton had first heard from a Meigs County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputy in late February.
A Clinton spokesman, Mo Elleithee, said candidates would frequently retell stories relayed to them, vetting them when possible. “In this case, we did try but were not able to fully vet it,” Mr. Elleithee said. “If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that.”

Hillary Clinton is far from the first politician to find herself in this kind of embarrassing situation. Remember how hard Al Gore got hit after the first debate in 2000, when it turned out that in his description of the very real problem of overcrowded schools in Sarasota, Fla., he used the wrong verb tense in telling of children who were forced to stand in their classrooms?

What is astounding here is that for all the research that the Clinton campaign has spent scouring and scrubbing the opposition, they didn’t put a bit more effort into looking at what their own candidate is saying.

- THE ARAB NEWS MEDIA POLL - OBAMA IS THEIR NO. 1 CHOICE.

- THE ARAB NEWS MEDIA POLL - THEY HATE CLINTON AND McCAIN FOR THEIR

STRONG SUPPORT TO ISRAEL…
___________________________________________________________________________________

Rj,

I didn’t want to paste all your items, but these two points always made me wonder. I’ve known very few Jews in my life, they just aren’t a very big group around my area. But the few I’ve met, including a few Orthodox Jews, ( I believe this is correct as they’re the most conservative ones, (black hats, the braid like hair)..but I could be wrong), couldn’t answer me about a question.

Much like asking Blacks why they vote Democrat, (considering American history, to me it’d be like Jews voting in the Nazi party), why do Jews vote Democratic when more half the party wants to abandon Israel to support Islamic states? The Republicans have SHOWED they’re STRONG supporter of Israel. Maybe a Jewish friend in here could explain

If Obama gets elected, do we get rap music played so loud they can hear the bass at the capitol,
gold chained rap “artists” and their “ho’s” in the Lincoln Bedroom, gang grafitti on the White House exterior walls, and “gold spokes” on the Lincoln Continental Presidential limo.

Before you respond to me as a racist, you KNOW it’ll be a joke on Mad TV or SNL anyhow so don’t bother.

Obama / O.J. Simpson
2008

If the glove does not fit, you must acquit……and Obama as President of the U.S. of GOD D_MN AMERICA does not fit.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Actually, that’s not so funny. Seeing what Simpson got away with and yet it seems that 99% of Black Americans support him, can you imagine what Obama could get away with. He could shoot the someone, in the Oval Office, in front of CNN, FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC cameras and they’d say he didn’t do it.

The OBAMA Advisers are singing different tune???

- “Adviser Colin Kahl wrote in a policy paper for the Center for a New American Security that the United States should transition to an “over-watch” force of between 60,000 and 80,000 troops by the end of 2010, according to an article Friday in the New York Sun.

That appears to be at odds with Obama’s public position of removing all combat brigades from the country within 16 months of taking office.

Kahl told the Sun his plan would still keep the U.S. “out of the lead” and mainly in a “support role.” He said the plan had nothing to do with the campaign.

The Obama campaign said in a statement: “The writing of Mr. Kahl, one of hundreds of outside advisers to the campaign, is not representative of Barack Obama’s consistent policy position on the Iraq war.”

But Kahl’s plan seems to jibe with other advisers’ statements that Obama’s withdrawal timetables are more a goal than a firm policy commitment.

Foreign policy adviser Susan Rice, for instance, told reporters in February that Obama’s plan to end the war in 2009 is not absolute, and that he reserves the right to revisit troop levels in Iraq upon taking the oath of office….”

SHOULD WE BELIEVE OBAMA WHEN HE SAID “THIS IS A WRONG WAR?” - AND PROMISING AMERICANS THAT HE WILL END IT? BUT WE ARE HEARING TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM HIS SURROGATES???

WHAT IS THIS??? SAYING AND PROMISING SOMETHING BUT PLANNING TO DO DIFFERENT???

WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENCY OBAMA WILL HAVE?

- IF HE WILL BE SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE WHO IS PLANNING TO DO DIFFERENT THINGS THAN WHAT HE IS PROMISING TO AMERICAN PEOPLE???

- FLIP-FLOP!!! FLIP-FLOP!!! FLIP-FLOP!!! FLIP-FLOP!!! FLIP-FLOP!!! FLIP-FLOP!!! FLIP-FLOP!!!

***OBAMA CAMP IS NOW SINGING DIFFERENT TUNE BECAUSE OF THE LATEST POLL***

BASE ON THE INSIDER POLL IN THE MILITARY -

- THE MAJORITY OF THE ARM FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES ARE FAVORING TO VOTE EITHER FOR McCAIN OR CLINTON.

- THE MILITARY WILL NEVER VOTE FOR AN “ARAB AMERICAN CANDIDATE”

- THE ARAB NEWS MEDIA POLL - OBAMA IS THEIR NO. 1 CHOICE.

- THE ARAB NEWS MEDIA POLL - THEY HATE CLINTON AND McCAIN FOR THEIR

STRONG SUPPORT TO ISRAEL…

NOW THE BIG QUESTION IS…

- WILL AMERICANS VOTE FOR SOMEBODY THE MILITARY DON’T TRUST???

- FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR COUNTRY PLEASE VOTE FOR McCAIN OR CLINTON

AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!

- THE ONLY QUESTION LEFT TO ASK - WHO IS BEST TO SOLVE OUR ECONOMY PROBLEM??

- VOTE RESPONSIBLY!!!

If the glove does not fit, you must acquit……and Obama as President of the U.S. of GOD D_MN AMERICA does not fit.