“Even if the latest allegations about Marc Rich–that he helped broker Saddam’s oil-for-food deals–prove accurate, that won’t be the main reason Clinton’s pardon of the fugitive financier was scandalous. Saddam could presumably always get someone to broker his lucrative schemes–if not Rich, then another high-level operator. The Marc Rich pardon was scandalous mainly because it taught a generation of young Americans that you could buy your way out of punishment,” kausfiles says this morning.
“It turns out to be fairly important whether Clinton was or wasn’t not having sexual relations with Denise Rich, Marc’s glamorous ex-wife, who lobbied for the pardon,” kausfiles continues. Kaus predicts that someday somebody will, as writer Philip Weiss memorably put it, “follow the nookie” and win a National Book Award by finding out of Clinton’s sex life had an impact on the notorious pardon.
“P.S.: Do Democrats really want to elect the woman who let all this happen under her nose? Just asking! …”