First Lady Spins A Web Of Deceit

Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our first lady - a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation - is a congenital liar.

Drip by drip, like Whitewater torture, the case is being made that Hillary Rodham Clinton is compelled to mislead and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit.

Remember the story she told about studying The Wall Street Journal to explain her 10,000 percent profit in commodity trading in 1979?

But we know now that was a lie told to turn aside accusations that as the wife of the Arkansas governor, she had profited corruptly, her commodity account being run by a lawyer for state poultry interests through a disreputable broker.

She lied for good reason: To admit otherwise would have been to confess taking - and paying taxes on - what some think amounted to a $100,000 bribe.

The abuse of presidential power known as “Travelgate” elicited another series of lies.

The first lady induced a White House lawyer to assert flatly to investigators that Hillary Clinton had not ordered the firing of White House travel aides, who then were harassed by the FBI and Justice Department to justify patronage replacement with Hillary Clinton’s cronies.

Now we know, from a memo long concealed from investigators, that there would be “hell to pay” if the furious first lady’s desires were scorned.

And now, the career of the lawyer who transmitted Hillary Clinton’s lie to authorities is in jeopardy.

Again, she lied with good reason: to avoid being identified as a vindictive political power player who used the FBI to ruin the lives of people standing in the way of juicy patronage.

In the aftermath of the apparent suicide of her former partner and closest confidant, White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster, the first lady ordered the overturning of an agreement to allow the Justice Department to examine files in the dead man’s office. Her closest friends and aides, under oath, blatantly have been disremembering this likely obstruction of justice and may have to pay for supporting Hillary Clinton’s lie with jail terms.

Again, the lying was not irrational. Investigators believe that damning records from the Rose Law Firm, wrongfully kept in Foster’s White House office, were spirited out in the dead of night and hidden from the law for two years - in Hillary Clinton’s closet, in Web Hubbell’s basement before his felony conviction, in the president’s secretary’s personal files - before some were forced out into the open last week.

Why the White House concealment? For good reason: The records show Hillary Clinton was lying when she denied actively representing a criminal enterprise known as the Madison Savings & Loan and also indicate she may have conspired with Hubbell’s father-in-law to make a sham land deal that cost taxpayers $3 million.

So, why the belated release of some of the incriminating evidence?

Not because it suddenly, mysteriously turned up in offices previously searched. Certainly not because Hillary Clinton and her new hang-tough White House counsel want to respond fully to lawful subpoenas.

One reason for the Friday-night dribble of evidence from the White House is the discovery by the FBI of copies of some of those records elsewhere. When Clinton witnesses are asked about specific items in “lost” records - which investigators have - the White House “finds” its copy and releases it. And by concealing the Madison billing records two days beyond the statute of limitations, the first lady evaded a civil suit by bamboozled bank regulators.

Another reason for recent revelations is the imminent turning of former aides and partners of Hillary Clinton’s against her; they were willing to cover her lying when it advanced their careers, but they are inclined to listen to their own lawyers when faced with perjury indictments.

Therefore, ask not “Why didn’t she just come clean at the beginning?” She had good reasons to lie; she is in the longtime habit of lying; she never has been called to account for lying herself or for suborning lying among her aides and friends.

No wonder the president is fearful of holding a prime-time press conference these days.

Having been separately deposed by the independent counsel at least twice, the president and first lady would be well-advised to retain separate defense counsel.

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