HILLARY CLINTON DEFENDS USE OF CORPORATE JET FOR FAMILY VACATIONS
Jo
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published on FoxNews.com on June 1, 2007.
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On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton was challenged by the press about the
Clinton family's acceptance of more than $900,000 in free private
travel from Infousa, a company linked to scamming the elderly.
Her reply? She said that she had complied with all Senate ethics rules
and reimbursed the company for the amount of a first class air ticket
- usually about 1 percent of the cost of the luxurious private jet
travel. According to Hillary, "Those were the rules. You'll have to
ask someone else if it's good policy."
In other words, get lost.
Is there anyone out there who would say it's good policy for a U.S.
senator and presidential candidate to accept apparently tax-free gifts
of almost a million dollars from a corporation - especially a
corporation involved in providing lists of vulnerable elderly people
to scam artists?
And it's not like the Clintons couldn't afford to buy an air ticket -
the family income since 2001 has been more than $63 million! So why do
they have to freeload from rich friends?
Well, evidently Hillary doesn't think that she should be the one to
consider whether it makes ethical sense to have rich pals pay for a
U.S. senator's family vacations.
That's up to "someone else..."
But, Hillary has decided it is up to her - and not someone else - to
determine whether corporate policies that allow huge payments and
perks to CEOs make good policy. And her answer is a resounding, "NO" ...
unless, it seems, if she's benefiting from the perks.
When Senator Clinton condemns corporate greed and attacks over-the-top
CEO compensation, she's not talking about her close friends in the
business world. No, to her, they're different. In the Clintons' case,
it's OK to use corporate assets to fly her and her husband to jet-set
vacation spots all over the world, including a $146,000 plane ride to
Acapulco for a Clinton family holiday in January of 2002.
It's the other corporations and CEOs out there that she's targeting.
They're the greedy ones that have to be regulated.
Last week, we revealed that former president Bill Clinton was on the
payroll of Infousa, the Nebraska company that supplied lists of
vulnerable elderly people to con artists who then defrauded the
unsuspecting victims. Internal e-mails suggest that employees of
Infousa were aware that some of their clients were under investigation
for these revolting predatory practices.
Since 2001, Infousa has paid Bill Clinton $3.3 million, although it's
not at all clear what he was supposed to do for the money - other than
fly on the company's jet for vacations and golf games with Infousa's
CEO. Infousa CEO, Vin Gupta, has made the Infousa corporate jet
available for the Clintons to travel in style to Hawaii, Switzerland
and Jamaica - at a cost of more that $900,000.
Some of the shareholders of the company agree wholeheartedly with
Hillary's public position about overpaid CEO's. Here's what the
Senator had to say:
"We need to open up CEO compensation to public scrutiny and public
challenge and ensure that boards of directors are independent when
determining CEO pay."
In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, shareholders of Infousa claimed
that the payments to Bill Clinton and the use of the corporate jet by
the Clintons were a "waste" of corporate assets and were not "business
related." Infousa actually claims that all of the Clinton trips - even
the vacation excursions - were business related.
Of course.
Hillary Clinton has no words of criticism for the man who contributed
at least $1 million to the Clinton Library and $2 million towards her
incredible $16 million millenium New Year's Eve party, and hundreds of
thousands to her campaigns and the Democratic Party.
Clinton's financial disclosure forms never mention the trips provided
by Infousa and until the lawsuit was filed, the Clintons released no
information about how much Bill was paid - only declaring that it was
"more than $1000."
A lot more!
Hillary just doesn't get it - and never will.
Just yesterday, she actually lectured about the need to control
corporate pay to executives - unless, of course, they're providing
freebies to her and her family.
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