‘Clinton Rules’? Bush, Perry Rules Too - By Michael Tomasky

Michael Tomasky

So Hillary Clinton operates under her own set of rules? Funny. Jeb Bush and Rick Perry operated under rules that look awfully darn similar.

So as the dust begins to settle just a bit in the email scandal, the standard, agreed-upon line here is something like: The Clintons have one rule for themselves, and one rule for everybody else. Whatever people think about Hillary Clinton’s degree of culpability here, this is the point in the conversation when the heads on cable television usually nod in unqualified agreement.

But is it really true, with regard to the specific question of email use? That’s not so clear. We know, for example, that Secretary of State Colin Powell didn’t turn over any emails to the department once the new law took effect in 2014, when Clinton handed over her 30,000 or so. So with respect to Powell, Clinton’s conduct was more forthcoming.

But Powell isn’t running for president, and he’s out of public life except as a very occasional Official Voice of Reason. So fine, forget him. More saliently, let’s compare Clinton to some other people who are in her position—that is, in all likelihood running for president. Let’s look specifically at Jeb Bush and Rick Perry, both former governors of large states that had decent freedom of information laws. And the comparisons, especially in Perry’s case, don’t mark Clinton’s behavior out as uniquely egregious.

Bush, as we know, released a huge tranche of emails back in February from his time as governor. He did this not under any intense public microscope, certainly not after the appearance of an A1 Times story compelling him to do so. As such, he got points for transparency. In addition, he was known, when he was governor, for being pretty accessible via email to state officials and even to regular citizens. So he got credit for that, too. Fair enough.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/13/there-are-other-email-scandals-people.html