Will a Steak Dinner Sink Hilary?

Could it be that a steak dinner will be the ruination of Hilary Clinton's presidential aspirations? The Feds have built a rather strong case against David Rosen, Hilary's senate race national finance chairman. The questions is willRosen roll over for the Clinton's, much like Sandy Berger did, or will he start cooperating with the Justice Department? Dick Morris has some opinions in his commentary. Say what you will about Morris, good or bad, but he does know how the Clintons operate.

"The New Orleans Times-Picayune has reported on a transcript of a Sept. 4, 2002, audiotape of a dinner between Rosen and Ted Kennedy in-law Raymond Reggie, who was wearing a wire. Most news accounts have left out the fact that Rosen implicated himself with each bite of steak.

On tape, the paper reported, Rosen "acknowledges that the gala probably cost far more to produce than he reported on federal campaign forms." Rosen says of the fund-raiser, "We woulda never done it if the guy [Peter Paul] said he spent $2 million. So now he's [Paul] saying he spent $2 million on an event that raised $1.4." Rosen goes on to agree that "he may have" spent the $2 million.

Reggie, whose sister is Ted Kennedy's wife, will get no more than five years in prison on bank-fraud convictions in return for cooperation and testimony at Rosen's trial.
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One would expect the old media, that is Clinton friendly would leave out anything damning. Peter Paul have been quoted as saying that Hilary Clinton should be made to testify under oath. Some how I do not see that ever happening. Then again the red Sox did win the World Series, so you never know.

"The feds also say Rosen directed one witness to "take thousands of dollars of line items" off a campaign report about the event's costs and told a "confidante" that there was "no way" he could accurately report the cost of the fund-raiser."

Asked about the "guinea pig" comment, Clinton lawyer David Kendall said: "It's no secret that counsel for Mr. Rosen" and the lawyers for the Clintons and for the Senate campaign committee were cooperating in their defense against Paul's civil lawsuit. What he does not say — and may have been the point of Rosen's remark — is that they might also be cooperating in his defense against criminal charges.

As long as any such arrangement helped Rosen and he had a realistic hope of acquittal, there was little chance he'd turn on the Clintons. But now, who knows?

On the tape, Rosen says he spoke to then-President Bill Clinton regularly — at least once a week — about the campaign fund-raising. What could the president have told him that the federal prosecutors would find interesting? We may find out."

This will be interesting to follow, to see if Rosen cooperates with the Feds. The fallout from this could just nuke Hilary's presidential run. You can also bet that the old media will try and spin this to do the least amount of damage to her prospects. I will be keeping an eye out for more developments. - Sailor