But the former president is a different type of adviser; one with even more influence than Penn, and one who cannot be pushed out of the campaign. In a hypothetical Clinton administration, his voice would likely hold large sway in policy debates. As such, it is important to note that his ties to the Colombia trade agreement have on several occasions put him at odds with his wife's stated positions.
ADDENDUM TWO: (Courtesy of a fellow Obama supporter.)
Brand Clinton
In June 2005, Giustra provided his luxurious MD-87 jet for Clinton to make speeches in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. According to Bloomberg News, the tour earned Clinton $800,000 in personal income. Giustra "has since put his plane at Clinton's disposal at least a dozen times to raise money for charity, his wife's presidential campaign or himself," Bloomberg reported.
American law does not permit Giustra, as a Canadian, to contribute directly to Hillary Clinton's campaign. Whether providing his plane to raise campaign money counts as a contribution, I leave to the legal eagles.
A far more telling payoff involved Colombia, which has long faced international condemnation for its well-documented violations of labor and other human rights. In the oval office and after, Bill Clinton never let this get in his way, steadfastly backing a free trade agreement with the country along with a $3 billion "Plan Colombia" to fight drug traffickers and guerrillas. As he publicly told Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and others in Bogota, he was "absolutely convinced that it was vital to American interests that Colombia succeed" against the left-wing narcotraficantes.
In September 2005, Clinton hosted "a philanthropic event" at which one of his aides arranged for Giustra to meet Uribe. According to The Wall Street Journal, the two men sat in the hallway speaking for about ten minutes. A Clinton aide later told Giustra the meeting had gone well.
Giustra wanted Colombian oil. He was working with a Canadian group that subsequently paid more than $250 million to operate oil fields in conjunction with Colombia's state-owned petroleum company. Giustra's associates - now operating as Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. - also signed an oil pipeline deal and was invited to do further oil-development work in Colombia, the Journal reported. -- Steve Weissman Recommend you read his entire April 8 piece.
Perhaps we are going to have to create a whole branch of shady practices known as Bill-Phil -- or Bill Philanthropy.
You find your mark and you make sure that nothing as crass as a large donation comes into the campaign coffers.
Instead you simply get the use of a plane for charitable purposes -- sort of a 501-c-3 carte blanche. You end up with massive speaking honoraria instead of, er, um, dare I say, the b word -- no, call them considerations. Maybe a room in your library.
Bill Clinton's stature has lost about 40 poll points in this campaign. I honestly do not know, even with some years of UN experience under my belt, if Bill Clinton is doing more good than bad.
My own sense is that philanthropy in today's world is part of the global system which I have called benign genocide -- the unholy marriage of capitalism (by which I simply mean business for profit) and philanthropy (by which I mean everything nonprofit) to create a world in which about 20 percent of the population routinely falls through the cracks, children and women first.
A few of these lost become posters for the whole enterprise and we call our good works charity -- deduct it.
All this is doing is making me long for Obama's election and aspire to go back into the UN under a President who will use that organization as it was meant to be used.
