Book Alleges Cash-for-Favors Scheme at Hillary's State Department
Wow. Good Monday Morning, Hillary: The book does not hit shelves until May 5, but already the Republican Rand Paul has called its findings "big news" that will "shock people" and make voters "question" the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich," by Peter Schweizer — a 186-page investigation of donations made to the Clinton Foundation by foreign entities — is proving the most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy. The book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, asserts that foreign entities who made payments to the Clinton Foundation and to Mr. Clinton through high speaking fees received favors from Mrs. Clinton's State Department in return. "We will see a pattern of financial transactions involving the Clintons that occurred contemporaneous with favorable U.S. policy decisions benefiting those providing the funds," Mr. Schweizer writes. His examples include a free-trade agreement in Colombia that benefited a major foundation donor's natural resource investments in the South American nation, development projects in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake in 2010, and more than $1 million in payments to Mr. Clinton by a Canadian bank and major shareholder in the Keystone XL oil pipeline around the time the project was being debated in the State Department. In the long lead up to Mrs. Clinton's campaign announcement, aides proved adept in swatting down critical books as conservative propaganda, including Edward Klein's "Blood Feud," about tensions between the Clintons and the Obamas, and Daniel Halper's "Clinton Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine." But "Clinton Cash" is potentially more unsettling, both because of its focused reporting and because major news organizations including The Times, The Washington Post and Fox News have exclusive agreements with the author to pursue the story lines found in the book. Cue the cries of a vast conspiracy! Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which includes Mr. Paul and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, have been briefed on the book's findings, and its contents have already made their way into several of the Republican presidential candidates' campaigns. I suppose Hillary's defense will be that every State Department decision that helped her financial supporters was strictly coincidental. I'm sure her e-mails would prove that she did nothing wrong . . . well, if she hadn't deleted them all, huh? Elizabeth Warren, call your office! A Headache-Inducing Rubio Controversy, Probably the First of Many Breitbart's Matt Boyle, Saturday: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said he believes that President Barack Obama's first executive amnesty for so-called DREAMers—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)—is "important" and he won't reverse it himself if elected president. He delivered these remarks in a Spanish-language interview he gave to Univision's Jorge Ramos." Breitbart Texas's Sarah Rumph, Sunday: "In a Spanish language interview with Jorge Ramos on Univision's Al Punto show, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) discussed immigration policy, affirming his longstanding objection to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) programs." Quick observation: If you're going to write about something a candidate says in a foreign language, you had better speak it fluently yourself or check with multiple folks who do speak the language. For what it's worth, Boyle said he relied upon an "English translation provided by the media service Grabien." "I have now spoken by phone or gotten Twitter or e-mail messages from Friends who are native speakers of Spanish with the following backgrounds: three Cubans, two Puerto Ricans, three Mexicans, and a Colombian," Rumpf told me late Sunday. "All saw the transcript, and several saw the video as well. All are also American citizens, people I know personally, and completely fluent in English as well, so there's no questions of trust or confusion. Rubio's words, with all of these people analyzing them, plus the on-the-record quote from his spokesman Alex Conant I think give credibility to how I interpreted this issue." Boyle, late Sunday: "When reached by phone on Sunday, Conant confirmed to Breitbart News that both transcripts did, in fact, accurately capture what Rubio said in Spanish to Ramos on Univision: That he would, if elected president, not revoke Obama's first executive amnesty until a legislative solution took its place." Considering how one translation said he would not repeal DACA, and another said he opposed it, they can't both accurately capture what he said. Tim Tebow to Sign with Eagles after Wandering in Desert for 40 Days Introducing the Philadelphia Te-agles: Tim Tebow is back in the NFL. And Chip Kelly's offseason just got juicier. The Philadelphia Eagles plan to bring in quarterback Tim Tebow and sign him Monday as they begin their offseason program, FOX Sports NFL insider Jay Glazer reports. The Eagles are looking for a fourth quarterback for their offseason program. After spending time with Tebow's quarterbacks coach Tom House, the Eagles are convinced he's improved a lot, Glazer reports. Tebow, who hasn't played in an NFL regular season game in 2012, was brought in for a workout for the Eagles last month. "I've always been a fan of Tim," Kelly told NFL Network last month. "We bring in a lot of players for private workouts, it's just he's the one that everyone keeps talking about. We brought in Terrelle Pryor for a workout and Thad Lewis in for a workout. When players are available for you to work them out, it's the same thing of going to the veteran combine or going to the super regional combine. Finally, the figure for replacing breathless, overhyped Michael Sam coverage. Get ready for some hyperbolic press meltdowns! The man just wants to play football, but whether he likes it or not, he's a stand-in for American Christianity -- and everybody in the media who increasingly openly despises American Christian institutions is going to lash out at Tebow with wildly disproportionate vitriol. From a 2011 Jen Floyd Engel column, during the height of Tebow-mania and the anti-Tebow backlash: When Tulloch and Scheffler dropped to a knee to mock how Tebow prays — an action known as "Tebowing" that has gone viral among the public, too — we yawned and told Christians to lighten up. We blamed Tebow for making a show of honoring God rather than himself in moments of joy. We excused them because Tulloch said he was mocking "Tebowing," not God. Because ridiculing a man who chooses to honor God is so much better, right? His religious fervor is an easy target for the vitriol spewed from those who dislike him, but the reasons are much deeper than that. From his advocacy of abstinence to his infamous "You will never see another team play this hard" speech at Florida, it is like he is too good to be true. He is too nice, and thereby we want him to trip up so we can feel better. We want him to be revealed as a hypocrite, and when that fails to happen, we settle for gleefully celebrating his failures on the football field. And why? Because he dares to say thanks? ESPN's Adam Schefter: "Let's stop with this, 'Tim-Tebow-in-Philly-is-a-media circus' idea. The whole league is a media circus." ADDENDA: Part of the "past chapters of the candidates' lives that nobody else has written about" series: the time Marco Rubio, after doing vodka shots with other Dole campaign volunteers, nearly vomited on Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who Rubio had interned for a few years earlier as a University of Florida student. . . . For anyone who missed me on Greta Friday, the panel segment was canceled Friday morning . . . I'm penciled in for Thursday . . . I'm looking forward to this, and I hope I'll see you there: You are cordially invited to attend the National Review Institute's forthcoming 2015 Ideas Summit (scheduled for April 30 to May 2 in Washington at the Willard InterContinental Hotel) on "Why the future is conservative." That's a statement, not a question. And the people who will be explaining why that will be so (during speeches, key-issue panel sessions, and one-on-one conversations) include Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Ben Sasse, John Kasich, Charles Krauthammer, Yuval Levin, Daniel Garza, Heather Higgins, Adam Bellow, Mona Charen, Jennifer Marshall, Pete Hegseth, Steve Moore, Larry Kudlow, Jim Pethokoukis, John O'Sullivan, Andy McCarthy, Eric Metaxas (all confirmed!), and many more top thinkers, writers and National Review editors (Rich, Ramesh, Jim, Kevin, Charlie, Eliana, et al.). Of course it just wouldn't be a National Review event without a Night Owl, so Rob Long, Jonah Goldberg, and John Podhoretz will be on hand to share their wise and mirthy take on current events. And on Friday evening there will be a special treat: dinner at Mount Vernon, featuring a talk from NR's resident George Washington expert, Rick Brookhiser. Your fee will cover dinner on Thursday and Friday, breakfast and lunch on Friday and Saturday, and participation in all Summit events. This will be an intimate, informative, forward-looking, and inspiring conference. You should be there. For complete information and to register visit the NRI 2015 Ideas Summit page. Naturally, I'm already seeing comments like, "You say you're conservative, but you're featuring Bush and Kasich and Ryan and Rubio!" Gee, I hope that they don't let their RINO cooties get on Jindal, Ali, Cotton, Sasse, Krauthammer, Levin, McCarthy, etc.! Clearly, the cause of conservatism is best served by turning Bush, Kasich, Ryan, and Rubio away at the door! Finally, this Photoshopped image was retweeted by Team Marco, the digital-strategy arm of the Marco Rubio campaign: 
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