It’s really a good thing that Sen. Hillary Clinton is a Democrat. If she were a Republican, she would have been the topic of dire front-page headlines in The New York Times and at the forefront of CBS Evening News broadcasts over the past several days with her name being connected with a shadowy political fundraising imbroglio.

What’s that? You say you weren’t aware that Mrs. Clinton was at the center of a significant controversy?

No surprise there. Like I said, she’s a Democrat. So her story has been buried or ignored by the big media bosses. 

Let me tell you about what is going on: In 2000, a big-event fundraiser for Sen. Clinton was conducted in Los Angeles with a bunch of trendy Hollywood stars attending. A man by the name of David Rosen, who was at that time Mrs. Clinton’s chief fundraiser, organized the event. He is now charged with falsifying federal campaign filings by significantly underreporting the actual cost of this event. He claimed it cost $400,000, while the actual cost may have been closer to $1 million. By underreporting the cost, Mr. Rosen set aside funds that could subsidize Mrs. Clinton’s Senate campaign. He is going to trial over this fundraising event.

Mrs. Clinton says she knows nothing of the alleged sham. And since she is a “rising star” of the Democrat Party and a woman who shares symbiotic sisterhood with the so-called mainstream media — in other words, she’s dutifully pro-choice and anti-Bush — she gets a pass from the networks, the Times and Times wannabes.

Now, let’s compare Mrs. Clinton’s scandal with that of a Republican leader, House leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

First, understand this: Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council recently praised Rep. DeLay for his “stalwart defense of American values.” With that said, do you think that maybe a man who loyally defends traditional values might be targeted by the “mainstream media” a bit more than a woman who robustly upholds the same “mainstream” values that are held in most metropolitan news centers?

You betcha!

The DeLay controversy surrounds allegations that a lobbyist named Jack Abramoff paid the travel expenses of Rep. DeLay and some of his aides. Mr. DeLay has promised that he did nothing wrong. 

But the media has gotten a whiff of Republican blood.

Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, calling the media action regarding the DeLay situation a “feeding frenzy,” observed how the media are at the same time “curiously quiet about [the] brewing scandal that could deeply complicate Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential ambitions.”

One would have to be blind (or a liberal) not to see the double-standard.

Mr. Bauer rightly noted that the Clinton scandal “involves larger amounts of money than the DeLay travel controversy.” He added, “The person under indictment was working for Sen. Clinton at the time of the alleged crime — unlike the key lobbyist in the DeLay controversy.”

Here’s the bottom line: “It lacks one key ingredient — it can’t be used to pummel conservatives or the Bush Administration,” Mr. Bauer said. “Instead, the political Left could suffer, and that fact is keeping the Hillary fundraiser on the back-page, while DeLay gets attacked week after week.”

That’s the political landscape in which we find ourselves in 2005, folks.

Level playing field?

Forget about it.

Impartial reporting?

Think again.

The “mainstream media” have largely adopted the search-and-destroy philosophy that defined the Clinton White House years because they typically have the same agenda.

As a result, conservative lawmakers who espouse the Judeo-Christian values that were embraced by our Founders are defined as “extremists” and they must endure the smear tactics that their liberal counterparts typically sidestep.

Thankfully, conservative leaders are gathering around Rep. DeLay and defending him against the charges that have been made against him. I join them in supporting this good man and I pray that the flies nipping at his heals will be quickly cast aside so that he can continue his effective congressional leadership.


Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell.com

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