The revelations this week regarding Hillary Clinton’s use of private email (discussed here, here, and here) added to questions about her secrecy, opposition to transparency in government, and her character. Her actions also look remarkably foolish for a major candidate, especially considering how she had previously criticized Republicans in the Bush administration for the same actions. Her actions, and her poor response to the situation, have also reinforced concerns among some Democrats that Clinton is not a very good campaigner.
Initially it appeared that Jeb Bush had out-maneuvered her by recently releasing email from when he was Governor of Florida. Now CNN is reporting that Bush is exaggerating the transparency of his administration:
Bush has released hundreds of thousands of emails from the personal account he used during his eight years as governor in the name of transparency — and after public records requests for those emails. A Bush aide told NBC News that a number of his staffers and his general counsel’s office decided which emails to release.
But a CNN review of those emails turned up evidence a number of his official aides and family members also had email addresses housed at Jeb.org — and used them to conduct both official and political business — raising questions about how transparent that email dump ultimately was.
Of course Bush isn’t the only potential Republican candidate with email problems. Chris Christie’s administration had similar problems. Perhaps that is why Hillary Clinton thinks she can get away with primarily keeping quite about the whole thing.
