By Randall H. Nunn
web posted April 10, 2006
Last week, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton worried, in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, that the proposed House Republican immigration bill would make her a criminal. Hillary feared that her efforts to help her constituents would run afoul of the House Republican bill, saying "I realize I would be a criminal, too."
 Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) speaks to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at their Legislative Luncheon in Washington on April 5 |
Senator Clinton, I don't think you need to worry. After all of your close brushes with illegality over the years and balancing on the fine edge of the law, I am sure you have a built-in resistance – like a kind of acquired immunity one has after bouts of sickness that immunize the body against recurrences of the same illness. If Whitewater, Travelgate, the cattle futures caper, the fund raising violations and other episodes haven't officially made her a criminal, it is doubtful that her assistance to her illegal alien constituents is likely to be the stone that brings this Goliathess down.
Now I am enough of a realist to admit that Hillary probably has no real fear of becoming a criminal because of the proposed immigration legislation (if it passes and is signed into law). Given the venue of her speech, it just could be that she was both taking a swipe at those mean and rascally Republicans and doing a bit of pandering to the Hispanic voters. Probably Senator Clinton's audience also realized that the imagined threat she saw in the proposed legislation was not a real danger to someone as adept as she in avoiding subpoenas and indictments.
Just like someone who has already had the measles or mumps, her risk of future prosecution is highly unlikely given her "immunity" built up over years of continual exposure to charges, much more serious and much more substantial. And this does not even take into account the "learning curve" that Senator Clinton and her husband have benefited from over the years. Like a violin virtuoso whose constant practice makes his music seem as effortless as it is beautiful, the Clintons have made "escape and evasion" into a political and legal art form rather than a military exercise.
By stating to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce audience, that she "would be a criminal, too", Senator Clinton was merely trying to identify with those in her audience who felt that the proposed GOP legislation was unfair in subjecting illegal aliens to possible felony charges. But those in the audience who have witnessed Hillary in action over the years, or have heard of her legendary skills, know that she is in no real danger from federal prosecutors in this instance. Now if Hillary had
made this statement to a Republican audience, they probably would give her a standing ovation when she said "I would be a criminal too". Or maybe they would just dream of what could be. 
Randall H. Nunn is a Staff Writer for The New Media Alliance. Columns by this author can be read regularly on TheRealityCheck.org.