It now appears that the Republican witch hunt against Hillary Clinton over the use of private emails will soon uncover some GOP “witches” too! The Associated Press has now left the starting gate with a major story about leading Republican candidates for president who have themselves liberally used private emails on matters affecting their business. Will GOP congressional witch-hunters now call as witnesses current Republican Govs. Scott Walker (Wis.), Chris Christie (N.J.), Bobby Jindal (La.) and former Republican Govs. Jeb Bush (Fla.) and Rick Perry (Texas) to discuss their own use of private emails?
{mosads}Will Bush, a user of private emails himself, apologize to Clinton for GOP attacks against Clinton for doing what he did too? Will Walker be asked to testify about how former aides were convicted of offenses that involved the use of private email when he was holding county office? Will there be any private emails demanded from Christie involving a certain bridge? Will GOP investigative sleuths inquire about whether former Vice President Cheney used private emails to promote their claims of weapons of mass destruction prior to the Iraq war?
It is also high time to ask Republican senators running for president, such as Marco Rubio (Fla.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ted Cruz (Texas), whether they used private emails. Shouldn’t every member of every House committee investigating President Obama or former Secretary of State Clinton be asked whether they used private emails to promote media stories about their investigations, spread rumors about or attacks against Obama or Clinton to the media, or disseminate classified information?
These Washington-based members of the House and Senate should not try to claim protection under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); that is a classic case of Washington insiders protecting themselves against actions they condemn in others. Every Republican senator running for president, and every member of the House and Senate Republican leadership, and every Republican member of the committees of inquisition over Benghazi and government oversight, should immediate announce whether they have used private emails involving their work and, if so, they should share those emails publicly as Secretary Clinton has announced her emails will be disclosed.
Any Republican member of a House investigating committee who refuses to disclose whether they have used private email, and/or who seeks to protect themselves through FOIA from disclosures of private emails, should be removed from those committees and not permitted to investigate Clinton because of conflict of interest.
And any reporter who has received dirt being dished against Clinton from any Republican holding office who has used private email and refused to disclose those emails should publicly call out that Republican for hypocrisy.
Personally, I think this issue is way overblown, and will ultimately do little or no damage to Hillary Clinton. But what is good for the Clinton goose is good for the Republican gander, and my advice to Republicans is to be very careful about witch hunts, because some of the witches hunted, by the media if not Republicans, may turn out to be Republican!
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.