Wanna Buy a Bridge?

Built to commemorate the bridge to the 21st century, it looks like a bridge to nowhere, but may become the center of a political storm. The Clinton Presidential Library showcases a Clinton White House in miniature and is the repository of secrets that fester still. USA Today:

Federal archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons that the former president approved, including clemency for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich.

That archivists' decision, based on guidance provided by Bill Clinton that restricts the disclosure of advice he received from aides, prevents public scrutiny of documents that would shed light on how he decided which pardons to approve from among hundreds of requests.

A nice rogues' gallery of Clintonista friends:

Former president Clinton issued 140 pardons on his last day in office, including several to controversial figures, such as commodities trader Rich, then a fugitive on tax evasion charges. Rich's ex-wife, Denise, contributed $2,000 in 1999 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign; $5,000 to a related political action committee; and $450,000 to a fund set up to build the Clinton library.

The president also pardoned two men who each paid Sen. Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, about $200,000 to lobby the White House for pardons - one for a drug conviction and one for mail fraud and perjury convictions, according to a 2002 report by the House committee on government reform. After the payments came to light, Bill Clinton issued a statement: "Neither Hillary nor I had any knowledge of such payments," the report said.

Seamy stuff. Hillary's papers from her time in the White House are also being held up.The National Archives are expected to release Hillary's daily schedule on March 20th, but not her phone logs. Insert joke here. And how about the papers on Health Care Task Force, which plotted massive intrusions of civil liberties coupled with her death by fiat HillaryCare. Then there are the Billary tax returns which the campaign has not yet released, promising to do so on April 15th. We know Bill has the Midas Touch. WSJ on Clinton's complex charities:

Mr. Clinton mainly carries out his charitable work through the Clinton Foundation, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from individuals, corporations and foreign governments to attack such global problems as poverty, hunger and disease and to build the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.

The great causes--poverty, hunger, disease and the Clinton legacy. A tantalizing bit here:

Messrs. Clinton and Giustra recently attracted media attention because of a 2005 trip to Kazakhstan where they met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. A few days after that trip, as reported by Newsweek and the New York Times, a Giustra-connected company signed a major uranium deal in Kazakhstan.

A Clinton spokesman told reporters that the Kazakhstan trip was part of the former president's philanthropic activities and not aimed at advancing Mr. Giustra's economic interests. Mr. Giustra, whose jet was used for the trip, came along to get a first-hand look at some of the charitable efforts, the spokesman added.

Quite a charitable cookie jar. And I gotta bridge to sell you.

Should provide some interesting reading on donors to the library from less than salubrious spots around the world.

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