Hillary Rodham Clinton has been a public figure for more than three decades, going back to when she was first lady of Arkansas.
She ought to know a fundamental truth about public notoriety: Almost nothing is secret.
But as The Hill notes in the attached report, Clinton has a penchant for secrecy that is driving her supporters to the point of insanity.
The recent email flap is a case in point.
She used her private email account to conduct affairs of the State Department, which she led during the first term of the Obama administration. She likely didn’t break the law. Previous secretaries of state have done the same thing. So have governors, senators, county commissioners — you name it — of both major parties.
The rules have changed since Clinton left the State Department.
Still, Clinton and her team seem to have mishandled the uproar over the revelation about the use of the private account. It’s causing grief among those who want her to run for president in 2016. An announcement is expected within the next month or so.
I happen to dislike the idea of public officials using personal email or other personal media accounts to do public business. Politicians of all stripes talk about the need for “transparency.” Only the most sensitive national security matters should be kept from public view.
Clinton now has asked the State Department to release her emails to an inquiring public, which by the way includes members of the House Select Benghazi Committee that no doubt is looking for that “smoking gun” to shoot holes in her probable presidential campaign.
Whatever. The former secretary/U.S. senator/U.S. first lady knows better than most the price people for seeking to serve the public.
As the cliché reminds us: No good deed goes unpunished.