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What I was trying to say, I guess ineffectively, was that if we dismiss the vague unproven stuff about Clinton (and I think we should) then we have to also dismiss the vague unproven stuff about Rezko, at least for now. If I understand you correctly, I think that we agree on this point.
I did not know that the information in the NYT about Kazakhstan had been disproved and I appreciate you pointing it out. I haven't had time to read all of the links that you posted, but I now trust that it is not the issue that others are making it out to be.
On a personal note, I was just starting college during the Starr investigation, and I completely bought into Hillary's "vast right-wing conspiracy" theory. Honestly, I still feel like the Clintons have gotten a raw deal. I am disappointed in Bill Clinton's behavior, though. I was an idealistic college student in mid '90's. I came of age believing that Reagan was pure evil. Still, Bill's dishonestly and legal manipulations, were a kind of wake-up call, that even the "good" politicians sometimes do very stupid and very destructive things for very selfish reasons. As I have gotten older, I am even more troubled by the idea that the President of the US could find himself in an extended sexual relationship with a White House intern, who was both 22 and nearly 30 years his junior, and who was (if memory serves) the daughter of a political donor. I believe that he is a liar, not because the right wing tells me so, but because I was watching the news, because I believed him and argued passionately on his behalf to anyone who would listen, and because he proved me wrong.
In a lot of ways I feel like I have come to respect Hillary through this campaign more than I ever did before. I was also kind of disappointed that she didn't throw him out on his ass after she left the White House. And for years afterwards, I thought of her as a scheming and calculating politician. I believed that her bid for the nomination was nothing more than the end game of an entire career of political ambition and narcissism. I am happy to say that she proved me wrong. The Hillary Clinton that I have come to learn about over the last year is incredibly smart, is personable, often funny and jocular, and obviously passionate about making America better. I still believe that Obama is the right candidate for where we are now, but I can't help but think that the real tragedy is that she will always be in Bill's shadow. In a perfect world, she would have been the Governor of Arkansas or Illinois. She would have been elected President in 1992 and the we would be in a very different and probably better place than we are now.
