Chelsea Clinton to Join Family Business and a Wedding Too

The days is fast approaching and Chelsea Clinton’s $10 million pre nup is safely tucked away in the vault.



UK Telegraph



Her father was the once world's most powerful politician, her mother is now the USA's top diplomat and both are immediately recognised around the globe.



So it is all the more remarkable that Chelsea Clinton has done such a good job of avoiding the spotlight for much of her life.



But that is about to change. Next weekend the former first daughter is to marry her long-time boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky, a financier - an event which, with a glittering array of guests expected from around the world, will put her unavoidably in the spotlight.





What is more, The Sunday Telegraph has been told that Miss Clinton is also being groomed to take on her parents' formidable legacy on the international stage.





Armed with a newly-acquired master's degree in public health from New York's prestigious Columbia University, she is being lined up for a top role at the philanthropic foundation set up by her father, ex-president Bill Clinton.



The expectation among friends and family is that she will eventually take over its running from her father - ensuring that, as he eventually assumes a lower public profile, that part of his legacy continues to be burnished for a generation to come.



For now, however, Miss Clinton, 30, clearly has other priorities. On Saturday, she will marry Mr Mezvinsky, 32, an investor banker whose parents both served in Congress and whose father recently completed a different sort of term - five years in prison for fraud.



The bride has done her best to keep the details secret. Her mother, secretary of state Hillary Clinton, said in Pakistan last week that she is under strict orders to let nothing slip, although she did reveal that her husband was a bundle of nerves.



The 400 guests have so far only been told that they should make sure they are within driving distance of New York next weekend. But it will come as no surprise when they are informed that their destination is a country mansion just outside Rhinebeck, 90 miles north of the city.



More specifically, unless the family has deployed huge resources and scores of Secret Service agents in one of the great bluffs of all time, they will be directed to Astor Courts, a 26,000 sq ft mansion inspired by Versailles and built by tycoon John Jacob Astor IV who later died on the Titanic.



A partial guest list has also emerged in and it just as glittering as might be expected for the only child of American political royalty. President Barack Obama, talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, singer Barbra Streisand, Hollywood mogul Steven Spielberg, media baron Ted Turner and a clutch of Clintonista politicos have reportedly been invited.



So too have the two British prime ministers who were Mr Clinton's counterparts during his presidency - Tony Blair, with whom the Clintons are close, and perhaps more surprisingly John Major. There may be one notable absentee - Mr Obama is thought to have politely declined in the hope of preventing the event becoming even more of a media scrum.



What Miss Clinton does next is, of course, shrouded in the secrecy she so desires. Mr Clinton has evidently confided to friends that he hopes to become a grandfather. And his daughter is expected to take on an increasing role with his foundation - with the ultimate goal that she could succeed him and continue the family brand on the world stage.





For now, the 63-year-old ex-president maintains a tough international schedule, despite his heart problems. In February - after a trip to Haiti with his daughter - he was taken to hospital with chest pains and was fitted with two stents to restore blood flow to a coronary artery, five years after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery. But one day he will have to listen to doctors' advice to slow down.



Miss Clinton studiously avoids media attention, gives no interviews and has shown no interest in following her parents' into politics - despite her assured and impressive appearances on the campaign trail for her mother during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race.



Rather than return to her job at Avenue Capital, a New York hedge fund run by a prominent Clinton donor, she went back to college to study health policy and management at Columbia.





She took courses that focused on international health initiatives and programmes to tackle Aids - just the sort of work conducted by the Clinton Foundation, set up by her father in New York after he left the White House in 2001. He has since turned his Clinton Global Initiative meetings into a glitzy fixture on the world charity calendar.



Miss Clinton's interest in global health issues is long-standing. As a student, she interned one summer at the World Health Organization in Geneva, working on a United Nations initiative on healthy environments for children.



"If you look at what Chelsea has studied and what she specialised in, it all points to her being groomed to take over the Clinton Foundation," said an insider at Columbia.

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Al and Tipper Gore will Not Attend Chelsea Clinton's Wedding

I wonder if the Gore’s don’t want to take away any attention from the bride to be. Chelsea’s probably relieved they’re not coming to her big day.

From Examiner.com:

Chelsea Clinton, daughter

of former President Bill Clinton and his wife who is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will marry investment banker Marc Mezvinsky in Rhinebeck, New York on July 31, 2010 with neither Al Gore or Tipper Gore in attendance.

In fact, it isn’t even certain if the Gores have been invited to the wedding ceremony and celebration, though it is assumed they were. The press, undoubtedly have been keeping their eyes on how the Gores were going to handle this social occasion since they are close to the Clinton family.

A spokesman for the political couple, the Gores, who announced their impending divorce on June 1, 2010, says that they wish the newlyweds-to-be the best and they are extremely excited for the family's big event.

In recent news, Al Gore has also been headline news by being accused of sexual improprieties with a Portland, Oregon masseuse, Molly Hagerty, in a case that has been reopened by the Portland Police this past week.

In what is sizing up to be the wedding of the summer, Chelsea’s wedding, from media releases about the wedding gown and its designer to many stories released about the political family and past controversies surrounding her fiancé are a-buzz.



Via Examiner.com

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Michael Steele Calls for an Independent Counsel to Investigate White House Over Sestak and Romanoff

GOP National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on his weekly address raises questions over the White House’s lack of transparency in conducting an independent investigation over job over Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff


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White House Used Bill Clinton to Ask Sestak to Drop Out of Race

The Obama administration is in serious cover up mode.

I’m not a lawyer or play one on TV, but

“federal law makes it a crime for anyone “who directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or any other benefit” to someone else “as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office.” It is also illegal for a government official to use “his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate” for Senate.”

Something smells very fishy and a special prosecutor is needed to get to the bottom of it. Also, the NY Times is reporting this story right down the middle without their usual slant in favor of Obama. That ought to tell you that they see big problems for the president.

From The New York Times:

President Obama’s chief of staff used former President Bill Clinton as an intermediary to see if Representative Joe Sestak would drop out of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate primary if given a prominent, but unpaid, advisory position, the White House said on Friday.
Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, asked Mr. Clinton last summer to explore “options of service” on a presidential or senior government advisory board with Mr. Sestak, the White House said in a statement. Mr. Sestak said no and went on to win last week’s primary against Senator Arlen Specter.

The White House disputed Republican claims that the conversations might be illegal or improper. “There was no such impropriety,” Robert F. Bauer, the White House counsel, said in a memo released to reporters. “The Democratic Party leadership had a legitimate interest in averting a divisive primary fight and a similarly legitimate concern about the congressman vacating his seat in the House.”

Mr. Bauer went on to say that such horse-trading has been commonplace through history. “There have been numerous, reported instances in the past when prior administrations – both Democratic and Republican, and motivated by the same goals – discussed alternative paths to service for qualified individuals also considering campaigns for public office,” he wrote. “Such discussions are fully consistent with the relevant law and ethical requirements.”

Representative Darrell Issa of California, the senior Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the interactions described by the White House “represent an illegal quid pro quo,” even if the position was unpaid. “It is abundantly clear that this kind of conduct is contrary to President Obama’s pledge to change ‘business as usual’ and that his administration has engaged in the kind of political shenanigans he once campaigned to end.”

Federal law makes it a crime for anyone “who directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or any other benefit” to someone else “as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office.” It is also illegal for a government official to use “his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate” for Senate.

While many have speculated that the White House offered to appoint Mr. Sestak as secretary of the Navy, Mr. Bauer said that was never the case. The White House did not offer Mr. Sestak a full-time paid position because Mr. Emanuel wanted him to stay in the House rather than risk losing his seat, so he considered “uncompensated advisory board options.”

The White House did not disclose what those options were, but people briefed on the matter said one option was an appointment to the president’s Intelligence Advisory Board, a panel of prominent Americans outside government who provide independent oversight of the nation’s spy apparatus and advise the president. But White House officials discovered that it would not work because Mr. Sestak could not serve on the board while still serving in Congress.

In a statement Friday, Mr. Sestak said Mr. Clinton had conveyed Mr. Emanuel’s suggestion that he join a “presidential board” while remaining in the House, but he declined. “I told President Clinton that my only consideration in getting into the Senate race or not was whether it was the right thing to do for Pennsylvania working families and not any offer,” Mr. Sestak said. “The former president said he knew I’d say that, and the conversation moved on to other subjects.”

Mr. Sestak first mentioned publicly in February that he had been offered a job but provided no details, and the White House for three months had refused to discuss it, generating intense criticism from Republicans who accused it of trying to bribe a congressman and deep consternation among Democrats who called on the administration to answer questions.
Mr. Emanuel was eager last summer to clear the way to this year’s Democratic Senate nomination for Mr. Specter, who had just left the Republican party, and to bolster Democrats’ majority in the Senate. Mr. Sestak, a retired admiral and two-term House member, was already planning a run.

In tapping Mr. Clinton as the go-between, Mr. Emanuel picked the party’s most prominent figure other than Mr. Obama and someone Mr. Sestak had worked for on the National Security Council in the 1990s. Mr. Sestak endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton against Mr. Obama in the 2008 presidential primaries, and Mr. Clinton was one of the first to call to congratulate him on his Senate victory last week.
Mr. Clinton was at the White House on Thursday to have lunch with Mr. Obama and join him in greeting the American men’s World Cup soccer team heading to South Africa.

As chief of staff and previously as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Mr. Emanuel has not been shy about trying to steer party nominations to those he considers the stronger candidates. The White House under Mr. Emanuel has also leaned on Gov. href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/david_a_paterson/index.html?inline=nyt-per">David Paterson of New York to drop out of this year’s gubernatorial race, which he eventually did under a cloud of scandal. Mr. Emanuel’s deputy, Jim Messina, suggested a possible administration job to Andrew Romanoff to get him to not challenge Sen. Michael Bennet in a Colorado primary, The Denver Post has reported, citing unnamed sources.

Whether that constitutes ordinary political horse-trading or crosses a legal line has been debated in Washington for months. Democrats and some Republicans have said it is hardly unusual for presidents to offer political appointments to clear the way for allies. But Republicans have suggested such actions may constitute a crime.

Mr. Issa and all seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor. The Justice Department wrote Mr. Issa last week that it did not need a special prosecutor to investigate if it chose to do so. Government officials, who asked not to be identified discussing legal decisions, said that neither the Justice Department nor the Office of Special Counsel, an agency that looks at violations of the Hatch Act governing the political conduct of federal employees, is investigating.

While declining to discuss what happened, Mr. Obama on Thursday said, “I can assure the public that nothing improper took place.”

Isn't it interesting how the Emanuel reaches out to a man, Bill Clinton, who's very comfortable telling lies. That along with a Friday news dump before a holiday weekend.

Smart.

But, it isn't the crime that gets people, its the cover up afterwards.

Via New York Times

Via Memeorandun

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