February 21, 2008 -- So it turns out that Bill Clinton's ties to mining mogul Frank Giustra extend far beyond the lucrative contract he won in Kazakhstan after the two of them shared a dinner with that nation's president.
As Bloomberg News reported, over the past three years Giustra's private commercial-sized jet has been turned into a veritable Air Bubba - whisking the ex-president around the world at least a dozen times for well-paid speaking engagements, personal fund-raising or stops to assist wife Hillary's White House campaign.
Giustra has also become one of the Clinton Foundation's largest benefactors - in a way, Bloomberg reported, that ties the foundation's success with his own.
Though Clinton's people angrily deny any ties between him and Giustra's business interests, the Clinton history on such matters makes those protestations hard to take seriously.
Which causes us once again to ask a critical question:
When will Hillary Clinton finally release her tax returns?
This isn't such a stretch: Bill and Hillary's finances are co-mingled, and the senator recently loaned her sinking campaign $5 million.
Indeed, the loan was made at about the same time that Bill Clinton ended a business relationship with another longtime benefactor that allowed him to reap a $20 million bonanza.
On top of the $50 million he's earned for himself and the hundreds of millions he's picked up for his global charities - not to mention his presidential library.
Yet he refuses to identify most of the sources of all this cash.
What's the big mystery?
Bill says that if Hillary wins the Democratic nomination - an increasingly unlikely prospect - he'll make public the names of all future donors. But not those who've already curried favor with the Clintons by kicking in some cash.
As for releasing her tax returns, Hillary says also that she'll do it once she's the nominee - as if primary voters don't deserve the same information.
Barack and Michelle Obama, it should be noted, made their tax returns public long ago.
But the Clintons - despite their long record of dubious fund-raising, not to mention their ties to financial people who've ended up on the wrong side of the law - continue to hide behind a veil of secrecy.
It makes one wonder - what have they got to hide?"
Plenty, and then some. Otherwise they'd be amenable to opening the books.
If anyone knows how to fight a battle when necessary, and run when the going gets tough, it is Mr. and Mrs. "It depends what 'is' is."
Both of them have lived down what would have destroyed lesser liars, as their constituency doesn't care all that much about honor and justice, and would easily pass off a suspect donation or affiliation so the ones they are hiding must be lulu's.
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