THREE MARTINI LUNCH: MARCH 3, 2015

National Review's Jim Geraghty and Radio America's Greg Corombos discuss current events. Today's Martinis: Hillary Clinton used a personal e-mail exclusively when she was secretary of state, Obama may be plotting executive action on taxes, and House GOP leadership attack conservatives over DHS funding.



Network anchors on Clinton's e-mail lawbreaking: "Smells terrible," "stunning breach of security"

Remember the old Miller Lite TV commercials where the beer's fans would argue whether its primary virtue was that it "tastes great" or was "less filling," but Miller wanted you to believe both? Imagine a large stadium filled with people who still recall the abuses of power during the Clinton administration (Travel Office, anyone?) arguing over Hillary Clinton's four-year dodge of transparency and the Federal Records Act. One could almost hear one side of the stadium yelling, "Smells terrible!" and "Stunning breach of security!", no?

Let's start with MSNBC, where Lawrence O'Donnell had to go on live right after the New York Times broke the story based on information from the Benghazi select committee investigation that the Left despises. O'Donnell pulled together a panel that raised a few good questions, while O'Donnell himself called it "a stunning breach of security."

Say, where were the State Department lawyers? Perhaps they wanted to keep their jobs, given that Hillary ran the department. When MSNBC's Beth Fouhy says Hillary will have to address this at an upcoming speech, O'Donnell almost laughs in her face. Jeremy Peters aptly notes that this will once again raise the problems of the Clintons acting as though laws don't apply to them, and that this story will last at least "a few more days." O'Donnell goes farther, concluding that there can be no "legitimate" reason to have done this; Fouhy says that this will encourage Republicans to keep digging on Benghazi, but as O'Donnell says in response, it's not just the Republicans — the New York Times is on it too.

At CNN this morning, Chris Cuomo sniffs the air surrounding Hillary Clinton and declares it an olfactory assault. It "smells terrible." Cuomo says, throwing it to longtime Clinton toady Richard Socarides, who then says the issue is whether Hillary Clinton "used the right e-mail account." Socarides then laments that we won't be able to "talk about real issues" when Hillary runs for President. "The press has lost all sense of proportion," Socarides tells Cuomo about a high-ranking government official who hid her communications and broke the law for four full years. In other words, it's a vast right-wing conspiracy, or something.

After Socarides' ridiculous spin, even Cuomo seemed to be suffering from motion sickness. If that's the defense Team Hillary plans to mount for this story, they're in for an unpleasant ride.

Also read:

Source: Top Clinton Aides - including Huma Abedin - Also Used Secret Email Accounts at State Dept.

Uh oh: Even without media hand-wringing, Democrats worry Clinton is imploding