Hillary Clinton on Magnequench
copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org
A brilliant man, a Rhodes scholar named William Jefferson Clinton stood in front of the gas stove with his sweet protégé, a country known as China, a nation much like a lost lad. The powerful President wished to mentor a territory adrift in the Twentieth Century. As a father might teach a son, Bill handed the boy a box of matches. Hillary Rodham Clinton, surrogate mother as she thought herself to be, while experienced, and wise in her own right, said nothing of the possible peril.
Indeed, rarely was she able to speak of what went on in the family's little White House. The then First Lady did not enter private rooms; nor did she attend her husband Bill's closed-door 'conferences.' The encounter, near the range, was thought to be a restricted exchange. The couple while close had separate lives. Special spouse that she was, Hillary did not have security clearance.
The current Senator from New York was a proxy parent at the time. She was aware of what went on within the inner sanctum of the Oval Office. Bill, Commander of the residence and the region known as the United States, felt very close to his wife. He says, then and now, he shared all secrets with his partner. In 1995, Bill Clinton told Hillary Rodham Clinton of his plans to present the Asian guardian in his charge with an ignitable force. Benevolent Billy hoped the child, China would be empowered. Of course, the elder man made the younger male promise he would never use the thin sulfur tipped stick of wood near the stove. Although the oven was close at hand when Bill provided the tools and taught the little gent how to use them.
President Clinton also asked for a pledge. Children or associates that might benefit from the gift the Chief Executive bequeathed his student must be contained. The United States must forever remain the world's superpower. Bill Clinton trusted nothing would change once the child was given his gift.
Clinton Administration 'Approved the Sale'
By Jake Tapper
ABC News
April 30, 2008
In 1995, China National Non-Ferrous Metals, headquartered in Beijing, and San Huan New Material High-Tech Inc, funded by the Chinese government, joined with other interests to purchase the Anderson, Ind.-based Magnequench, which made Neo powder for use in magnets.
The two Chinese companies were headed by the husbands of the first and second daughters of then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. One of those daughters was at that time "vice minister of China's State Science and Technology Commission, whose responsibilities included acquiring military technologies by whatever means necessary," according to David Cay Johnston in "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Corporations Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)."
"Complaints about the sale of Magnequench were made to the U.S. government because of the military applications for the magnets," Johnston reports. "Still, the Clinton administration, an ardent proponent of globalization, approved the sale."
The Clinton administration requested that the technology and production remain in the U.S.
"If we believe this was truly a national defense issue, the company should not have been allowed to be sold in 1995, to the group it was sold to, which was backed by the Chinese government and Chinese entrepreneurs," says Virginia Shingleton, head of the economics department at Valparaiso University for the past 12 years.
Thirteen years later, long after Bill's munificence exploded and harmed all in the neighborhood where the Clinton's once lived, the matriarch, strong woman that she be, spoke of the harm caused, but blamed it on another, later inhabitant of the property on Pennsylvania Avenue. The former First Lady of the White House, in a feverish campaign to reclaim the estate, does not wish to damage her husband's reputation or her own, Hence, Hillary Clinton continually cries out.
“A Chinese company bought the company, called Magnequench, and they wanted to move the jobs to China. The people in Indiana protested, did everything they could to convince the Bush administration that this was a terrible mistake. Couldn't even get a hearing,” she said.
“The jobs went to China, but so did the technology. And now the United States military has to buy the magnets we need for the smart bombs we invented from China.”
What the passionate Presidential aspirant does not tell the common persons who can help her regain the property she feels she deserves is, Magnequench was originally sold to Chinese interests when her darling husband was at the helm. President William Jefferson Clinton signed the documents, which would become the law of the land despite concerns for national security and eventual job loss. Although, alarm was expressed at the time, Commander-In-Chief Clinton relinquished the rights to ownership, or bestowed the matches upon the child.
Experts say the Chinese acquired the "technical sophistication" that created the magnets long before George W. Bush took office.
Nevertheless, as the former First Lady speaks, family friend, and a person who objected to her husband's actions at the outset, smiles and bows, or bobs as he weaves. The prominent Representative, like a doddering, foolish, old uncle, conveniently forgets the past. He would not wish to blemish his own record within the community or sever his ties to the Clinton's. Chances are good, if Hillary Clinton inherits the throne, Evan Bayh may also personally prosper. Thus . . .
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind,, Clinton's top surrogate in the state, often joins her on the stump in bashing the president (Bush) for allowing Magnequench to move abroad. What Bayh doesn't tell voters these days is that he has blamed the company's moving on a 1995 decision made by Clinton's husband's administration.
Back in the day, when the Clinton's ruled the roost, governed the manor, and controlled the countryside, Senator Evan Bayh foresaw the destruction that might befall the nation and impact his plot of land. The man who represents the state of Indiana, and did all those years ago, understood if the child (China) were to be given an opportunity to set his (economic) world ablaze, he (it) would.
Senator Bayh predicted if the burgeoning boy (China) was equipped to burn the house down, the residents in the homeland might find themselves out in the cold. Countless considered the possibility, an avid and curious learner given information, and the means to multiply his skills, will succeed. In other words, if China was granted an opportunity to gain knowledge and talents, they would.
What is forgotten by the candidate and ignored by her beau, the previous President is: when a Head of State ships vital Union jobs overseas, then a strong economy will not be sustained here at home. Apparently, the affable fellow who stood at Senator Clinton's side as she tours his home territory Indiana, also fails to remember the flames he knew were coming. Back in the day, indeed, as recently as a year ago, a statement prepared for Evan Bayh expressed more than a cautious concern for what the Clintons did.
A memo prepared for Bayh by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service earlier this year stated that the Clinton administration could have objected to the sale under CFIUS, but it did not, and that the consortium promised to keep those Anderson, Ind., jobs in the U.S. only until 2005.
An Oct. 6, 2005, press release from Bayh (Bayh) noted that he asked for the Government Accountability Office to study "concerns over foreign takeovers of American companies with national security implications & after an Indiana company called Magnequench closed thanks to a 1995 decision by Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States CFIUS to approve a Chinese consortium's takeover. At the time, Magnequench made 85 percent of the magnets used to guide U.S. smart bombs."
Said Bayh, in the release: "The committee responsible for providing this protection does not have a good track record, as I saw myself when it allowed an Indiana company that made smart bomb magnets to be purchased by a foreign business. When it comes to protecting our national security interests, we should be doing more, not less.."
Now on the campaign trail in support of fellow Senator Clinton, Bayh dismisses the outrage he once expressed at the Clinton administration's approval of that 1995 sale, or at least he does not discuss it. Currently, the melodious Indiana Senator sings another song. He emphasizes no companies manufacture Neo magnets in the United Sates and evades the essential reason. His bud Bill, husband to Hillary, is the cause for concerns within his neighborhood.
What Bayh doesn't tell voters these days is that he has blamed the company's moving on a 1995 decision made by Clinton's husband's administration.
Andy Albers, a former vice president of Magnequench, said he received a phone call from Clinton's campaign to go over key details of Clinton's Valparaiso event before it happened on April 12.
"I told them all the truth, but it didn't go anywhere," Albers told ABC News. "Evan Bayh and Hillary Clinton are living in some false reality here, making all these false accusations."
In Pittsburgh on April 14, Clinton told voters that "not only did the jobs go to China, but so did the intellectual property and the technological know-how to make those magnets."
Albers says no secrets or intellectual property transferred to China when Magnequench moved in 2003, despite the claims of these politicians.
Perchance, the Hoosier State Senator is more enamored with magnetism than magnets. Hillary Clinton can be quite a charmer, and Bill is not bad himself. As a couple, the two can mesmerize constituents and cause a community to forget its sorrows, or the story of woe that is their history in the White House.
Consider not only the gift President Bill Clinton gave to his protégé China, contemplate the present he bestows upon many a voter. Bill Clinton, the man with the matches, reminds crowds gathered in the rural regions of Indiana and North Carolina, the two states next to hold primary elections that he and Hillary feel their pain. The story he tells in these hamlets is, when he was in the Oval Office, America was in the Golden Age. The working man and woman prospered.
The magnanimous Bill Clinton decrees only he and his wife can bring back the euphoria that was life in the United States in the 1990s. He tells the hordes of rural folk that 'other people may look down on them, but not the Clintons.' The enchanter, the esteemed Mister President, indulges, "Hillary is in this race today with a real chance to win because of people like you." He honors the crowd, "If it had been up to the experts and the party elites and the wealthiest Americans who are Democrats, she'd be toast." Bill bestows . . .
A Political Gift
After the speech, no one brought up the fact that Bill Clinton fits that definition himself: a wealthy party elite. In the eyes of small-town voters, Bill Clinton will always be one of them.
Katherine Clontz watched Clinton in his last stop of the day in Whiteville.
"He's really charismatic. He does know the people's pain and what they're going through right now, the struggles of American people," Clontz said, acknowledging that Clinton's skill helped him when he was governor of Arkansas but sounding a note of mistrust that he now lives in New York.
"Call me a sucker, call me what you will," Clontz said. "But I think he does understand and try to help the people."
It's a political gift. And Bill Clinton still knows how to use it.
Hillary Rodham has also acquired the flair. When in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the former First Lady shared the lopsided legend and the public swooned. The electorate in the Keystone State cast a ballot that said, Senator Clinton we entrust our lives and jobs to you regardless of what is real. Evan Bayh offers his novel version of jobs lost and escapes scrutiny. Perhaps he too has acquired the cult of personality. The Clintons and Bayh can relate and captivate. The three can help America forget that failed policies began with Clinton not Bush. Ah, what a little magnetism or magnets can do.
References and Realities (?). . .
- The Résumé Factor: Those 2 Terms as First Lady, By Patrick Healy. The New York Times. December 26, 2007
- Clinton blasts Bush for project Bill OK'd, By Steven Thomma. McClatchy Newspapers. April 30, 2008
- Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States CFIUS.
- Bayh Calls for Increased Oversight of Foreign Takeovers with National Security Concerns. US Senator Evan Bayh. October 6, 2005
- ABC Digs Into Clinton Trade Hypocrisy - Clinton Campaign Responds With More Deception, By David Sirota. Huffington Post. April 30, 2008
- Bill Clinton Takes His Political Game to Small Towns, By Robert Smith. Morning Edition. May 2, 2008
- In Indiana, Clinton plays the China card, By Tom Curry. MSNBC News. April 29, 2008
- Bill Sings Hillary's Praises at NWI Stops, By Vanessa Renderman. NWI Times. Friday, May 2, 2008
- Hillary Again Hits Tale About Indiana Company Sold To China During Clinton Years, By Greg Sargent. TPM. April 30, 2008, 4:40PM