Having a sibling who’s running for president can be tough, even if they aren’t dredging up your own foreign-policy blunders. The front page of Monday’s New York Times features a profile of Tony Rodham, Hillary Clinton’s youngest brother, and his mostly unsuccessful attempts to benefit from being overshadowed by his sister. The biggest revelation: When Bill Clinton was co-chairmen of Haiti’s earthquake recovery commission, Rodham tried to make a $22 million deal to rebuild homes there. In an unrelated lawsuit, Rodham claimed the former president was helping him get through the red tape, but nothing came of the project.
“I deal through the Clinton Foundation. That gets me in touch with the Haitian officials,” Rodham said in his testimony. “I hound my brother-in-law, because it’s his fund that we’re going to get our money from. And he can’t do it until the Haitian government does it … And he keeps telling me, ‘Oh, it’s going to happen tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.’ Well, tomorrow hasn’t come yet.”
The former president and his foundation both say they had no involvement in Rodham’s Haiti deal. If Rodham had his way, he might be featured prominently in the many reports on the Clinton Foundation’s questionable practices, but it sounds like Clinton intended to get around to financing the project right after he came over to help his brother-in-law move all those heavy boxes out of his basement.
