All Down"Hill" From Here

Still think that the federal trial of former Hillary campaign finance director David Rosen is on the level? Think again.

In his opening statement in the trial of Hillary Clinton's finance director David Rosen, Justice Department prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg seemed to spend as much time insisting that Mrs. Clinton was an innocent victim as he did laying out his case against her underling.

"You will hear no evidence that Hillary Clinton was involved [in Rosen's crimes] in any way, shape or form," Zeidenberg told a U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz on Wednesday. "In fact, it's just the opposite," the prosecutor insisted, in quotes picked up by the Associated Press. "The evidence will show that David Rosen was trying to keep this evidence from the campaign."

Does it strike anybody else as more than a little odd that the prosecutor, as opposed to the defense counsel, would be going out of his way to cover Mrs. Clinton's ample posterior on this caper? Anybody want to hazard a guess as to which administration hired Mr. Zeidenberg?

He might, however, have some difficulty not, shall we say, "raising questions" about the dragon lady's involvement.

According to Zeidenberg, Rosen "lied directly to the compliance officer of the Clinton campaign" about the full amount Paul spent to cover expenses for a star-studded August 2000 gala fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton.

Zeidenberg didn't explain, however, how Mrs. Clinton's then-spokesman, Howard Wolfson, seemed to have knowledge of the event's true costs at a time when senior Clinton campaign officials were supposedly in the dark.

Speaking to the Washington Post five days after the August 12th event, Wolfson acknowledged that Mr. Paul had contributed "$1 million" - far more than the $400,000 Rosen would later report.

Wolfson also seemed to know specific details about the underreported contribution, telling the Post: "It was an in-kind contribution ... and not a check."

That's all a "mistake," of course. Or a "coincidence." The stars were misaligned, you see.

It reminds me of the noted philospher Bart Simpson, who once said, "I didn't do it/nobody saw me do it/you can't prove anything!"

Speaking of which, news reports say Mr. Bill might be testifying at the Rosen trial, which should be a good change of pace for the former Gigolo-in-Chief, since he hasn't had an opportunity to perjur himself in years....