A properly predicted Clinton conflict
My prediction that Hillary Rodham Clinton was inviting nothing but trouble by announcing early that she’s running for president is starting to come true.
Stories are popping up left and right about the millions of dollars from foreign powers that went to the Clinton Foundation while she was secretary of state.
This has the potential of being a bigger liability than the e-mail affair or Benghazi because taking money from a foreign government when you hold a Cabinet job is a potential conflict of interest that everyone can grasp.
Plus, if foundation expenses show that the money helped pay for private jets and highend hotels for executives or family members, it’s double trouble.
It could even be fatal to Clinton’s candidacy, if it balloons into an ongoing story and the Republicans open a congressional investigation.
Clinton needs to inoculate herself. She needs to release an account of every dime that came into the foundation and every dime that went out, along with as many photos as she can find of the foundation’s work in Haiti and Africa.
If she can make the Clinton Foundation look like the Red Cross, she can survive this. If
she can’t, look out below.
I see that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is back, this time on latenight TV. Some people think that’s where the new voter audience really is.
Christie is being flippant, funny and selfeffacing, Best of all, he’s really doing a great job of not being political.
It was interesting to note the home team’s lack of presence at the unveiling of San Francisco’s plans for Super Bowl City. The only 49er representative I saw was general manager Trent Baalke, and he was off to the side, away from Mayor Ed Lee and the rest of us.
I had lunch with Vicki Hennessy the other day. She’s the department veteran whom Ed Lee brought in to be acting sheriff when he suspended Ross Mirkarimi, and now she’s running for the job full time in the November election.
Hennessy put in 35 years as a deputy sheriff. When she started, the Sheriff’s Department didn’t even have uniforms for women.
On her first day on the job, the first question she was asked was: “You got your car here?” “Yeah, I got my car.” “Well good, because we have a female prisoner who needs to be taken to General Hospital.”
So Hennessy took the prisoner to the hospital, then waited around so she could bring her back.
Thing was, Hennessy didn’t know that area of town too well, so the prisoner had to give her directions.
Those were the days.
My eyes bugged out when I read my invitation to the San Francisco International Film Festival event honoring Richard Gere. They’re holding it at the Armory on Mission Street, which for years has been a porn movie studio.
I call the festival and asked, “Is this a mistake?”
The lady said, “No, we’re trying to appeal to our younger audience.”
I’m in. It will be my first visit to the Armory since I was in the National Guard’s 126th Medical Battalion. I was a dental assistant, and we trained there.
My serial number was 28182116. You could look it up.
Security operations are doing good business these days, and most of the execs are retired law-enforcement types.
Security firms packed the town last week for their annual convention. I ran into three people I’d cross-examined on the witness stand, including a former FBI agent, an ex-district attorney’s investigator and a retired San Francisco police commander.
This year’s confab centered on cybersecurity. But it should have been “sober security,” given the ’round-theclock business that the bars around Moscone Center were doing.
Movie time: “Beyond the Reach.” Michael Douglas is back doing his Gordon Gekko schtick in this doublecross delight. Douglas plays a Beverley Hills investor who turns an accidental shot on a weekend elk hunt into a deadly game of cat and mouse with his guide, played by Jeremy Irvine.
Douglas always makes a better bad guy than a good one. This time he’s manipulatively fabulous.
Here’s a tip for you serious movie fans, or just those of you looking for some afternoon fun: Check out the weekend double-feature matinees at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Last Sunday I caught “The Gunfighter” starring Gregory Peck, which was playing with “Ram- rod.”
This week it’s “The Searchers” with John Wayne, and “Winchester ’73” with Jimmy Stewart.
Great fun at a great price. Showtime is 2 p.m.
I got on the very crowded 14-Mission the other day and grabbed a rail. As we lurched down the street, I noticed this very attractive young lady seated nearby eyeing me.
Naturally, I puffed up a bit at the attention and flashed her my best smile.
She smiled back, and I said to myself, “Willie, you still got it.”
Then she stood up, turned to me with that cute smile and said the words I never thought I’d hear: “Sir, would you care for my seat?”