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Oh, brothers. Hugh isn't the only family member to disgrace a President (not even the only one in the Clinton family). Donald Nixon had shady business dealings. Billy Carter lobbied for Libya and peddled Billy Beer. The hard-drinking Sam Houston Johnson was practically kept under White House arrest by L.B.J. Roger Clinton, a mediocre musician and sometime actor (playing "Mayor Bubba" in Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings), lived up to his bad-brother billing recently by abusing a nightclub bouncer and getting arrested for drunk driving--all after receiving a presidential pardon himself. He also submitted his own list of six pardon candidates to his brother; none made it to the final list. The only presidential relative to really benefit from his blood ties to the Oval Office is its current occupant.
But by carrying water for a drug trafficker, Hugh has seen Roger and raised him a truckload of cocaine. At her press conference after Hugh's payment was exposed, Hillary, used to separating herself from her husband's recklessness, separated herself from her brother's, doing it so harshly that a friend said, if Hughie were watching, he would be "suicidal." More than the money, what he has always wanted was her praise. At the press conference, she called her campaign treasurer, involved in securing two minor pardons, a "fine lawyer and a fine man." She claimed neither when referring to Hughie. Only once did she say she loved him, while repeating, like a well-rehearsed talking point, how "disappointed and disturbed" she was. She boasted about not having spoken to Hughie since the story broke.
I was with her until then, but having two brothers of my own, I know you can make the point that your sibling is wrong and still open your arms to him. What she did may be smart in the ruthless world of Washington, but not in the lasting one of family. You simply can't treat your kin as just another piece of roadkill. We've always known Hillary is smart. Her main problem is, we don't know if she's human. She may get out of the Hughie mess unscathed, but at the cost of confirming that being a Senator is more important than being a sister.