Uncle Raymond Clinton

By coincidence I have recently been reading two books simultaneously. I picked up Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton at the local used book sale (a fundraiser for local seniors). I figure if Hillary is going to be President, which is likely, then I should know more about her. She’s an okay writer, and presents herself well, but the book began to wear on me as I read past page 300.

So I started re-reading The Money and the Power, the Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, by Sally Denton and Roger Morris. I had already read it once, and I had forgotten that the Clintons play a small role in it. Basically, the book is about how the vast sums of money made by organized crime, especially from bootlegged alcohol during Prohibition, was eventually cycled into the Las Vegas we know today. It is a colorful story, filled with the names of famous gangsters like Benjamin Segal and Meyer Lansky, but also meticulous in connecting organized crime to politics, including most of the post-Prohibition Presidents of the United States. (It was published in 2001, so Barack Obama makes no appearance in it.)

Now Hillary (admittedly, by her own representation) was a good girl. Her father owned a small business, and she grew up church-going, Republican, and upper-middle class. She went to a swanky girls-school private college, Wellesley, then on to Yale Law School. I spotted no obvious discrepancies in her story. She was influenced by the turmoil of the 60s, in particular the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. By 1972 she had changed over to the Democratic Party.

The anomalies I spotted were in her descriptions of her eventual husband, Bill Clinton. Now I had thought Bill Clinton was supposed to be from a poor family. He was supposed to be a bright kid who won scholarships, including a Rhodes scholarship to study in England. Well, I would tend to admire that, since I was a bright scholarship kid. But I also know that scholarship kids typically are penniless until they get their first real job after they graduate from academia. Unlike the kinds of students who typically attend places like Wellesley and Yale, they don’t own cars and they work paid, usually menial jobs each summer as well as during the school year. They can’t accept glamorous unpaid internships that give the upper class kids inside tracks to the most desirable jobs.

What struck me first was the car. They have just started dating in the spring of 1971, at Yale Law School. “We spent long hours driving around in his 1970 burnt-orange Open station wagon.” What was an unpaid law student doing with a new station wagon? And where did the money come from that summer, when he and Hillary lived in Berkeley, California, and it is clear he did not have a job? There was more, but that was enough to remind me that Hot Springs, Arkansas was a notorious center of organized crime activity. I knew Bill was from Hope, which is not far from Hot Springs; I wondered if his easy money meant he had already been bought.

Of course it is not really a secret that William Jefferson Blythe III, aka Bill Clinton actually spent most of his childhood in Hot Springs, and graduated from Hot Springs High School. Although his step father, Roger Clinton had owned the Hope Buick Dealership, he was an alcoholic and gambler, and had sold his share of the dealership in 1955. His worked as a parts manager for his broth Raymond after that. He died in 1967, before Hillary even met Bill. Uncle Raymond Clinton owned the Hot Springs Buick dealership with his partner Earl T. Ricks, who eventually also became Brigadier General of the Arkansas National Guard. Ricks died in 1953.

So the Opal likely was a gift from a generous uncle who owned a car dealership. Nothing wrong with that. But according to Denton & Morris, Raymond Clinton had other sources of income besides the dealership. He “ran slot machines in the town for the Marcello family.” [D&M page 376]

When Bill Clinton showed up in Arkansas in 1974 to take an appointment as a law professor and run for Congress, Bill raised more money in the Democratic Party primary than his far-better-established opponents. It was Raymond who helped him raise the money, and if it is true that he was mob-connected, then the money was largely mob money from drugs, prostitution, and gambling. Clinton lost to the Republican. In 1976 Bill ran for state Attorney General and won. He did not become known for prosecuting or even noticing the organized crime still rampant in Hot Springs.

Later, as President of the United States, Clinton would quietly kill a proposal for a 4% federal gambling tax.

That helped President Clinton raise large sums of money in Las Vegas for his 1996 re-election campaign. Gambling interests, led by Brian Greenspun and Steve Wynn poured money into the Clinton campaign and the general Democratic Party war chest. One $25,000 per attendee party sponsored by Wynn raised $650,000 for the Democrats [D&M page 371]. Just in case, Wynn and friends also gave very large sums of money to Republican Party nominee Bob Dole.

Bill Clinton and then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich could sometimes put aside partisan discord to accomplish something together. Due to the movement to legalize gambling outside Nevada, by 1996 a backlash was growing. Pushed by non-profit groups, Congress decided to create a Gambling Impact Study Commission. Critics pointed out that gambling “took billions, addicted thousand at great physical and human cost, and siphoned spending from local businesses to the point of ruin, all while giving back nothing of social or economic value.” [D&M page 373].

Such committees in Congress always have the power to subpoena witnesses. But gangsters and casino corporate executives (if there is any difference) alike remembered the Kefauver hearings and Robert Kennedy hearings with great distaste. Clinton, Gingrich and politicians whose campaigns had been slushed up with gambling profits made sure the committee did not have the usual powers. In the end the Gambling committee accomplished nothing.

When did Hillary become aware of her husband’s organized crime connections? My best bet would be never. After all, Uncle Raymond ran a legitimate business, an automobile dealership. Hillary had her own law practice to worry about. Most people can look the other way when it is convenient to them, and Hillary seems to not be an exception.

Hillary and Bill are independently wealthy now, but not so wealthy that they can finance another Presidential campaign without a lot of donated money. Hopefully the women who love Hillary and the Democratic Party can make enough donations to her campaign that she will not be beholden to any particular person, or private interest group, when she is making decisions that affect us all.

I expect Bill Clinton to hang around the White House, and he does have some talents. But I expect Hillary to make her own decisions. As the first female President, I hope she turns out to be one of the rare peace Presidents. I hope the feminist core of her following holds her to that standard.

Other sources:

The next Stop after Hope (Progressive Review)

Frontline Interview with Roger Morris about Partners in Power, The Clintons and Their America.

Horses, Racing, and Slot Machines

One of the most famous horse races in American history took place near Nashville, Tennessee in 1806.

A local lawyer, judge, gambler and slave plantation owner was trying to get out of debt. Andrew Jackson was profligate with his own wealth but a stern disciplinarian with slaves and horses. After losing heavily on prior champion, he saw the potential in Truxton and bought him to train.Truxton then took on the reigning Tennessee champion Greyhound in 1805. Truxton and Jackson won, "winning Jackson $5000 cash on the spot. Had he lost he might have been jailed for debt and sunk into poverty. His training of the horse had made the difference. Truxton also became a good source of revenue from stud fees. Thus Andrew Jackson became the best known horse trainer, racer and gambler in Tennessee." [Internet Biography of Andrew Jackson]

In 1806 Truxton beat a new comer, Ploughboy, by forfeit when Ploughboy went lame before the race. Debts incurred by the losers led to Jackson assaulting another lawyer, Thomas Swann. In hopes of recouping their losses, Ploughboy was run again against Truxton. This time it was Jackson's over-trained horse that was lame before the race. Jackson, possibly out of pride but probably for the money, ran Truxton anyway. Truxton won the first heat, but now both limped on his hind leg and had a lame front leg. To win the bet Jackson needed to win two of three heats, so Truxton and Ploughboy were forced to race again. Truxton won the second race, and is justly famous for it.

Andrew Jackson soon killed Charles Dickinson in a duel related to the Truxton race. Jackson went on to kill many white men and American Indians, win the Battle of New Orleans, create the Democratic Party, and serve for eight years as President of the United States.

Now it is as if Jackson's ghost is back to haunt us in our increasingly barbaric era. For the most part people who race horses love them. They are prized possessions that are well cared for. I see nothing inherently wrong in horse racing, as the horses themselves seem to like to race.

Yet in the last couple of years something has gone horridly wrong in the horse racing industry, which is supported by fans wagering on the races. Injuries to horses (and jockeys) were already unacceptably high two years ago, but they have grown at an alarming rate recently. At one race track alone, the Aqueduct in New York City, 30 horses have died in less than a year, doubling the number that died in the same period a year earlier. [New York Times, "Big Purses, Sore Horses, and Death," April 30, 2012] Typically the horses are not killed by the racing accident itself, but are put down afterwards.

Race tracks have been under business pressure for years. Thirty years ago they were one of the few legal forms of gambling in many states. As casinos proliferated across the states more and more gamblers abandoned horses for craps tables and slot machines. As a result the money available for purses (the prizes that go to the owners of the horses) declined, as did race track profits.

Most, but not all, states have now legalized attaching casinos to race tracks. There is a tendency for the horse racing to be an event that draws people to the sites, with the real money made from the 24/7 availability of slot machines. There are less horse breeders and trainers than there used to be 30 years ago when there was more money to be won. So to stage races the racetrack/casinos have started using casino profits to increase purses.

As a result winning purses has become more important than pride for many professional horse owners. They are doing the Andrew Jackson: training horses to the maximum, which helps them win races, but is also bad for their health and leads to accidents on the tracks.

No one in the industry wants to see injured horses. But clearly that is the consequence of the system that has evolved.

Free market theorists would probably suggest that the situation will resolve itself. Attracted by larger purses, more those who race horses will breed and train more. Then they won't need to race the older horses that are most prone to injury.

I believe the risk to horses should be minimized, while still allowing racing. The industry should not wait for a free market fix that may exist only in theory.

Whenever a horse has an accident the owner should get a hefty fine. The money should fund an independent organization that monitors the training of race horses and disqualifies owners that do not comply with humane standards. Greedy, cruel owners would then pay most of the bills for the monitoring system.

If the industry cannot regulate itself to insure a reasonable degree of safety and dignity for its horses, then local, state, and yes the dreaded federal government should establish regulations to protect the horses. Or we could just close the industry down.

Disclaimer: In the past I have done some paid consulting work for investors in the racing industry, mainly related to legal Internet betting on races. At this time none of my clients, to my knowledge, is invested in the industry.