The Clinton Pardons and Hillary's Brothers

[grassfed]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE3DE1339F930A15751C0A9679C8B63

THE CLINTON PARDONS: THE BROTHERS; Siblings Who Often Emerge In an Unflattering Spotlight

By TODD S. PURDUM

To Hillary Clinton's White House staff, they were known wryly as ''the Brothers Rodham'': Hughie and Tony, the first lady's bearish younger siblings, the president's occasional golfing partners, frequent visitors for family celebrations and holidays. But all too often, the news they made was grim. ''You never wanted to hear their name come up in any context other than playing golf,'' a former senior White House official said.

The unflattering headlines included Hugh's failed campaign for the United States Senate from Florida in 1994, his awkward efforts to get involved in a class action lawsuit against tobacco companies, his and Tony's effort to distribute hazelnuts in the Republic of Georgia, which collapsed in a diplomatic bungle two years ago and Tony's failed marriage to Nicole Boxer, the daughter of Senator Barbara Boxer of California.

For half a dozen former Clinton aides interviewed yesterday, word that Hugh Rodham had taken some $400,000 in fees to lobby for a presidential pardon and commutation, may have been the latest straw, but it was not particularly surprising. Nor was the news that Mr. Clinton's own younger half-brother, Roger, had lobbied for pardons, in addition to the one Mr. Clinton granted him for his own 1980's drug-trafficking conviction.

continued