When I heard Hillary Clinton utter those words last night in response to a question asking if she would release the transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs, I was transported back in time.
Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (Daley the elder) was the master of the political non-answer. One of his favorite responses to questions he didn’t want to answer (usually about some form of corruption involving someone on his staff or one of his family members) was, “I’ll answer that question at the proper time.”
The enquiring reporter would inevitably follow up, “When will it be ‘the proper time?’”
“When I answer the question,” Daley would respond.
That simple tautology usually brought a wry chuckle from assembled reporters, but Daley wasn’t kidding. He wasn’t going to answer, not today, not ever.
Clinton’s “I’ll look into it” had a similar ring. Had she completed her thought, it would have been, “And I’ll keep ‘looking into it’ until this primary season is over.”
If one thinks we will ever see transcripts of Hillary Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speeches, one is simply naive. It is not happening, not today, not ever.
John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, echoed Clinton’s elusive response in an interview with Chris Matthews after the debate:
MATTHEWS: Will you do it (ed. release the transcripts)?
PODESTA: She said she’ll look into it.
MATTHEWS: I don’t know what that means.
PODESTA: I don’t need to add to that.
MATTHEWS: You have nothing to add to it. Does ‘looking into it’ mean that if she finds transcripts, she’ll release them?
PODESTA: I — I, you know, she said she’d look into it. So, you know, I could say, ‘Tad, will Bernie release all his emails,’ you know, we could go back and forth on this. I think that, you know, it’s, it’s—
MATTHEWS: He doesn’t want the emails. He wants the transcripts.
PODESTA: I want his emails. (laughing)
MATTHEWS: The drum is beating, and he (Tad Devine) just started beating it again. I get it, I get it. People love a mystery.
Podesta (and Clinton) should have said, “I’ll answer that question at the proper time.”
Because Matthews is right: people love a mystery and this one is not going away.