Sneed: Hillary Clinton should know by now nothing is private

It’s a hard Hill to climb.

Hillary Clinton’s desire for secrecy is no secret.

Desperate for a place to be private, she chose to use a private email on company time while secretary of state.

Then she deleted 31,830 out of the 62,320 emails she sent or received while at the State Department.

Why?

Why not?

Emailing family and friends is huge, especially while logging nearly a million miles around the world on business.

Excoriated by political peers and pursued by the press for the private emails, Hillary has now been forced to apologize for using technology as her private terra firma.

She told me years ago, when she was the nation’s first lady, that she got on the Internet so she could communicate with her daughter, Chelsea, who was heading off to college.

She has been accused of thumbing her nose at the nation for setting up such an account while on company business.

But why not create a separate world for family business if that is what this is all about?

• Hillary is this/close to her only child, who she helped plan a wedding. Do we really need to know the yin and yang of ordering oysters and place cards?

• She had a close relationship with her mother, Dorothy, who subsequently died. Did we need to know how she responded to her mother’s advice or how agonizing the funeral plans were?

• The former first lady was humiliated in the past by an unfaithful husband who appeared to have a sexual addiction. Presumably, their frequent worldwide travel has necessitated emails to rebuild what appears to be a successful marriage of two powerful personalities. Does the nation need to go there again?

This latest flap reminded me of a trip to the White House on Jan. 9, 1995, when Sneed and a gaggle of female newspaper reporters nationwide were summoned to a luncheon by first lady Hillary Clinton.

It was supposed to be off the record; a last-minute agreement before this unusual, first-of-a-kind luncheon.

A reporter for the New York Times — armed with a tape recorder — opted out of the agreement.

• Backshot: Legendary advice columnist Eppie “Ann Landers” Lederer was at the luncheon and wound up giving Hillary advice, later joined in by several other reporters.

• Translation: The story that hit the press made it look like Hillary planned to seek advice all along. Not true.

My mother once told me to put nothing in writing I didn’t want read. How about that advice for a person who became a journalist?

The lesson? Nothing is secret. Ever. Especially if the word mail begins with an “e.”

P.S. Betcha White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett is a don’t invite ’em item in those deleted emails.

The missing Meeks . . .

Sneedless to say, the Rev. James Meeks, the new head of the Illinois State Board of Education, is between a rock and a hard place.

• The rock: Both Mayor Rahm Emanuel and opponent Jesus “Chuy” Garcia are seeking his endorsement.

The hard place: His boss — GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner — is pushing for him to endorse his buddy, Rahm.

• The really hard place: A large segment of Meeks’ African-American congregation is furious he supported Rauner, who has cut funding for social services desperately needed in their community.

What’s a guy to do? Sit down?

How about pray for guidance?

No techno, Joe!

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan — possibly the most powerful man in Illinois — does not have a private email, does not own a personal laptop or possess his own cellphone . . . although he has been known to borrow others’.

Royal bits . . .

Lady Gaga and her legendary singing buddy, Tony Bennett, have a new song deal in the works: He’s singing at her wedding to actor Taylor “Chicago Fire” Kinney . . . Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is set to visit the “Downton Abbey” set Thursday, which will probably turn the uber cool Michelle “Lady Mary” Dockery into a blithery schoolgirl. Blimey!

Sneedlings . . .

Thursday’s birthdays: Liza Minnelli, 69; Darryl Strawberry, 53; James Taylor, 67, and John Idler, 49.