Are the Clinton secret police back on patrol?

It looks like they may be making a late campaign comeback.

In a week-end column, Robert Novak alleged that “agents” of Hillary Clinton are “spreading the word that she has scandalous information” about Barack Obama, but decided not to use it. (How considerate of her!)

Obama has come out swinging, accusing the Clinton campaign of trying to swift-boat him and demanding that Clinton either release the information or admit that there is none.

The Clinton camp is shocked that anyone would ever think that it would use such tactics!

Clinton campaign Communications Director (and KGB enforcer look-alike) Howard Wolfson claimed that the campaign had “no idea” what Novak was talking about. Absolutely!

And, as usual, Wolfson tried to turn the embarrassing issue for Hillary into a problem for Barack, claiming he was naive for believing what was in the Novak column.

“A Republican-leaning journalist runs a blind item designed to set Democrats against one another. Experienced Democrats see this for what it is. Othe rs get distracted and thrown off their games,” Wolfson said.

Does anybody really believe that Hillary hasn’t been gathering dirt on her opponents? Anyone with any experience in politics knows one thing for sure: Hillary Clinton plays the game rough and dirty — and she has a sordid history of using private investigators to find scandals in the background of anyone who gets in her way.

While Hillary righteously lectures the candidates about mudslinging, her boys in the back room are readying the dirt to leak when she’s not doing too well.

Remember in the 1992 campaign when Gennifer Flowers and other women were harassed by private detectives? The Clintons used campaign money to pay over $100,000 to private investigators to scare off the women. (Now they’ve learned to bury their investigative costs in lawyers bills.)

And does anyone think it was a coincide nce that Republican speaker of the House and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee were outed for extra-marital affairs just at the time that the impeachment vote was about to take place?

Or that there were off the record calls to journalists from the White House accusing Monica Lewinsky of being a stalker?

And what are the odds that the recent rumors about John Edwards came from Clinton operatives?

That’s how the Clintons try to obliterate their opponents, with Hillary at the helm. As she runs for commander-in-chief of the United States, she’s already the commander of the Clinton secret police.

The Clintons have no regard for the privacy of those who get in their way. Their clumsiness in bullying Linda Tripp cost the Department of Defense about $600,000 when she won her lawsuit for invasion of privacy after they arranged to illegally leak confidential information from her personnel file.

To paraphrase Hillary, privacy is just a word if you don’t have the experience and strength to know what to do about it.

And Hillary sure does know what to do.

As she told Sidney Blumenthal when the Lewinsky scandal broke: “We’ll just have to win.”

Winning at any cost is the Clinton mindset. So watch for more dirty tactics whenever Hillary and her team feel under attack.

Can we really afford to have a president who acts this way?