Sen. Hillary Clinton tested her new campaign theme—that there really is a “vast rightwing conspiracy” at the —“100 Club” dinner in Nashua, NH last week.
"You know, the Republicans did make a little bit out about the fact that I said there was a vast rightwing conspiracy," she said. "Well now we have three lawyers who have actually proven it in court. And I find that extremely reassuring and helpful.”
You will recall Clinton gained punch line immortality when she appeared on the Today show in 1998 and claimed the Monica Lewinsky scandal was merely another example of a “vast rightwing conspiracy” attempting to bring down her husband’s administration.
The conspiracy of which she spoke in Nashua was very real, of course. Clinton was applauding the efforts of three Democratic lawyers who pursued the notorious New Hampshire “phone jamming” scandal of 2002. On Election Day that year Republican conspirators jammed Democratic phone lines intended for Get Out The Vote activity by having a telemarketer “jam” the lines with repeated hang-up calls. Again, this conspiracy was very real: Two Republican operatives have served prison time for it and a third has been convicted.
But the phone jamming conspiracy had nothing whatever to do with Sen. Clinton or her husband’s affair and subsequent legal problems. Clinton was out of office by 2002 and none of the players are the same (which, I understand, is a fundamental element of a conspiracy). Moreover, this seems like a strange message to deliver to a public that—I can only imagine—is in no way desirous of reliving the Clinton-era unpleasantness, regardless of how tired they are of the current president.
Nevertheless, by Tuesday, —Clinton had repeated her “vast rightwing conspiracy” line in Washington.! Drudge put it up. By Tuesday evening, Drudge had also linked to —the video of Clinton talking about the conspiracy.!(Disclosure: I shot the video). Now, irrespective of whether this was Sen. Clinton’s intent, the “vast rightwing conspiracy” of 1998 and all it sought to reveal is on the table and worth chewing over again, if you have the stomach for it.
This is a fortuitous turn of events for R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., founder and editor of The American Spectator and one of the granddaddies of all vast rightwing conspirators. Tyrrell has just authored a book titled, —The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President’s Life after the White House.! The book is mostly about Clinton’s emotional despair in his post-White House life. Existence might be a better word than life, though. For Tyrrell paints the picture of an exceedingly mopey former president lumbering through his political afterlife, unable to cope with his newfound irrelevance.
In his characteristically comic tone, Tyrrell recounts all those Clinton dust-ups, of which Tyrrell himself was a regular combatant: Troopergate, Pardongate, Whitewater, Chinese fundraising, allegations of spousal abuse (she on him), Monica Lewinsky (of course), and so many more.
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