These are 'œdark days' for conservatives who despise Hillary Clinton, said Dick Polman in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Democratic presidential contender is rapidly remaking her old image as a 'œleftist Lady Macbeth,' winning over centrists and even Republicans with her work in the Senate. Her national approval rating has climbed to 52 percent'”the same as President Bush's. You'd think, then, that conservatives would welcome The Truth About Hillary, journalist Ed Klein's nasty new biography of New York's junior senator. Curiously, though, 'œmany Hillary bashers are denouncing the book.' Filled with rumors, innuendo, and gossip, Klein's book is such an obvious hatchet job that conservatives are worried it might actually further Hillary's ambitions. 'œThis stuff is disgusting,' said conservative operative Craig Shirley. 'œIt could backfire and make Hillary a more sympathetic figure.'
This time, said Sheryl McCarthy in Newsday, 'œthe vast right-wing conspiracy' has really gone too far. Klein suggests in this book that Hillary became pregnant with Chelsea after a drunken Bill Clinton 'œraped' her; that she's either frigid or a lesbian but still had an affair with the late White House counsel Vince Foster; and that a disease caused her lower body to become so dumpy. 'œNo shot is too cheap to take,' even though Klein'”once a respected journalist'”offers only unnamed sources and rumors as his evidence. His proof that Hillary is a lesbian? One of her best friends at Wellesley was a lesbian. I guess that makes me a lesbian, too, said John Podhoretz in the New York Post, since I have lesbian friends. As a conservative, I'm appalled that anyone published this 'œsordid' mess. 'œThirty pages into it, I wanted to take a shower.'
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
5 contentious cartoons about Matt Gaetz's AG nominationCartoons Artists take on ethical uncertainty, offensive justice, and more
-
Funeral in Berlin: Scholz pulls the plug on his coalitionTalking Point In the midst of Germany's economic crisis, the 'traffic-light' coalition comes to a 'ignoble end'
-
Joe Biden's legacy: economically strong, politically disastrousIn Depth The President boosted industry and employment, but 'Bidenomics' proved ineffective to winning the elections
