WASHINGTON - Wondering what a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in 2016 might look like?
Apparently a lot like the 1990s.
Then, Bill and Hillary Clinton faced a series of investigations - starting with the Whitewater land deal from their days in Arkansas - followed by the Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment.
The past few days have elements of a flashback. The House of Representatives is forming a select committee to investigate the 2012 attack on an American compound in Benghazi, Libya, at a time Hillary Clinton was secretary of State. And Lewinsky herself has re-appeared on the scene with an article in Vanity Fair in which the former White House intern says she is ready to 'stick my head above the parapet' after more than a decade out of public view.
MORE: Monica Lewinsky: Affair with Bill Clinton was 'consensual'
Some Republicans say the Benghazi assaults, already the subject of several congressional and administration inquiries, could undermine Clinton's record at the State Department. That's not to mention the unwelcome reminders of her husband's past indiscretions from Lewinsky, now 40.
Monica Lewinsky leaves the Howard County Courthouse in Ellicott City, Md., after testifying in the Linda Tripp wire tapping trial.(Photo: 1999 photo by Manny Ceneta, AFP/Getty Images)
Both are surely omens of the sort of no-holds-barred battles Hillary Clinton could expect in a 2016 campaign. That prospect might dissuade the faint of heart from running altogether.
But the risk for the GOP is forgetting how those trials from 20 years ago turned out. Allegations, never proven, that the Clintons acted inappropriately in the Whitewater land deal didn't prevent Bill Clinton from being elected and re-elected president.
And despite his impeachment by the House of Representatives - he was acquitted by the Senate - Clinton left office with respectable job-approval ratings that have only improved over time. What's more, sympathy for Hillary Clinton in the wake of the Lewinsky scandal was one factor in the movement to draft her to run for the U.S. Senate from New York. That successful campaign led to her 2008 presidential bid, her appointment to President Obama's Cabinet and her status as the pre-emptive front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination next time around.
Before that, she'll launch a book tour next month to promote her memoirs about her State Department experiences. The title: Hard Choices. Her opponents might want to remember that she's been here before.
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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