... Till the last dog dies: Bill and Hillary as the Vicks of the campaign

The Republicans always saw Bill Clinton as a slick, fat-thighed sleazeball and his wife as an ambitious, lyin', uh, witch.  Kind of looks like there's growing agreement with that view.  Let's take just a few excerpts from Maureen Dowd's column today and see how the Clintons stack up.

If Bill Clinton has to trash his legacy to protect his legacy, so be it. If he has to put a dagger through the heart of hope to give Hillary hope, so be it.

That's probably correct.

If he has to preside in this state as the former first black president stopping the would-be first black president,  so be it.

Sure seems that way.

The Clintons — or “the 2-headed monster,” as the The New York Post dubbed the tag team that clawed out wins in New Hampshire and Nevada — always go where they need to go, no matter the collateral damage. Even if the damage is to themselves and their party.

Damage to themselves?  Well, probably not.

Bill’s transition from elder statesman, leader of his party and bipartisan ambassador to ward heeler and hatchet man has been seamless — and seamy.

Best of the lot so far, Mo.

The Big Dog relished playing the candidate again, wearing a Technicolor orange tie and sweeping across the state with the mute Chelsea.  He tried to convey the impression that they were running against The Man, and with classic Clintonian self-pity, grumbled that Barack Obama had all the advantages.

Yes, that is a familiar Clinton theme.  But should we worry about Chelsea's muteness?  Does this mean the hedge fund manager may turn whistleblower?

“No one has a right to be president, including Hillary. Keep in mind, in the last two primaries, we ran as an underdog.” He rewrote the facts, saying that “no one thought she could win” in New Hampshire, even though she originally had had a substantial lead.

Is is, Bill.  Remember "inevitable"?

Listen, former presidents are expected to act with some integrity.  Respected Democrats who once stuck by Bill Clinton are cheesed off.

... Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina suggested that he might want to “chill.” On a conference call with reporters yesterday, the former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a national co-chairman of the Obama campaign, tut-tutted that the “incredible distortions” of the political beast were “not keeping with the image of a former president.”

Jonathan Alter reported in Newsweek that Senator Edward Kennedy and Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman and former Clinton aide, have heatedly told Bill “that he needs to change his tone and stop attacking Senator Barack Obama.”

In a vicious, accurate coup de grâce, Maureen Dowd points to the most damning thing of all, Hillary-the-feminist's dependency.

It’s odd that the first woman with a shot at becoming president is so openly dependent on her husband to drag her over the finish line. She handed over South Carolina to him, knowing that her support here is largely derivative.

And Bill isn't about to stop.

... If he has anything to say about it, and he will, they’ll be fighting till the last dog dies.

The Vicks of the campaign trail.  Lovely.

Comments

[Arlie83]

Wait, is that Maureen Dowd making sense? Well, she's on point sometimes. Even so, still too cutesy by half.

But the racial thing shouldn't be overplayed, especially as there is a social/class component that isn't necessarily about race per se.

See here for more discussion along those lines -- he's the "wine" candidate, she's the "beer" candidate. I think there's something to it.

[Jim W]

Bill is to Hillary as Agnew was to Nixon.

But it's hardly a surprise. She is a woman who whole heartedly supported the Big Lie war until the polls went south (and today lies about that support). In a matter of war, she took counsel of a perverted ambition and betrayed her country.

It appalls me when I hear democratic rank and file refer to their candidates as "winners all". It's as if they take a great pride in turning a blind eye to a glaring truth.

Should Clinton gain the nomination, she won't get my vote. For that matter, should the Telcoms be granted immunity for their lawbreaking, I will never again cast another vote for any democrat candidate. It's a damn shame, in a way. But enough is enough. Like Reagan use to say, it will boil down to my not having left the party, but the party having forsaken me. Unlike Reagan, however, I'll mean it.

[Mo MoDo]

Catching the Michael Vick analogy is pretty astute. She spent the whole column dancing around the pit bull metaphor.