Nice to know Clinton bombed the aspirin factory because of weakness, not malice. Nice to know he abuses women because of his unhappy childhood. Nice to know he lies reflexively because he can't help it. And it's nice to know the First Enabler is still allowing it. Apparently she met Juanita Broddrick right after the rape, and thanked her for "everything you do for Bill." How much did she know?
In relation to the interview, Richard Cohen says: " Such a woman cannot, should she ever reach the Senate, be trusted with government secrets. She'll believe anything."

I figure the interview was her way to get back in the headlines after JFKJr. knocked her out of them so thoroughly. (And, just think, "we could have had John-John" according to Jonathan Alter, so Hillary is going to be regarded as second-best from now on.)

I've been holding onto a lot of Hillary commentary. Let's go back to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

                  Clinton should go to New York

                      According to a recent issue of New Yorker, the current occupant of the
                  Oval Office is, hold on to your briefs, considering a run for the U.S. Senate.
                      This would be completely unbelievable were it not for the fact that Bill
                  Clinton is again the prime suspect in another sordid attempt to embarrass
                  Arkansas.
                      Would the voters of this state bend over and let this obnoxious libertine
                  kick them in the posterior one more time? One would hope not.
                      However, when one witnesses the sycophancy shown to Clinton and his
                  accomplices by slower witted citizens of this otherwise great state, it is little
                  wonder that Clinton believes he can fool more of the people one more time.
                      Clinton's record as [a] public embarrassment is open for all to see. The
                  shallowness, the mendacity, the underhanded calculations are all there for
                  those who have the stomach to examine the "Clinton legacy."
                      History has a wonderful way of weeding out the phonies.
                      Clinton will be remembered as the dysfunctional administrator, leaving
                  stains on and in the Oval Office, the spineless commander-in-chief who
                  disgraced not only his family and his state and has made a laughingstock of
                  the political process to degrees unimagined. Clinton's legacy will be
                  remembered as that of the weakling who pretended strength, the coward
                  who pretended courage, the immoral who pretended veracity and the
                  standard-bearer for those who would equate licentiousness with liberty,
                  irresponsibility with freedom.
                      We don't need the likes of Clinton representing our interests in the U.S.
                  Senate. He needs to move to New York with Hillary. If she and the good
                  citizens of that state will have him.
                      BRIAN M. BRIAN
                      Camden (July 15)

Brummett on August 3 (hey, I read it on the 2nd!): "All I know is that everyone ought to have the kind of insightful and understanding spouse that Your Boy Bill has. What a treasure, a wife who turns a grand into a hundred grand trading commodities, then writes off her husband's infidelity to what mommy and grandmommy did in 1950."

Oakley, July 11:

Bill hasn't decided yet whether he'll choose his good friend Al in the race for president or his good wife Hillary in the race for U.S. Senate from New York. The Arktravs[Arkansas Travellers, Clinton supporters] face no such dilemma.
"If they want us," says Sheila Bronfman, chief Arktrav organizer, adopting the third-person form of the royal "we," an entirely appropriate reference to anything Clinton--''we'll be ready to go."
Apparently, no overtures from Hillary have been forthcoming yet, but let's hope that doesn't interfere with the packing. I can think of no better way to spread the word that Arkansas is well rid of the Clintons than for their many friends to journey to New York to try to explain why we're delighted she's running for office there instead of here.
. . .
"I care deeply about the issues that are important in this state that I have already been learning about and hearing about," she declared, "[and] I am very much concerned that we work together to try to find answers to the challenges of providing quality education . . . providing good, affordable health care . . . making sure that the economy is built in a way that creates good jobs in every region of the state of New York . . . and continuing the fight . . . to ensure that New York gets its fair share from Washington."
As I've said before, you go, girl, and take us with you. Who better to testify about how you tackled those challenges while first lady of Arkansas and how wildly successful you were?
Who better to bear witness to the special attention you've given our state's needs, and encouraged your husband to give to our state's needs, since becoming first lady of America?
Who better to affirm, with appropriate charts and graphs, all the advances you've brought to Arkansas in the areas of education, health care, the economy and good jobs in even the poorest regions of our state, not to mention all that marvelous D.C. pork for which presidents and their spouses so conscientiously lobby on behalf of the home folks?
Who better, indeed?

July 12: "When it comes to First Couple, distance may not lend enchantment, but it does lend distance. Which is no small comfort."

Letters:

                  Two too high and mighty

                  "Right on!" to Meredith Oakley for her recent column, "You can have
                  Hillary, New York." She has echoed the exact sentiments of my husband
                  and me.
                      King Bill and Queen Hill have gotten too high and mighty for the likes of
                  Arkansas, except when it comes to raising campaign money.
                      King Bill and Prince Albert are scheduled for a campaign fund-raiser for
                  the prince in the near future. I wish those FOBs who plan to attend would
                  enlighten us as to what Arkansas has gained by their presence in the White
                  House.
                      On a recent trip to Nebraska and Iowa, we saw only raised eyebrows
                  and a snicker when we said we were from Arkansas. We didn't hesitate to
                  inform them that Bill and Hillary do not represent the kind of good, honest
                  and friendly people of Arkansas.
                      CATHERINE CLAUSSEN
                      Mount Ida 7/19
                  

                  New Yorkers will survive

                  I just checked my 1996 road atlas and read that the state of New York has
                  a total population of 18,044,505 people.
                      I am astounded to think that Hillary Clinton has the unmitigated narcissism
                  to believe that at least one of those people wouldn't make a better senator
                  than she.
                      What is it that Clinton has ever done that qualifies her for any public
                  office? The only thing I know of is going through life with the most snobbish
                  personality I've witnessed.
                      Neither she nor Billy Jeff are royalty, regardless of how much they want
                  to believe they are.
                      The two of them should ease on out to Hollywood and play with Mr. and
                  Mrs. Spielberg, Ms. Streisand, Harry and Linda Thomason and the rest of
                  the gang. The republic of New York will survive.
                      JERRY CASE
                      Bald Knob 7/30
                           

And others, quoted in Oakley on 7/21: 'From Franklin, NY: "For the past week, I have been reading about Hillary Clinton's visit to the Oneonta area . . . As a Democrat and a voter, I would like an opportunity to see her and maybe even tell her something for her 'listening tour.' I looked in the phone book for a listing for the local Democratic Committee and found no listing. I called Mayor Kim Muller's office to find out information about the visit. I was told that the visit was not public; when I asked who the visit was for if not the public, I was told that it was for invited guests. I have been a voter in New York state for over 30 years and one thing I know for sure is [that] invited guests do not elect senators, the public does."
' From Oneonta: "Hillary Rodham Clinton, in an effort to hear opinions of New Yorkers, inadvertently denounced the common people by having 'invitation only' gatherings in Oneonta and Cooperstown. I realize safety is a priority, but more of an effort should have been made to meet with people other than hand-pick the select few that probably agree with Hillary's politics in the first place.
"Is Hillary afraid to face contrasting opinions or is she merely a snob? In any event, her first step on her 'listening tour' is a joke. She should go back to Arkansas and stay out of New York."'

Editorial, 7/23 (italics mine to point out why the interview):

Even disregarding the more obvious negatives--her lack of experience in public office and her carpetbagger status in New York--it is difficult to find something in the first lady's public record which recommends her for election to the world's most prestigious deliberative body.
Her one important venture into public policy, "Hillarycare," was a debacle for which her party is still paying the bill in the coin of minority status in the very Senate she now seeks to join.
The other elements on her curriculum vitae are no more encouraging, consisting largely of either personal association with scandal--Whitewater, Castle Grande, Travelgate, etc.--or supervision of White House damage-control efforts stemming from scandal (Interngate). Compared to that, all Rudy Giuliani did was clean up New York City.
But it was, of course, Hillary's "stand by her man" stance during the impeachment drama that has now provided her with the charisma and poll ratings to contemplate public office on her own. That bravura performance also came, however, with a certain ideological price tag, as it unavoidably tarnished the very feminist credentials that send the minions of NOW into delirium.
---
Going further, there is also the sneaky suspicion that Hillary's reputation as a feminist icon and "strong woman" has always been something of a fraud, difficult as it is to reconcile with the reality of power and influence purchased exclusively through marriage.
---
Put more simply, beneath the well-scrubbed exterior of pink dresses and pearls lurks a fanatical desire to extend the "Nanny State" into every nook and cranny of American life, and with you-know-who as the Chief Nanny.

And another, about Giuilani's visit:

We're scenery. We're props. But that's true of any live political audience anymore. The state of New York, in fact, is scenery for Hillary's exercise in self-fulfillment, overdue entitlement and breaking free of Her Former Boy Bill.
If Rudy doesn't quip that he likes our environs so much he might want to look for an apartment and form an exploratory committee to run for the Senate here, I'll be surprised.

"I believe by virtue of my experience, by virtue of my commitment to the things you need most - education, health care, strong families, highly skilled workers - I believe that I can do more for you than anyone. Fortunately, I'm free to offer you the rest of my life. My daughter, God bless her, is fully grown. The president is almost fully grown." - Hillary Clinton, on the campaign trail as candidate for the New York Senate.

Other sources: No to Hillary, Wendy Wasserman, and Christopher Hitchens, who says to let Hillary run and face the ethical questions she's avoided. Of course, the press, as evinced by Tina Brown, will softball her. What do the people in the trenches think? Well, there's the radio announcer in Florida, who luckily was leaving anyway, who called her a "Battle axe" when he thought his mike was off. (Or did he do it on purpose?)
Another Hillary Site.
Arianna on "listening."

And, finally, from the Oneonta Daily Star, July 16:

"Thank you for the opportunity to address my hometown. I was born and raised in the Oneonta area. Upon graduation from high school, I moved to the south (Texas). Upon retirement, I hope to move to a town such as Oneonta. I cannot believe a career politician (Ms. Clinton) would try to deceive New Yorkers in believing she has their best interest at heart. We are talking about people that make politics a job. How can this be a benefit to anyone but the Clintons?

"The eye is on the Senate, not New York, believe me. Don't let the Music Man try to sell you a bill of goods. Ask Arkansas if the Clintons cared for them? It was just a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

"Tell Ms. Clinton to go home (Arkansas) where she belongs."
Donna Tryon
Magnolia

Of course, see above, they don't want her. I'd worry that California, the Land of the Democrats, would, except that already there are mutterings about the monolithic State Government.