the Associated Press reports:

    Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told Democrats Tuesday the 'vast, right-wing conspiracy' is back, using a phrase she once coined to describe partisan criticism.

    On Tuesday, she asserted the conspiracy is alive and well, and cited as proof the Election Day 2002 case of phone jamming in New Hampshire, a case in which two Republican operatives pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and a third was convicted.


A conspiracy of three is not exactly vast.

But it's worth remembering the context in which Mrs. Clinton first introduced the notion of the "vast right-wing conspiracy, as stated on the Today show, back in 1998:

    We [the Clintons] know everything there is to know about each other, and we understand and accept and love each other. And I just think that a lot of this is deliberately designed to sensationalize charges against my husband, because everything else they've tried has failed. And I also believe that it's part of an effort, very frankly, to undo the results of two elections. . . .

    But I do believe that this is a battle. I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this. They have popped up in other settings.

    This is--the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it--is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president. A few journalists have kind of caught on to it and explained it. But it has not yet been fully revealed to the American public. And actually, you know, in a bizarre sort of way, this may do it.

    Now, I have to say, I don't know what it is about my husband that generates such hostility, but I have seen it for 25 years.

    Well, I think that--if all that were proven true, I think that would be a very serious offense. That is not going to be proven true.


Of course, "all that" was proven true.

It's bad enough that Mrs. Clinton never apologized for her paranoid accusations back in '98, but for her to reprise the theme, especially when her quislings are attacking Rudy for his marital woes, shows an unmitigated gall.