Dum Pendebat Filius

Today’s Daily Howler gives all of us (”us” meaning libs and Dems, that is) something to think about on the subject of Hillary Clinton and her reputation as a “polarizing” politicial figure:

[I]n large part, when writers talk about Clinton’s “polarizing nature” or “baggage,” they’re referring to the lies that were told about her all through the 90’s. Rush Limbaugh implied that she murdered her friend, Vince Foster. So we can’t vote [for] her now.

Why is Clinton so “polarizing?” Not so much because of anything she did; she is “polarizing” because many Americans have (understandably) bought the remarkable packages of lies they have heard about her since 1992. Did you know that Clinton is a “murderer,” for example? In 1999, voters heard that for a half-hour on the egregious show Hardball, then for an hour on Hannity & Colmes. And they read all that sh*t about the Lincoln Bedroom–not realizing that the Clintons were being criticized, in part, for letting their teen-age daughter have slumber parties.

… [M]any “staunch Democrats” are secretly saying this: Rush lied about Clinton, year after year. We’d better defer to his mandates.

Of course, a Dem voter might prefer Obama or Edwards for perfectly valid reasons. But as we said yesterday, a question has now been joined: Do we believe the things that were said about the Clintons all through the 1990s? In their secret, inner souls, many staunch Democrats secretly do. Omigod! They believe the things that Limbaugh said. They’re searching about for someone else. As they do so, they’re riding with Limbaugh.

I’ve been guilty of criticizing Hillary’s “electability” and complaining about her “polarizing” qualities myself, many times, without ever stopping to think about why. What about you?