Bob Herbert: The Clintons as 'The Connivers'

Bob Herbert's Mud, Dust, Whatever (NYTimes 2-26-07) is a must read. (You can also read the whole column at the weblog Welcome to Pottersville.) Here are select excerpts:

If Bill and Hillary Clinton were the stars of a reality TV show, it would be a weekly series called “The Connivers.”

Their latest project is to contrive ways to knock Barack Obama off his white horse and muddy him up a little. A lot, actually.

What I found interesting was that no one questioned whether the Clintons would be willing to get down in the muck and start flinging it around. That was a given.

It’s ironic that the first woman with a real shot at the presidency comes off not as a compelling underdog but as the powerful front-runner at the controls of a ruthless political machine.

But here’s a bit of unsolicited advice for a candidate making his first foray into the crucible of presidential politics:

Don’t listen to those who tell you not to fight back against the Clintons. Raising politics to a higher level does not mean leaving oneself defenseless.