Way Early Handicapping

If you think the campaign season is already too long, it just got worse. Here’s how some Republicans are taking on the Democrats’ heir apparent:

Republicans plan to seize on an allegation from the 1992 presidential campaign to tarnish Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on the red-hot issue of government surveillance.

Government surveillance will be at the forefront of the political debate this fall as congressional Democrats and President Bush square off over legislation allowing electronic spying on U.S. soil without a warrant.

Republicans are focusing on an allegation in a recent book by two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters, which suggests Clinton listened to a secretly recorded conversation between political opponents.

Is that the best the Republicans have? Stuff from 1992? Look. If you’re going to come at Hillary from the Scandal Angle, you’re going to have to find something more recent than, say, Monica Lewinski. Anything from about Lewinski on down, Americans have already digested and forgotten about, or at least set aside as mostly irrelevant. Besides, Clinton’s negatives are about as high as they can go — old scandals, even ones recently revealed by writers from The New York Times, aren’t going to do her much harm.