Hillary's Jiu-Jitsu

We've noted before that if the tiny, under-funded right wing groups promising to bring down Hillary didn't exist, she might have to invent them.

And now she has!

Here's from a fundraising email today:

"While we are fighting back in Washington, Republicans are raising tens of millions of dollars to defeat me in 2006. 'Whatever it takes,' says the New York state Republican chairman. 'STOP HER NOW' urges a new 'independent' 527 committee."

Tens of millions?

Last we heard, they were struggling to keep the lights on up at State Republican Party headquarters. And as we've reported, the half-dozen shadowy anti-Hillary groups created over the last five years have raised a sum which you can round down to zero.

Now, Arthur Finkelstein's certainly doing his best at raising the millions, with no signs of success so far. And we suspect that once the GOP settles on a candidate, he or she will raise a lot from the very real anti-Hillary market.

But nobody has yet. So Hillary's continued reliance on this kind of pre-emptive victimology is a classic instance of Nelson Warfield's recent observation:

"Both Clintons have benefited from the fact that they drive Republican political consultants insane and we start to do things that, to the undecided voters, seem to be nutty," the Republican consultant told us earlier this year. "It makes her a victim; it makes us seem like we're off-balance."