Her Vast Right-Wing Media Conspirators

It's taken 15 years, but Sen. Hillary Clinton and the hive she once stung as the "vast right-wing conspiracy" have something in common—the so-called "Van Gerthstein" books.

"Dishonest, deceitful, and dare I say practicing grand larceny with somebody else's story!" barks conservative R. Emmett Tyrrell as he raps new books on the former first lady and the Clinton scandals by Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame and the New York Times duo of Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta.

Tyrrell should know. His American Spectator broke many of the Clinton tales, and he includes new ones in his competing book, The Clinton Crack-Up , Wesley Pruden, editor of the Washington Times, agrees. His paper popped some of those stories out years back, too. Agreeing with the senator's allies that the books are a "rehash for cash" is an odd place for Pruden and Tyrrell.

"Yep, I too felt a twinge of irony when I read the comments from Hillary's people," says Pruden. "But the devil can cite Scripture, and accurately when he wants to." Clinton's spokesman, Philippe Reines, who earlier called the books yawners, also sees the irony.

"Now it's official," he says. "The two books by Van Gerthstein will put anyone to sleep, making for some strange bedfellows."