Dick Morris: Don't Attack Hillary Personally

Dick Morris is warning that a book due out on Tuesday with sensational new charges about the marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton may only embolden the former first lady and could stifle legitimate criticism that voters need to hear.

Detailing some of the personal allegations reportedly leveled in Ed Klein's new book, "The Truth About Hillary," Morris writes in The Hill newspaper:

"These accusations do not belong in our public dialogue. They hit below the belt and tend to discredit the more serious and sober concerns so many of us have about the danger she would present in high office."

Morris acknowledges that Klein is hardly a member of the group Hillary usually pegs as her No. 1 bogeyman - the "vast right-wing conspiracy."

Klein, in fact, cut his journalistic teeth working for some of the most prominent bastions of the liberal media - as editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine and as foreign editor for Newsweek.

Therefore, says Morris, Klein "would not have written these charges without some substantiation."

Nevertheless, the one-time senior Clinton adviser predicts that Klein's book may well backfire.

"The fact is that these personal attacks just empower the woman and give her examples of over-the-top criticism that she can use to demean the arguments of all who doubt her," he told The Hill.

Morris compares Klein's book to the Clinton "Body Count" lists that were circulating in the late 1990s

Such rumors, Morris said, allowed Hillary to say that she has been accused of everything, "including murder."

Morris says it's a tactic both Bill and Hillary have used successfully to discredit critics time and time again. "And Ed Klein's book gives her license to continue to use it to discredit all manner of opposition."

Instead, Morris counsels that there are plenty of legitimate areas of inquiry that could do real damage to Mrs. Clinton's political future, like her well-known estrangement from truth-telling and the fact that she remains, despite claims to the contrary, an unreconstructed left-winger.

"Criticize Hillary all you want," says Morris. "She deserves every bit of it. But let's stay within the foul lines, shall we?"

Editor's note:
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