A fiendish plot?

The vast rightwing conspiracy professing love for the Clintons? Say it ain't so.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — Back when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was first lady, no one better embodied what she once called the “vast right-wing conspiracy” than Richard Mellon Scaife.

Mr. Scaife, reclusive heir to the Mellon banking fortune, spent more than $2 million investigating and publicizing accusations about the supposed involvement of Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton in corrupt land deals, sexual affairs, drug running and murder.

But now, as Mrs. Clinton is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Scaife’s checkbook is staying in his pocket.

Christopher Ruddy, who once worked full-time for Mr. Scaife investigating the Clintons and now runs a conservative online publication he co-owns with Mr. Scaife, said, “Both of us have had a rethinking.”

“Clinton wasn’t such a bad president,” Mr. Ruddy said. “In fact, he was a pretty good president in a lot of ways, and Dick feels that way today.”

Now, there's something hacktastic about this reporting, but it does support my earlier contention that Clinton hatred blew itself out sometime during Bill's second term, with everyone but a core of irrationalists (aka, The Wall Street Journal editorial board) finding him to be not so bad in the end. And, in Hillary's case, the mean spirited attacks on her during the run-up to impeachment and during her first run for the senate actually worked to her advantage, making her sympathetic, especially to women voters in New York.

We'll see, though. There's still a hard core out there and swift boat attacks are just a phone call -- and a check -- away.