CLINTONS : REPUBLICANS :: CHARLIE BROWN : LUCY HOLDING THE FOOTBALL

While I'd rather have Hillary Clinton as the next president than a Republican, I know her time in office (if she somehow managed to get elected) would be marked by the same desperate attempts to please and appease Republicans as her husband's, and the same naive belief that Republicans can be placated, or even won over.

Hillary's engaging in this exercise in futility already -- as you probably know, she let Rupert Murdoch hold a fund-raiser for her Senate campaign last week. And what did Rupe do after that? First he announced that he opposed her presidential bid. Then his New York Post warned the populace that she's assembling an army of overpriced frou-frou image-makers. And today she's on the front page of the Post with this story:

Peter Cook, who humiliated his supermodel wife, Christie Brinkley, by bedding a doe-eyed teen in the Hamptons, has given thousands in campaign cash to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The senator, who champions women's causes and children's issues, is the biggest recipient of Cook's generosity to politicians - raking in $13,000 from him since 2000 for her campaign war chests, according to records.

Asked by The Post whether she will return the contributions, Clinton said, "I'll have to look into it."

Clinton refused to answer further questions about Cook, waving her hand and turning away with no reply.

Campaign aide Ann Lewis later said, "Senator Clinton has met Peter Cook. We do not intend to return his contributions." ...

Oh, that's rich -- the Post is demanding that Hillary return contributions because the contributor is an adulterer. Hey, I have an idea: Given the fact that Newt Gingrich is a serial adulterer, why doesn't the Republican Party return the last twelve years to us so we can rerun them with a Democratic Congress?

And yes, I see that Hillary's benefactor is a bit older than his bedmate. This is a curious thing for the Post to point out, given the fact that Mr. Murdoch married his third wife when she was 30 and he was 68.

But Hillary really doesn't get it. Murdoch didn't raise money for her because he respects her or approves of her in any way. He raised money for her because he wants to help guide her to a definite decision to run for president -- so his media outlets can bash her relentlessly. Turning Hillary into a pinata could very well keep the White House (if not the entire federal government) in GOP hands; even if it doesn't, it will certainly attract many, many yahoos to Murdoch media holdings. Murdoch's raising money for her for the same reason casino bus companies hand out free rolls of quarters -- it's a small expenditure with the expectation of getting that back and a lot more. And Hillary's about as naive as the suckers pumping away at the slots.