UNDEAD SCANDAL

So, is this going to be on Fox News every possible prime-time moment for several weeks this fall?

Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign isn't only a boon for conservative fundraisers and critics. Those who have a bone to pick with Bubba or his wife are also planning to use the campaign to air their grievances again. First up: Kathleen Willey, who alleges that President Clinton pawed her in the Oval Office, then bullied her so that she wouldn't tell. Clinton denies her story. Willey adds to her allegations in Target: In the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Why write it now? "I was so misrepresented and maligned and I know it was a while back, but I think this is a real important time with elections coming up to tell this story."

Maybe. Or maybe not -- maybe Rupert will back off, on the assumption that he'll need to stay on the future President Hillary's good side. (Or he'll back off until she starts looking vulnerable in a general-election matchup, and then his media properties will pounce.)

Or will he back off because he assumes even his fan base is no longer interested? Wingnuts never seem to tire of this stuff, and the item quoted above did appear on the Web site of U.S. News, even though the book won't be out until November 10. On the other hand, the best publisher Willey could get was not one of the big guns, but rather a small company called World Ahead.

World Ahead was able to get a fair amount of below-the-radar attention for a book called Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!, so I suspect there'll be some interest from wingnuts on radio and the Internet even if Rupe takes a pass.

On the other hand, bestsellerdom did not result back in '05 when World Ahead published Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine by Candice E. Jackson and promoted it by sending Willey and Juanita Broaddrick on a tour of the Clinton presidential library. The stunt did, however, get some attention:

But they [were] not the first ones to seize on the idea.... Paula Jones, whose sexual-harassment lawsuit plagued Clinton's White House tenure, said .... she'd tour the library donning a T-shirt bearing the logo of the highest bidder.

"Those jerks stole my idea," her publicist, David Hans Schmidt, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Oops.

(Via Taegan Goddard.)