A HILLARY SLANDER SO EMBARRASSING EVEN THE RIGHT"S NOISE MACHINE DOESN'T WANT TO TOUCH IT (WITH EXCEPTIONS)

The National Enquirer, which has a tiny bit of political credibility these days after getting the John Edwards adultery story right, is now telling us that Hillary Clinton's a drunk -- a story that, surprisingly, is mostly being ignored by the wingnut media:

EXCLUSIVE! BOOZY HILLARY CLINTON SECRET REHAB SHOCKER

A "boozed-up" Hillary Clinton suffered a secret collapse during a recent vacation -- and now worried advisers want her to do a secret stint in rehab before her White House run!

Sources close to the former First Lady and ex-Secretary of State revealed the hush-hush "Rehab Before White House" plan to The National ENQUIRER in advance of Hillary's formal announcement to be a 2016 presidential candidate, touted for early next year.

A high-level insider told The ENQUIRER: "Hillary's social drinking has gone out of 
control!

"In a hushed-up incident, Hillary was too tipsy one night and suffered a secret collapse. One insider said she was 'boozed-up!'

"Fortunately, she was okay, but no matter how much alcohol she had, it was a clear signal that she needs professional help."

"Bill, in particular, who wants to see Hillary become president more than anybody, agreed that she must seek help -- and they've devised a 
possible 'cover story' that she'll take a few weeks at a 'spa retreat,'" added another 
insider.

Even Matt Drudge seems to be giving this story a miss, as are Fox Nation and Breitbart. It is, however, on the front page of Lucianne.com. The American Thinker picked it up, but there's skepticism even there:

The first problem is the anonymous sourcing. The second problem is that this is just someone's idea that Hillary should go, not that she will go. This is very thin gruel indeed, even if true.

Power Line's Scott Johnson is similarly skeptical:

I don't discount the story completely. After all, the Enquirer got the goods on John Edwards and performed its solemn journalistic duty with them once it had the goods nailed down. All the while the mainstream media willfully averted their eyes.

In this case, however, I think it highly unlikely that "sources close to the former First Lady and ex-Secretary of State" are confiding in the National Enquirer. Doesn't Edward Klein have a monopoly on “sources close to” the Clintons dishing dirt? I believe he does.

Klein's last book does include an account of a "boozy rant" by Mrs. Clinton, featuring Klein's signature realistic dialogue:

Hillary Clinton called President Obama "incompetent and feckless" and charged that he had "no hand on the tiller half the time" during a boozy reunion with college pals, a new book claims.

The scathing attacks came as the wine was flowing at a May 2013 dinner at Le Jardin Du Roi, a cozy French bistro near the Clinton family home in Westchester, according to "Blood Feud," by best-selling author Edward Klein....

Clinton ranted, "The thing with Obama is that he can't be bothered, and there is no hand on the tiller half the time. That's the story of the Obama presidency. No hand on the f–king tiller," according to the book....

"The IRS targeting the Tea Party, the Justice Department's seizure of AP phone records and [Fox reporter] James Rosen's e-mails -- all these scandals. Obama's allowed his hatred for his enemies to screw him the way Nixon did," she raged, the book says....

The current Enquirer story is written by Leon Wagener, who claimed in a May 2013 Enquirer "exclusive" that Hillary's then-forthcoming book would reveal that President Obama drinks to excess -- a revelation that likely would have been eclipsed by Hillary's acknowledgment of her own lesbianism. (None of that was in Hillary's book, needless to say.)

When I first saw the Lucianne headline, I thought this was a hint of the sort of campaign the right is planning to run against Hillary -- vicious but unsubtle and unsophisticated. However, this just seems like a tabloid being a tabloid. I think the right's real anti-Hillary campaign is going to be a lot defter and more devious than this. Still, this story is now in the mix. We'll see if it spreads.