Your Fault. No, Yours. No, Yours.
            by Maureen Dowd

          Whore City — You know what happened to New York's hottest couple.

          How he tore up the joint in the wee hours and then left the scene. How she was
          terrified that the scandal would hurt her new stardom. How she distanced herself from him.
          How he is mired in a criminal investigation of bribes and secret deals that could vaporize his career.

          Puff Billy and H.Rod. A gangsta love story.

          The Clintons are in a bizarre conjugal competition this week to see who
          can elicit more pity. They have had their problems, but they share one
          strong bond: a sense of entitled victimization. Or victimized entitlement.
          They grab when they want to, and whinge when they need to.

          One top Democrat and former Clinton official told me the "silver lining" of
          the Clinton exit debacle is: "Hillary is through for 2004."

          All the Democrats who were disgusted at the thought of the Clintons and
          their hand-picked choice to head the party, Terry McAuliffe, dominating
          again in this decade are hugely relieved about that. As both D.N.C.
          chairman and a board member of the Clinton library, Mr. McAuliffe is in
          a tricky position, linking party and library, where Congressional
          investigators are rooting around for hanky- panky in the donation lists.

          Would Mrs. Clinton have been able to run for president that soon anyhow?
          I asked the Democrat.

          Yes, he replied, she would feel confident about competing with the current field of possible
          contenders — Richard Gephardt, John Edwards, Joseph Biden and Evan Bayh.

          They may be counting out Hillary prematurely for 2004. Sure, her polls are cratering.
          But whenever our girl casts herself as an unwitting victim, fasten your seat belts.

          After a long period of stiffing the press, Senator Clinton gave audiences to Time and New York's
          Daily News. She wanted to be seen hard at work this week, struggling to learn her new job under
          extraordinarily difficult circumstances, pelted with questions about her inexplicable hair
          and Bill's inexplicable pardon.

          Her subtext was clear: She was coping as well as she could, given that her wayward husband had
          once again sabotaged her, unleashing the venom of the right, messing up her chance to start fresh.

          "I had nothing to do with" any of the pardons, she told Time. And she
          referred questions about the pardons to "the President and his staff."

          Time quoted a top aide to another senator saying that while Democrats are running
          away from her husband, "There's a certain degree of empathy for Hillary."

          A Hillary pal told Gloria Borger of U.S. News & World Report:
          "I'm sure she's screaming at him. She gets mad at him for being so stupid."

          Poor Hillary. It was all Bill's fault.

          The senator had no further comment about her own involvement in the commutations of the
          sentences of four Hasidic men from New York convicted of embezzling. Or her contributions
          from Denise Rich. Or her flouting of the spirit of the Senate ethics rules with her book deal.
          Or her flouting of the Senate gift ban's spirit.

          Uh, excuse me, Ms. Dowd, did you forget to mention "Hillary's bridal registry?"

           On "Meet the Press," Tim Russert asked the former Clinton chief of staff  John Podesta,
           "In the final weeks, did friends of Mrs. Clinton not solicit others and say, 'Would you please
           buy this silverware, these gifts for Mrs. Clinton for her new houses?' "

          "Yes, that happened," Mr. Podesta finally admitted.

          Some Democrats still believe that Mrs. Clinton gets in trouble over greed
          and Mr. Clinton, despite the cascading inquiries into a possible financial
          quid pro quo with the Riches, gets in trouble over women.

          Bill Clinton has always been surrounded by two kinds of women: the
          flashy ones, who love the guy, and the serious ones, who love what the
          guy stands for. The serious policy types have always had to step in to try
          to save him from the flashy climbers.

          The glittering, wealthy fund-raisers Denise Rich and Beth Dozoretz
          thought that Bill Clinton could do no wrong. And Bill Clinton loves
          people who think he can do no wrong.

          It is clear in the e-mail obtained by Dan Burton's committee that Mr.
          Clinton wanted to please his two glitzy friends, who were monitoring
          pardon developments from Ms. Rich's ritzy home in Aspen, by getting
          around the White House naysayers and granting Mr. Rich a pardon.

          The boy can't help it. He just can't help it.