Almost as soon as the latest Hillary-hating screed wafted
          through the media, the horizon grew dark with birds of a
                             feather flocking to the scene. Their feast
                             on tabloid journalist Jerry Oppenheimer’s
                             book has made an unappetizing spectacle,
                             as various characters sensed an
                             opportunity to preen before the cameras,
          to squawk and chatter into the microphones, to pluck their
          morsel of publicity and to promote their motley interests.

          For the Jewish ultra-right, the nasty imputation of
          anti-Semitism in the White House provided a perfect backdrop
          for agitation against the Mideast peace process. That was why
          a little band of protesters appeared outside Hillary Clinton’s
          campaign headquarters in Manhattan on July 17. Led by an
          outfit called the Jewish Action Alliance, they are infuriated by
          Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s efforts to achieve a just
          settlement with the Palestinians. To them, the Clintons’
          commitment to peace somehow proves a hidden animus against Jews. And never
          mind that the couple’s Jewish advisers, appointees, supporters and lifelong friends
          could fill every seat at a Sabbath service in Madison Square Garden.

          Under normal circumstances, the fringe right-wing protesters—a fanatical physician,
          an obscure professor or two from the City University system and a discredited
          Brooklyn Assemblyman—would be unable to attract a single video crew. Exploiting
          the "Jew bastard" controversy had brought no less than a dozen cameras to record
          their performance on Seventh Avenue.

          The doctor denounced "a pattern over years and years of anti-Jewish, anti-Israel
          bias" in Hillary Clinton’s life. One professor said the slur had exposed her
          "character, leanings and prejudices," and another denounced her as "completely
          against everything that is good for Jews and the land of Israel." But it was militant
          organizer Beth Gilinsky who revealed how little they really cared about the epithet
          that made them newsworthy.

          "So what if it’s not true?" declared Ms. Gilinsky. "So what?" What truly matters,
          according to her and her comrades, is that the Clintons have dared to publicly
          endorse the premise of land for peace, just like the overwhelming majority of
          Israelis and American Jews.

          However deluded, those Jewish revanchists at least believe they are obeying the
          commands of God. No such excuse can be mustered in defense of Senate majority
          leader Trent Lott, whose partisan spin on Fox News Sunday was below par even for
          him. Implying that the 26-year-old alleged slur happened recently, Mr. Lott said that
          Republican candidate Rick Lazio "is even getting substantial support of the Jewish
          vote, and I think that’s one of the reasons why Hillary’s uttering these anti-Semitic
          comments, if in fact she is." (Anti-Semitic utterances are no doubt terribly offensive
          to the Mississippi Senator himself, especially since he has stopped giving speeches
          before the racist, anti-Semitic Council of Conservative Citizens.)

          Swooping in behind Mr. Lott was his old pal and former Clinton consultant Dick
          Morris. Of Jewish descent himself, Mr. Morris has suddenly remembered another
          alleged Hillary remark—during a dispute over his fees—to the effect that "all you
          people care about is money." While insulting to Jews, this might simply be a
          plausible description of most political consultants.

          From his perch at the New York Post and on Fox News, Mr. Morris has been
          campaigning against Mrs. Clinton for months. More than once he confidently
          predicted that she wouldn’t run. He says he is repelled by her carpetbagging arrival
          in his home state, and now it also occurs to him that she probably isn’t comfortable
          around Jews.

          That canard doesn’t appear anywhere in his 1997 memoir Behind the Oval Office,
          which has only nice things to say about the woman who several times brought him
          back into the Clinton fold, making his fortune and reputation. In a book that
          unsparingly skewers every Morris adversary, Hillary Clinton comes across as a
          heroine. He describes her as warm, decent, sincere and sensitive, a tireless crusader
          for children and an excellent wife and mother.

          At one point, he explains that he returned to the First Lady’s good graces partly
          thanks to Susan Thomases, with whom he shared a bond by virtue of his father’s
          second marriage to a family friend of hers. "We’re certainly mishpocheh," Ms.
          Thomases told him, using the Yiddish term for family. "And Susan, of course, is
          Hillary Clinton’s closest friend and adviser," he notes. She’s Jewish, too.

          He also recounts the First Lady’s numerous kindnesses to his aging (and of course
          Jewish) parents, portraying her as gracious, "loving and caring, quite the opposite of
          her sometimes strident public image." His parents’ meeting with her at the White
          House was, he writes, "probably the happiest moment in the last year of my
          mother’s life." And when his mother lay dying a few months later, he continues,
          Mrs. Clinton "was a major support in my grief and I can never forget that."

          Not for a couple of years, anyway.