Right from the start, Bill Clinton considered Hillary to be an integral part of his presidency and put her to work drafting a national health-care plan that took into account almost everything: geriatric care, children's vaccinations, pre-existing conditions, urban care, rural care, mental health, demographic distributions of doctors, the works. A lot of people liked it, but since "national health" gives conservatives a bad case of knee-jerk hissy-fits and many doctors and pharmaceutical companies see it as a threat to their profits, people such as Bill Kristol (author of the Project for the New American Century's "Statement of Principles"), the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and the pharmaceutical companies marshaled their forces and managed to kill it with law suits and lobbying before it got off the ground. Since it was obvious that Hillary was a factor to reckon with in the Clinton administration, and since Bill considered her more than just "the First Lady," the "loyal opposition" felt it incumbent upon them to fling mud at her as well as at Bill.

She had committed the unpardonable sin of being intelligent, efficient, outspoken, and female. In short, she was an "uppity woman." Can't have that sort of thing going on, now can we?   

Don Firth