We've been here before.

It's all wearyingly familiar.

Faces twisted in rage, insulters shouting down those with a Roberts Rules of Order right to speak, angry threats and snotty comments to reporters...and for those of us on the sidelines, that same sickening feeling as we listen to or watch or read news reports...that feeling of frustration and anger, the urge to shout at the TV or radio, the moody preoccupation with events over which we have no control--and last, but not least, that miserable knowledge that this whole thing is, yet again, not even a real controversy, but a frenzy whipped up for political theater, with the passions of innocent victims used and abused as weapons for the personal gain of those at the top of the heap.

And as before, the principals involved are busy blaming everyone else under the sun for their travails but themselves, giving partisans on either side something else to argue about.

I'm finding cherished friendships now under significant strain over something that has nothing to do with the relationship between the two of us, and again, we've seen all this before.

Remember the '90's?

I mean, REALLY remember?

It started--and perhaps those of us who voted for him should have been paying closer attention--but it started during the Clinton campaign of '92.  "Bimbo eruptions."  Gennifer.  Paula.

The Clintons, even then, vowed to FIGHT this Republican Attack Machine that was trying to destroy them.

Everybody likes a fighter, right?

So boy, we all joined in the brawl, didn't we?  Faced off our conservative friends, flocked to the polls, all tuned in to 60 Minutes after the Super Bowl.  Thought the Clintons were so cool.

Delivered them the White House.

And almost immediately, there were more eruptions--Travelgate, White Water. 

Republican opponents accused the Clintons of withholding important documents; we countered that the whole thing was a fake-controversy engineered by partisans who hated the Clintons with such mad-dog intensity that you found yourself fighting for the First Couple in sympathy even if you weren't that crazy about them to start with.

Bill put Hillary in charge of health care, and suddenly, it was all about Hillary more than about health care; all about whether it was  a "co-presidency," all about her charming Capitol Hill, and how smart she was, and what a good job she was doing. 

But all along, under the surface, massive resentments grew within the Democratic congress because she was acting behind closed doors without any of their input, and when the Big Plan was sprung, she refused compromise of any sort even within her own party, and set the whole debate up as a "with us or against us" showdown, forcing conservative Democrats to vote against it, handing the right-wing their biggest victory, and contributing to a takeover two years into the Clinton administration of Congress by Republicans which led, ultimately, to the debacle of a government we see today.

We need to remember.  REALLY remember.

It dragged on, and dragged on.  More bimbo eruptions, and as the accusations from the right-wing grew positively Machiavellian, we knew that this wasn't about any failings of the Clintons but was about shoving a right-wing agenda down the throats of a populace easily manipulated by soundbite sloganeering.

We just knew it.  We were so sure of it.

For eight years, we seethed, shouted at the TV news, argued with relatives, defended and defended and defended the Clintons against the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy,

Then came Monica.

This time, we raged, and with good reason, because Ken Starr was so overtly a political hack, and because his dumping of the Clinton Grand Jury testimony on the Internet before even Clinton's own lawyers had seen it, was so unseemly, such a disgrace, such a travesty of the law.

And we fought with and for the Clintons.  Boy did we fight.  We fought to prevent an impeachment over something we found ridiculous, especially in light of, you know, INVADING A COUNTRY AND LYING TO YOUR OWN PEOPLE ABOUT THE REASONS WHY.

After all that, we cheered Hillary on when she put in for the Senate run--even when she sucked all the oxygen out of Al Gore's campaign room by stealing all the biggest fundraisers for her own Senate campaign and didn't really campaign for him because she was so busy with her own run.

And Gore--he was in a tough spot.  Embrace Bill and risk being CRUCIFIED by the Attack Machine, or distance himself and insult many in the party.

Bill put him in that position, simply by his own inability to harness his appetites.  Narcissists tend to do things like that.

When Hillary got elected, we swore to our conservative friends that noooooo, she was not looking to take over the White House.

But we were exhausted, man.  Worn out with all the battles and all the anger and all the fights--especially when a tiny cadre of judges who'd been given their jobs by the Republican candidate's daddy handed Daddy's Boy the White House, oh man, were we ever demoralized and devastated.

Of course, if Bill had kept his pants zipped in the first place, Gore would most likely have won with plenty of votes to prevent such a scenario.  And just think where this country might have been by now.

We need to remember.  REALLY remember.

Do you know what the Clinton's were doing in the news right before the Monica story broke?

I do.  I remember it vividly. 

First, they were filmed from a distance, dancing together in their bathing suits on a beach during a vacation.  The big controversy was whether or not they knew they were being filmed in this romantic moment.

And second, the White House was holding a contest for someone to come up with a name for Bill's new chocolate labrador puppy.  (He wound up naming him "Buddy" after an uncle, but still.)

This was what was dominating the news about the Clintons.  Whitewater had not stuck--in spite of the much-vaunted Attack Machine and their Attack Dog Starr--tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and virtually the entire FBI in their pockets, and they could find NOTHING.

Until Bill lied about a blowjob.

We've spent seven years in hell since Bush was selected president.  That miserable feeling of rage and frustration and the utter depression of feeling we have no control over events that define our lives has continued this entire time.

This political season started as one of unprecedented hope and excitement and energy for the Democratic party, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars, pulling in millions of new voters, energizing the base and bringing in Independents and moderate Republicans.  All of our candidates were outstanding.

We could not lose.

Until Hillary started to.

In spite of the fact that her campaign badly misjudged the American mood with their campaign message of experience over change; in spite of the fact that they blew through money like water with unneccessary luxury spending; in spite of the fact that they had no organization on the ground in place to even consider having to go beyond Super Tuesday; in spite of a lackluster Internet organization, in spite of backbiting and infighting within the campaign--much like there was within the Clinton White House--in spite of monumental gaffes committed by the candidate herself...well, it wasn't their fault.

SEXISM!

MEDIA BIAS!

THE DNC HATES US!

And so the nasty set in.  As soon as Clinton set herself up as Joan d'Fighter, then here came all the old familiar standbys:  snotty surrogates making sensational claims on talk shows, enraged supporters baring their teeth at detractors, Republican opponents launching snide countersnarls, and phony issues getting whipped up by partisans into a frenzy of outrage completely unrelated to the problems at hand.

Only this time, it was the Clintons themselves egging the whole thing on.

So here we are, back again in ClintonLand. 

The land of anger and misery and division and depression and anxiety.  And friendships driven apart.

I don't begrudge her supporters their rage--I've felt a fair amount of it myself when my candidate gets dragged into racist smears. 

(Maybe they haven't received in their Inboxes the forwards I have from conservative friends, depicting such things as color caricatures emphasizing not just his ears, but his lips dontcha know.)

But I do think that they are being used, and the fact that the candidate has stepped back into the shadows and allowed them to surge forward into near-hysterical demonstrations of outrage and hate is a disgrace on her part.  She should be ashamed.

Even if she had a true case in the Michigan/Florida debacle--which she does not, for so many reasons you could write a whole book on it--she does not honor her supporters by encouraging this dramatic display, and they don't honor her when they claim Obama's supporters are a "cult," that primary elections are being "rigged" for him, that he is a socialist like Hitler was, and that they'll vote for McCain no matter what unless Hillary gets her way.

They only wind up looking crazy, and she winds up looking desperate and mean.

And now, the divisions are borderline psychotic.  Hillary supporters have banned online news sources because, you know, the ENTIRE media is biased.  One said they only pay attention to BBC reports.

Which means, I guess, THAT THE WHOLE COUNTRY is against Hillary and, by extension, identification, and classic psychological transferance--THEM.

When you're in ClintonLand, compromise is absolutely out of the question.  It is considered a form of weakness.  Paula Jones, for example, offered to settle the lawsuit against Bill, and he was ready to do so.  But nooooo, Hillary said, LET'S FIGHT! 

And so fight they did--all the way to impeachment.

In the Florida/Michigan impasse, to Clinton and her mad-dog supporters who showed up for the meeting, there was to be no compromise.  Either they got their whole way, or it was nothing.

Even after DNC lawyers released a 38-page memo stating in clear terms that, legally, only half-votes could be awarded to the delegates--that was shoved aside as though it did not exist.

Anything less was a personal attack on the Clintons and Hillary's campaign.

We've been here before.

It's all wearyingly familiar.

We need to remember.  REALLY remember.

The big question all Democrats everywhere must ask themselves now is, DO WE WANT TO GO THERE AGAIN?

Because we already know what a Clinton White House would be like.  We already know about the us-against-them battles, the rage of supporters, the partisan political divisions and government lockdowns and inevitable scandals.

We should have been paying attention in the primary campaign of '92.  We should have realized that the way a campaign is managed gives us a pretty clear picture of the way an administration will govern.

And if we hadn't figured it out then, we most surely have after seven years of a Karl Rove administration.

Barack Obama's campaign has been streamlined, efficient, well-organized.  Its message has been clear, concise, and consistent.  His team is close-knit and not divided by backbiting and infighting.  He's done his best to maintain his dignity against unconscionable racist attacks, some launched by Hillary's campaign.

He flat-out told his supporters not to demonstrate during the DNC meeting.  Over and over again, his campaign offered scenarios for compromise, all of which were rejected by Hillary and her people.

He tries to take the high road.  He tries to keep people together.  He is no saint, and he's made mistakes, and he will make mistakes in the White House.

But wouldn't it be nice if we could go into a new administration with a feeing of hope, excitement, and peace of mind?  A feeling of fresh change and new direction? 

Of looking forward and not behind?

Hillary has made herself ugly with the nastiness of this campaign.  Her supporters only reflect the bitterness she has enflamed.

Even when the Rules Committee tried to find a fair solution, one of her noisier supporters--many of whom repeatedly shouted down Committee members who were trying to do their jobs--yelled, "LIPSTICK ON A PIG."

That's what Hillary's campaign has come to resemble.

Do we really want to take this into the White House?

AGAIN?