Hillaryland: Monica who?

Hillaryland isn’t worried about Monica Lewinsky’s reemergence into the political stratosphere again, ahead of a potential presidential bid. 

As Lewinsky reappeared this week, delivering a powerful speech about online bullying and launching her Twitter account, Clintonites say they are leaving the past in the past.

{mosads}“Nobody wants to rehash or relitigate things,” said one Clinton ally, who worked on the 2008 presidential campaign. “People are ready to move on and go forward. I know that’s how we feel on our end. I can’t speak for Monica, but she probably wants to move on, too.”

The Pro-Clinton superPAC Correct the Record didn’t put out a single word about the former White House intern this week. Instead, it focused on Sen. Rand Paul’s swipes against Clinton’s foreign policy, distributing a fact sheet Friday to push back on the attacks.

Other Clintonites, some of whom saw the Lewinsky scandal unfold first-hand at the White House, felt similarly. Close to two decades later, they say they can’t imagine a scenario where they’d be involved in a tit-for-tat skirmish with her.

“Just let her just go on with her life,” another longtime Clinton ally said. “I don’t care. I’m not going to pay attention to it. I’m not going to follow her on Twitter. It’s not hostility or anger, it’s just keeping the past in the past.”

While she admitted to being in love at the time with her former boss and expressed regret about her involvement in the scandal, Lewinsky strayed from attacking former President Bill Clinton in her public address. (In fact, she never even uttered the word “Clinton” once in the speech. She simply referred to the “president” twice.)

And in a tweet on Thursday, Lewinsky used the social media platform to push cyber-bullying again, writing that “4 in 10 adult internet users [are] harassed online.”

Still, the timing of her reemergence, coming months before a possible campaign launch by the former secretary of State, isn’t particularly helpful.

“The timing is not what Hillary Clinton would have wished for, that’s for certain,” said Katherine Jellison, a professor of history at Ohio University.

Lewinsky’s presence on the public scene is a reminder of a side of Bill Clinton’s presidency the Hillary Clinton camp will not want front and center, and has the potential to raise questions about the former first couple’s marriage.

Republicans have made it clear the subject will not be off-limits.

“The Clintons have been public figures for a long time and the electorate deserves to know about their history if they are going to be in the White House again,” said Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

Earlier this year, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Paul, a potential presidential candidate himself in 2016, took aim at Bill Clinton, saying he was involved in “predatory behavior” during his presidency.

He blamed the media for giving the former president “a pass” on the Lewinsky scandal.

Though he went on to say that it’s not Hillary Clinton’s fault and that it would be unfair for her to receive criticism for the scandal, his comments were a signal to the Clintons that some opponents will look to raise the issue to see how it will play with voters.  

It’s unclear how much the GOP will want to focus on the Lewinsky scandal, however.

Republicans sought to impeach President Clinton over the matter, but ended up over-reaching and the public turned against them. In the 1998 midterm elections, Democrats gained congressional seats. Bill Clinton ended up leaving office with approval ratings in the 70s. 

At the anti-Hillary Clinton SuperPAC America Rising, a source with knowledge of a potential strategy said there’s a “value in reeducating younger voters about some of the more scandalous and negative elements of the 1990s.” Still, the source added, “I don’t think any of this relates to Monica specifically.”

“Events from the ’90s will not be central to anyone’s campaign against Secretary Clinton,” the source added. 

Clinton allies say if Republicans do bring up Lewinsky in campaign talking points, it could backfire.

“It will send a dangerous precedent,” one longtime Clintonite said. “It turns people off because no one wants to think about that. It serves no purpose.”

Jellison predicted that the Clinton camp would just try and ignore the Lewinsky topic in the months ahead. And if Hillary Clinton is asked directly about it, she said, “she is going to have to walk a tight rope there.”

But, above all, Jellison surmised that most people “just wish it would all go away.”