Old enemies are resurfacing

LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON -- Old enemies of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are out in force. Just weeks after she joined the Democratic Party's flock of presidential contenders, Clinton is being targeted by conservative and Republican-allied activists intent on derailing her campaign before the start of next year's primaries.
They have surfaced with a flurry of planned projects: a Michael Moore-style film, book-length exposes, Web sites like StopHerNow and StopHillaryPAC. Conservative admirers of the "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" media blitz that helped torpedo Democrat John Kerry's candidacy in 2004 are now agitating to "swift-boat" Clinton.
"People are doing what they're doing because they want to defeat her before she has a chance to win. You can't hold off your silver bullet to the end," said veteran Republican operative David Bossie, who is involved in the film project with former Clinton adviser Dick Morris, who was the architect of Bill Clinton's mid-1990s political revival until he was fired in August 1996 after revelations that he had consorted with a prostitute.
The emerging moves against Clinton reflect the accelerated pace of the 2008 race and a growing realization among conservatives that she poses a formidable threat.
The New York senator has been publicly bracing for "Republican machine" attacks from the moment she launched her exploratory committee last month. Her ability to strike back quickly may prove critical in winning over Democratic primary voters looking for assurance she can survive a bruising general election and Swift Boat-style attacks.
Every presidential candidate faces intense scrutiny by opponents. But conservative antipathy toward Clinton is especially deep and long-standing -- inflamed by her husband's two terms in the White House, her steady rise from first lady to senator and the widespread belief on the right that the Clintons evaded justice during the nonstop investigations of the 1990s.
Clinton's foes on the right are openly telling supporters she would make a ripe target for an "education" campaign reminiscent of the Swift Boat group's challenge of Kerry's Vietnam War record.