Andrew Sullivan Has a Fainting Spell Over Hillary's "Ruthlessness"

As I've noted before, I haven't signed on to the Hillary campaign or to any other as of yet. And there are certainly plenty of grounds for criticizing Hillary, especially from the left, most notably her vote in favor of the Bush Iraq authorization, her support for the idea of a long-term US troop presence in that country, and her general hawkishness.

Having said all this, I am truly fed up with the constant criticism of her that is supposedly related to her "character," "temperament," or "lack of leadership." Whenever I examine these complaints closely, they seem to boil down to rehashing of scurrilous rumors about her and Bill's personal life mingled with vapid, unspecific whining about the fact that "I just can't warm up to her" or "There's something I just don't like about her."

Today's volley against her by Andrew Sullivan (he launches one practically every day) is typical. He recounts an anecdote about Hillary's political operation and sums up its moral in these words: "Don't mess with her or her cronies. They're ruthless."

And what happened to demand the use of the word "ruthless"? Did thugs hired by Hillary beat up dissidents? Did they disseminate vicious lies about some enemy in order to cause him to lose a job or to destroy his marriage?

No, it turns out that what happened was that someone made a critical comment at a Hillary fund-raising event in Los Angeles and in response received a "smattering of boos and gasps that were directed my way." (Follow the link and read the account for yourself--I swear that is all that happened.)

This is "ruthlessness"? I guess it is if you've already decided that for some reason you can't stand Hillary's guts.