Hitting Hillary good polictics for GOP candidates

AP/NY Times:

Forget Bill. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic presidential leader, has become the Republican candidates' favorite punching bag.

Mitt Romney argues she would turn the United States into a ''big government, big taxation, welfare state.'' John McCain calls the New York senator an irresponsible guardian of taxpayer dollars. Rudy Giuliani claims she'd put the country ''on defense against terrorism.'' And all three lambast her on Iraq.

At every turn, the leading GOP contenders are criticizing Clinton even as they are entangled in their own turbulent race for the Republican nomination.

''They see her not only as the clear Democratic front-runner but also as the most formidable potential opponent,'' said Joseph Marbach, a Seton Hall University political science professor. Thus, Marbach and others say, each is trying to prove he is the strongest Republican to challenge Clinton in November 2008 -- and damage her in the process.

The two-term New York senator leads the Democratic field but faces fierce challenges from Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and ex-Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. GOP candidates have harped on them, too, but to a lesser extent.

It's standard campaign fare for Republicans to castigate Clinton's husband and his administration -- and they still do. They also have assailed her sporadically since 1992. Now, she is a White House candidate in her own right, and as such, is increasingly in the GOP candidates' crosshairs.

For good reason, analysts say.

''This gives them a way for their supporters to measure whether they're tough enough to take her on in a general election,'' said Ed Rollins, a Republican who was a White House political director under President Reagan. Plus, Clinton-bashing is a surefire way for Romney, McCain and Giuliani to energize the dispirited GOP base that votes in primaries, he said.

''She is hated by the core,'' Rollins said.

Polls show Clinton is incredibly popular with Democrats but extraordinarily unpopular with Republicans. Half the country views her favorably and half unfavorably.

Beating up on Clinton now also could pay dividends for Republicans come next fall by driving up her already high negatives, hampering her effort to win the primary and leaving her wounded for the general election -- or perhaps deprive her of the nomination altogether.

...

She has made herself even more vulnerable with her criticism of the Libby pardon which allowed Republicans to point out that her husband actually pardoned her brother. That is the kind of cronyism she has inadvertently brought attention to. The administration shot back yesterday:

...

''I don't know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it,'' presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.

...

Scott Stanzel, a White House deputy press secretary, said that, ''When you think about the previous administration and the 11th-hour, fire-sale pardons ... it's really startling that they have the gall to criticize what we believe is a very considered, a very deliberate approach to a very unique case.''

...

By brining up the pardon issue they remind voters of the corrupt end of her husband's administration and her "who me" responses to that corruption.