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"I haven?t paid much attention to [the 'vast right-wing conspiracy'] for about 10 years."

By Ann Althouse

Said Hillary Clinton, today on "Meet the Press." Well, does it exist? " I really don?t have any idea. ... I?m just too busy to worry about that.?

ADDED: Here is the transcript of the show. There's plenty in it to chew over. Let me highlight the last question, which has emotional impact ? I think ? even though she absolutely walls us out of her private world:

MR. RUSSERT: Doris Kearns Goodwin said, "What's the biggest public adversity a person has ever faced?" What's yours?

SEN. CLINTON: Well, I think we all know that, we lived through it, didn't we, and it's something that was very painful and very hurtful.

MR. RUSSERT: What did you learn from it?

SEN. CLINTON: Well, you know, first of all, it is who I am as a person. I believe that you have to withstand whatever problems come your way. You have to make the decisions that are best for you. You're going to get a lot of advice coming from many different quarters to do things that don't feel right to you, that don't reflect who you are and what your values are. So you have to be grounded in who you are and what you believe. And you're not always going to make the right decisions, but you have to be guided by what you think is important, and that's what I've done.

She couldn't say "I have always deeply loved my husband" or "I believe marriage is 'til death do us part."

IN THE COMMENTS: Reader_Iam says:

She couldn't say "I have always deeply loved my husband" or "I believe marriage is 'til death do us part."

I don't think she should have to.

The former is none of our business, and as for the latter--well, so far her choices are demonstrating what she believes with regard to her own marriage; of course, only time will tell if that turns out to be the case in the long run. As is, of course, true of all marriages.

I don't think she owes us that look into her private feelings. I'm just saying she's the kind of person who chooses not to see that question as an opportunity to show warmth and intimacy or to pontificate about family values. It wasn't meant as a criticism.

What did you learn from it?

Frankly, I have to hand it to Hillary, because I'm not sure I could have bitten back my gut response to that question, which is, "Oh, f*** you."

That would have been one of the all-time great TV moments. #1 on some VH-1 "100 most outrageous TV moments" list. It'd be better than this:

Full post as published by Althouse on January 13, 2008 (boomark / email).