Bill Clinton – Hillary's Henchman?

It looks like President Bush has been warming up to Hillary Clinton. An Examiner.com report says Bush has been giving behind-the-scenes advice to Hillary and other democrats:

Washington, D.C. - President Bush is quietly providing back-channel advice to Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging her to modulate her rhetoric so she can effectively prosecute the war in Iraq if elected president.

In an interview for the new book “The Evangelical President,” White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said Bush has “been urging candidates: ‘Don’t get yourself too locked in where you stand right now. If you end up sitting where I sit, things could change dramatically.’ ”

And this isn't the only exclusive treatment democrats have been receiving. Bush has also broken his silence about the 2008 presidential candidates, saying Hillary could win the primary:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Breaking a self-imposed gag rule, President George W. Bush is predicting Democrat Hillary Clinton will win her party's presidential nomination but lose to the Republican nominee in the November 2008 election.

"I think our candidate can beat her, but it's going to be a tough race," Bush said in an interview for "The Evangelical President," a book by a reporter for The Examiner newspaper of Washington, Bill Sammon.

While Hillary might be thankful the president has faith in her campaign, a lot can happen to her image between now and next year's elections if negative articles about the former first lady ever see the light of day. A Politico report says Bill flexed some ex-presidential muscle and was successful in getting GQ to kill an article that would detail trouble in the Clinton campaign:

Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president learned that the men’s magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland.

So Clinton’s aides pulled a page from the book of Hollywood publicists and offered GQ a stark choice: Kill the piece, or lose access to planned celebrity coverboy Bill Clinton.

Thank goodness the journalistic world has courageous people like GQ editor Jim Nelson.

While the suppression of this article would be bad enough, it might not be the first time Bill has helped bury a story. According to WorldNetDaily, he meddled with the release of "The Path to 9/11," an Emmy-nominated ABC miniseries that might never see DVD release:

The DVD of the ABC miniseries "The Path to 9/11," which underwent edits under pressure from former President Bill Clinton before its original network airing in 2006, is months past due for release, and one of its writers believes it's because of pressure from the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Even though it's likely this kind of behavior happens on both sides of the political spectrum, most candidates aren't married to a Bill Clinton, whose influence reaches a little further than an Ann Romney or Michelle Obama.

In such a calculated attack on unfavorable press, the Clintons must have considered how killing the reports would make them look. It's tempting to think about what could have been in the GQ piece or the unedited miniseries had that was so damaging to their campaign.