Two biographies of Hillary Clinton have just been published and both paint a negative picture of Democratic Senator for New York, and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton:

Two new books on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York offer fresh and often critical portraits of the Democratic presidential candidate that depict a tortured relationship with her husband and her past and challenge the image she has presented on the campaign trail.

The Hillary Clinton who emerges from the pages of the books comes across as a complicated, sometimes compromised figure who tolerated Bill Clinton’s brazen infidelity, pursued her policy and political goals with methodical drive, and occasionally skirted along the edge of the truth along the way. The books portray her as alternately brilliant and controlling, ambitious and victimized.

The Clinton campaign has nervously awaited publication of the books for fear they would include a bombshell revelation or, at the very least, revive memories of less-savory moments in the couple’s rise to power. The books, both by longtime journalists and both obtained by The Washington Post yesterday, include a number of assertions and anecdotes that could confront her campaign with unwelcome questions.

“A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” by Carl Bernstein, reports that Clinton as first lady was terrified she would be prosecuted, took over her own legal and political defense, and decided not to be forthcoming with investigators because she was convinced she was unfairly targeted. While in Arkansas, according to Bernstein, she personally interviewed one woman alleged to have had an affair with her husband, contemplated divorce and thought about running for governor out of anger at her husband’s indiscretions.

“Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., reports that during her husband’s 1992 campaign, a team she oversaw hired a private investigator to undermine Gennifer Flowers “until she is destroyed.” Flowers had said publicly that she had an affair with Bill Clinton while he was governor of Arkansas.

The running for Governor just to piss Bill off is indeed new to me, but I have to say that it sounds a bit awkward to me. She would not have stood a chance. She could have destroyed Bill’s career of course, but that would also have meant the end of her own career. Now, if there’s anything Hillary Clinton would never consider doing, it’s throwing away her chances of becoming America’s first female president / having a remarkable political career.

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The book also suggests that Hillary Clinton did not read the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq in 2002 before voting to authorize war. And it includes a thirdhand report that the Clintons had a secret plan after the 1992 election in which he would have eight years as president and then she would have eight years, although last night a key source disavowed the story.

Now that would truly have been amazing: 8 years Bill, followed by 8 years Hillary.

The sad thing is, Hillary didn’t have much experience in politics back then, she needed the experience as a Senator. In other words; that story too sounds a bit… awkward.

Will Hillary’s past come back to haunt her? Quite possibly so. It seems to me that the Republicans will use it against her… again. The question is whether the American people will fall or those attacks… again. Hasn’t the subject been exhausted?

There is one major advantage (for the democrats) in nominating Hillary: her dirty laundry has been out there for over a decade.

Literally.