Hillary Clinton’s dwindling power

Hillary Clinton, never one for the conservatives, has now managed to isolate — nay, tick off — even the hardest core of her supporters.

What’s come from her fans in the media in the last few hours could very well signal the end of Clinton’s long-standing, long-running reign in political courts.

“For women,” CNN blasted in one headline, “Clinton is a bigger disappointment than Trump.”

Ouch.

That’s pretty blunt for a cable outlet known colloquially as Clinton News Network.

“Hillary Clinton doesn’t get it,” wrote Holly Thomas for CNN. “Since the explosion of #MeToo in October 2017, many of us have become jaded to the stock responses we can often expect from certain figures to stories of sexual harassment and abuse. At a rally in Pennsylvania last week, for example, President Trump once again mocked the movement … It is galling in another way, however, to hear #MeToo undermined from an unexpected quarter — as it was a few days ago by Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.”

The reference was to Clinton’s excusal of her husband’s White House affair with Monica Lewinsky as simply an “adult” act — meaning, consensual, no #MeToo-like sexual predator tag needed. And given the consensual nature of the affair, Clinton concluded: then-president Bill had no need to step down.

“Absolutely not” is how she put it.

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And toward that, CNN’s Thomas wrote: “The midterm elections are weeks away. It will be the first time voters can weigh in on a national level about the impact of the 2016 election, and everything since. It is clear that any positive development will depend on fresh blood at the helm for both parties. … If anything is to be learned from Hillary Clinton’s defeat, it is that there is no point in defending a tired status quo, which defends inherited privilege. It seems she is yet to fully appreciate that lesson.”

This isn’t a Fox News post; remember, this is CNN. Even CNN is telling Mrs. Clinton — go away, go home, get out of the political realm.

Or, as the left-leaning Daily Beast puts it in its own headline, “Dear God, Hillary Clinton. Please, Just Go.”

There, Liz Mair wrote: “We’re three weeks out from the 2018 midterm election, and Hillary Clinton is popping up again like a Halloween ghoul who keeps rising from the grave to terrorize the American public; only this time accompanies by the increasingly #MeToo burdened uber-villain, Bubba.”

Then there was this, from the normally Clinton-adoring New York Times.

“Hillary Clinton has been on a bit of a media tear the past few weeks, holding forth on both the personal and the political — and making clear that someone needs to perform an intervention before she further complicates life for her fellow Democrats,” a member of The Times’ editorial board, Michelle Cottle, wrote. “It’s one thing for a wife to stand by her spouse … But it is no secret that Mr. Clinton’s response to sexual scandal was to try to trash the reputations of the women involved. And while the degree to which Mrs. Clinton joined in such efforts may remain in dispute … her fundamental complicity is beyond reasonable doubt.”

Heads up, political watchers. This may very well be the time that nobody thought was coming — the day when Team Clinton, both Hillary and Bill, have exhausted their moments in the sun.

Hillary’s presidential loss to Trump was a black mark that’s left a lasting stain on her political future. In recent months, though, she’s scrambled back into the public eye. She’s scrambled back to the public speaking stage to present as a still-respectable figure among Democrats. She’s clawed back into the limelight and made her way back into the media as a pundit of sorts for the Democratic Party — and the members of the left have allowed this in part because of loyalty, and in part, no doubt, out of fear of all the secrets she still carries.

But in just the last few hours, the media — the very media that used to fawn — is abandoning Clinton, tossing her to the side. Is this the political end of HRC as we know her?

Take note of the time; make a memo on the calendar. This could very well be the countdown to Clinton’s final disappearance from the hallowed halls of political influence — the final stroke to the public power she wields.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.

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