White House intern Monica Lewinsky, who became infamous for her affair with Bill Clinton, has returned to the public eye just as former First Lady Hillary Clinton is weighing a 2016 presidential bid.
Politically, is this good or bad news for Hillary, with the nominating primaries less than two years away? Opinions differ.
The details in the essay that Lewinsky authored for magazine Vanity Fair are less important than the broader fact that Hillary Clinton is juxtaposed, once again, with the sins of her husband.
Lewinsky, now 40, revisited her Oval Office dalliance with the president in an article published on Thursday, arguing that she was made a scapegoat after the public revelation of her "consensual relationship", and that Clinton's White House subjected her to public humiliation to protect him.
Lewinsky herself appears to acknowledge that her article could affect Hillary's political fortunes, writing that she was done "tiptoeing around my past - and other people's futures". Who else could she mean, but Hillary? The Lewinsky affair was first revealed by the nascent Drudge Report website in January 1998, setting off a congressional investigation.
The Republican-dominated House of Representatives eventually voted to impeach Clinton, who was accused of perjury and obstruction of justice over his efforts to keep the affair concealed from an unrelated sexual harassment lawsuit.
He was acquitted by the Senate in February 1999, leaving him in the White House to complete his second term.
While Clinton has largely rehabilitated his public image, there has always been the question of whether his tawdry past would haunt Hillary as she aspired to future political office.
Republican Senator Rand Paul, apparently gearing up for his own 2016 presidential bid, first broached the subject in early 2014, citing the Lewinsky matter to accuse Democrats of hypocrisy.
"The Democrats - one of their big issues is they've concocted this, 'Republicans are committing a war on women'," Paul said.
"One of the workplace laws and rules that I think are good is that bosses shouldn't prey on young interns in their office. I think really the media seems to have given President Clinton a pass on this. He took advantage of a girl that was 20 years old and an intern in his office. There is no excuse for that, and that is predatory behaviour."
Comedian Bill Maher laughed off Paul's approach: "This is supposed to hurt Hillary? As I recall, Hillary was only ever abetted by the fact that her husband cheated on her. It turned her into the, you know, the Jennifer Aniston of America, and Americans only loved her more," Maher told CNN.
Indeed Republicans may pursue a Lewinsky strategy at their peril, for the once unpopular Hillary's personal approval ratings spiked - to 66 per cent - around the time of the Lewinsky scandal.
"Republicans would do well to stay as far away from (the Lewinsky story) as possible," Washington Post blogger Chris Cilliza wrote this week.
Some who share Paul's opinion of the Clintons suggest that the story has come out, indeed, to help Hillary.
Lynne Cheney, wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, said she suspects an effort by Hillary to get the story out of the way early.
"Would Vanity Fair publish anything about Monica Lewinsky that Hillary Clinton didn't want in Vanity Fair?" Cheney asked on Fox News.
"Getting it out of the way so we can say, one more time, it's old news, seems to me like a strategy or a tactic," she said.
To be sure, Hillary's image is not without blemishes in the Lewinsky matter. In February, papers left to the University of Arkansas by longtime Hillary confidant Diane Blair revealed that Hillary called Lewinsky a "narcissistic loony toon" whom Bill Clinton tried to get away from.
Perhaps not the best line to have on record for a politician who not only champions women's rights, but will rely on their votes.
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