Hillary’s popularity had little to do with her personality. How could it have been otherwise? That’d be like loving saltines for the taste, or watching Girls for the nudity.Rather, it stemmed from the idea that she represented a kind of feminist ascendancy. From the earliest days, Bill suggested that he would have almost a co-presidency. Elect him and you’d get “two for the price of one,” he famously promised. And lurking behind that was the much-discussed possibility that she would have her “turn” after him.

Hillary had hitched her wagon to Bill’s. She helped circle the wagons around his philandering. She “thanked” — wink, wink — Juanita Broaddrick for not making too big a deal about the fact that Bill raped her, “allegedly.” Indeed, she famously blamed all such allegations on Bill’s enemies and their desire to hurt the country.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. Hillary is as close as she’s ever been to finally fulfilling her destiny. Everyone — at least everyone who matters — is finally “Ready for Hillary.” The tireless effort by her minions to make Bill’s behavior a trivial and private issue seemed to have paid off. Bill is popular, very popular. Despite the fact that pretty much no one thinks he mended his ways after he left office, all of the sophisticated people think criticizing his “personal” behavior is boorish and deranged. At the same time, feminists have finally completed their restoration project. The last stones have been mounted atop the wall of Zero Tolerance 2.0.

And then, as Jeffrey Epstein’s flight attendant once said, Bill Clinton comes out of nowhere to bite her on the ass.

Whereas Bill was supposed to be Hillary’s “not-so secret weapon,” he’s now a liability. It’s schadenfreudetastic to watch liberals forced to choose between the Scylla of the Hillary campaign and the Charybdis of the feminist project.