[Tim Russert] was criticized in some quarters for playing excerpts from the 1998 interview in which [Hillary Rodham Clinton] blamed the accusations against her husband on a "vast right-wing conspiracy" and asking if she had misled the public. Clinton deflected the question by saying she was misled by her husband and took little heat. Lazio is widely expected to pay a political price, especially among women, for complaining that her actions and response reflected a "pattern" of blaming others for the Clintons' problems.

Political experts last week quickly reached a consensus that Lazio had made a major mistake by not understanding a basic fact about the Clinton scandals: They are as dangerous to those who try to exploit them as they are to the Clintons, themselves. Kenneth Starr did not win popularity, and the Republican House proceeding to impeachment lost seats in the 1998 election.

"She stoked the fires of political warfare by going out there and making these accusations while she was still ignorant of the facts," said Ian Walters, a spokesman for the American Conservative Union. If Lazio had simply backed off in the debate, a key constituency would have been disgusted with him, and Lazio aides say the debate tactics served to "energize" their base.