The right doesn't like this book because it is poorly timed.  A book like this needs to come out 3-4 months before the election to have any effect.  All this is done is innoculate HC from future attacks.

The book will slowly circulate through back channels into the various conservative niches, and ill-informed moderates will hear all the dirt eventually as scuttlebutt. We still hear about stuff that Bill Clinton didn't actually do 10 or 20 years ago. Mena?

Perhaps Hannity and the others are using this as a credibility-building move. Then when campaign time comes around they'll be able to say "At first I defended Hillary...."

The Rove machine is fully aware that the only poll that counts is the one in the first week of November. (Jesse Helms worked that way too -- he won a long string of close elections) In between elections they do what they do without regard for short-term fluctuations.

Nah.  The book apparently is so grotesque that no one, not even the normally rabid Hillary-haters, can read it without feeling nauseated.  So an H-h has 2 choices:  ignore the book, or come out in opposition.  The former option has no real appeal, bec/ no one really knows how you feel about the book.  The 2nd option, however, allows you to pose as a Reasonable Guy, someone who doesn't believe or at least parrot any old trash anyone anywhere says about H.  So the next time there's a scurrilous rumor about H or Bill or whoever is next nominated by the Dems for Pres, our commentator gets to cite his oppostion to the Klein book as evidence that he is a Reasonable Guy even while screaming from the rooftops that this revelation proves that Dem X is in fact a lying, philandering scumbag.

   So how about a swimsuit competiton featuring Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer?

The right may not ultimately fear a Hillary candidacy. They could be counting on the baggage you mention, or Clinton fatigue in general, to be her undoing in a general election. So they might even prefer for her to take sole possession of frontrunner status, to keep other candidates from running and getting the nomination, which would deprive them of the opportunity to face an opponent they would no doubt relish defeating.

You change the dynamic by giving credit to those who denounced the book. Then, if the same charges are brought up again in the course of a campaign, you say these charges have already been denounced even by these well-known conservatives. They are old news.

Whatever credibility this work has stems not just from the author's background, but from his publisher's.

Any acceptance of the (reasonable) idea that Hillary-bashing is part of a grand-strategy has to explain why this work of "non-fiction" was published by a division of Penguin Books (i.e. a respectable mainstream house not known for its partisanship).

Have they infiltrated that far?  Or is this just a sordid tale of greed, with Penguin selling it's integrity and Klein selling his soul for the revenues of a likely best-seller

From what I have heard, the accusations in the book are constued from a kind of gossip that can be circulated against ANY woman.  Patting the head of a female friend?  Lack of witnesses of the moment of conception of her daughers? 

Accusations do not work if peple think that they have a good idea about the issue.  Thus people can be "open minded" about the proper conduct on a swift boat, or how dangerous a would should be to earn a Purple Heart fairly.  But people know how an American woman can behave when she meets a female friiend from old times, or what are the marks of malicious gossip about someone's marriage.

A great way of repelling female voters without really attracting men. 

You wrote ... "Or is this just a sordid tale of greed, with Penguin selling it's integrity and Klein selling his soul for the revenues of a likely best-seller."
 
This is the most likely explanation, given the value system of modern America. Also, don't forget all those good Americans who will shovel out good money for this trash. Itching ears abound!

I heard Sean Hannity's interview of Klein and some of his post-interview callers.  Hannity went through all the controversial passages in some detail and just seemed so perplexed why anyone would want to write ugly things about Hilliary.  Affecting an 'ah, ha!' moment, Hannity suggested to a caller that the Klein book might be a leftwing setup to try to trap him and his kind into trashing Hillary.

And at that point it clicked for me -- I think there's a good chance this book is a RIGHTWING setup, or at least they made sure Klein was fed all the right nasty dirt.  According to David Brooks, a lot of stuff in the book was stuff he was familiar with from the Schaife days.  So we can guess where he got all his 'anonymous' sources.

It's a classic no-lose for them.  They can take the high road while simultaneously airing all these nasty rumors.  In 2008, the rumors will resurface because the fair and balanced media will feel bound to rehash every moment of the Clinton saga (which is why I hope she doesn't run).  But they won't be the attackers, they were Hillary's defenders back in '05!  It's just that some people say...

I've heard some pundits say that it's too early to start attacking her for 2008.  But she's had a pretty good run so far and I think some of the Rs probably felt she was building momentum.   This is just more dirty trick.