Hillary and Bill Clinton must be beside themselves over the way the mainstream media has treated them this presidential election cycle. If they were glass-half-full types, the power couple would be counting their blessings that this treatment didn't kick in when Bill was committing and covering up his felonies.

Had the MSM been scrutinizing and exposing the Clintons' behavior in the '90s, it's very possible Bill never would have survived his impeachment ordeal. Imagine how different it would have been had the MSM focused their investigative microscopes and analytical energies on Hillary's cattle futures bonanza; the indefensible disappearance of her law firm billing records; her heartless and capricious firings of White House travel office personnel to benefit her friends; Bill's unconscionable, unsolicited pardons of FALN terrorist inmates to shore up the Hispanic vote for Hillary's New York Senate campaign; the endless trail of corruption with Red China and North Korea; the credible rape and sexual assault allegations against Bill coupled with Hillary's collusion in defusing the "bimbo eruptions"; and much more.

What a difference a few years and the advent of a promising young liberal candidate such as Barack Obama make. Now that the media have chosen sides in favor of Obama, they've lifted their protection for the Clintons, and we're getting a glimpse of the vulnerability of the Clintons when they're separated from their MSM bodyguards.

Not long ago, the MSM was heralding Bill as the first black president, with no apparent awareness of the absurdity of this caricature. Today they're showcasing his race-baiting antics in the primaries, making no effort to obscure, rationalize or apologize for them.

Until very recently, they couldn't get enough of the microphone-grabbing, attention-starved, headline-stealing former president. Today they deride him for the very narcissism they so shamelessly enabled and are even lamenting "Clinton fatigue."

Yesterday reporters held "St. Hillary" in awe, marveling at (and oblivious to the rank sophistry in) her "politics of meaning." They defended her when she donned her feminist cap and cavalierly dismissed stay-at-home moms, stating, "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession." And they shielded her from deserved charges of hypocrisy when not long after, she tried to pass herself off as a longtime cookie baker. Lately they've called her on some of her rankest inconsistencies, as on the question of whether illegal immigrants should receive driver's licenses.

In the '90s, they gushed over Bill's (and co-president Hillary's) "unprecedented" economic record.

Today they note that Hillary's "trail of unpaid bills casts doubt" on her ability to manage her own money, let alone the United States economy.

Before, they dutifully disseminated her contrived vast right-wing conspiracy theory as if they'd co-authored it. Today they are mocking her newfound association with the arch villain of that sinister cabal, Richard Mellon Scaife.

A while back, they were defending the Clintons' refusal to turn over documents to the independent counsel and their suspicious blackout on their presidential records at the Clinton library. Now ABC News is dogging Bill and Hillary for not releasing their family tax returns and portraying Bill, who has received approximately $50 million in speaking fees, as part of the class of super-rich people he customarily excoriated during his populist heyday.

They're even hinting at impropriety in Bill's financial relationships with billionaire Ron Burkle and fundraiser Vinod Gupta and questioning Clinton's offshore investments. They quote Jack Blum, "an attorney and leading expert on offshore tax havens," saying, "No average person has interest and funds in the Cayman Islands. This is all the above-average, non-tax-paying, super rich."

During the Clinton glory years, the MSM went so far as to defend Clinton's perjury as justified to counter a "perjury trap" set by that dastardly "renegade, partisan prosecutor." They pooh-poohed his finger-wagging denial that he had sex "with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Today they are repeatedly spotlighting his "frequent tirades" and including damning quotes from Democratic superdelegates on the receiving end of them, such as, "It was one of the worst political meetings I have ever attended."

If the MSM were capable of objectivity, we might even see some pockets of skepticism in their fiercely monolithic complicity in pressuring Hillary to drop out of the race, even though she's virtually tied with Obama, has won most of the states Democrats need to win in the general election, and Obama is potentially unelectable. We're operating under a new MSM template.

In the scheme of things, considering such concepts as justice and karma, the Clintons couldn't be more deserving of this whiplash-inducing reversal in MSM treatment. But we all should recognize this seminar in MSM bias and its powerful effect as the sordid reality it is.

David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His book "Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Democratic Party" was released recently in paperback. To find out more about David Limbaugh, please visit his Web site at www.davidlimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.