Long-time readers of this column, if any, will recall that during the years when Bill Clinton was top tom-cat in Washington, I argued against the sexist view that Hillary was no more than a gangster’s moll. She was, I insisted, a fully made-up member of the Mob.

Now she’s bidding to become capa di tutti capi. And Irish America is cheering her on – on the basis that the Clintons did great things for peace in Ireland and that Hillary is entitled to cash in on that contribution now.
Hillary is, meantime, using her assumed role in the peace process to appeal to the wider US electorate.
Marcella Bombardieri of the Boston Globe describes her “telling and retelling one particularly moving story about bringing together Catholic and Protestant women in Northern Ireland...
“Clinton said she had hosted a meeting of enemies in the conflict. They had never been in the same room before, and ‘no one thought this was going to be a very good idea’.”
Clinton goes on: “A Catholic woman shared her daily fears that her husband wouldn’t come home at night. Across the table, a Protestant woman described the same worry about her son.
“And for the first time they actually saw each other not as caricatures or stereotypes, but as human beings who actually had common experiences as mothers and wives and people. One of the reasons why I’m running for president is to be constantly reaching out to try to bring people together, to resolve conflicts and not let them fester and get worse.”
The story is a lie. What happened was that Clinton attended a meeting in Belfast (organised by the British Government) of well-known, and well-known to one another, full-time community organisers. It was an event of no significance for the peace process.
Clinton’s version isn’t being presented as casual reminiscence. The detailed account has become part of her standard presentation. Says Bombardieri: “More than an isolated stump speech snippet, her Northern Ireland story speaks to the larger issue of whether her travels around the world as first lady qualify as serious diplomacy. That experience is a crucial element of her argument that she is the most qualified presidential candidate.”
The distortion is thus offered as a model of Clinton-style engagement with a troubled world, bravely intervening to soothe ancient enmities – an attractive message for a currently anxious US electorate.
The notion is widespread in Ireland, too, that the Clintons are owed for their contribution to peace here. The action constantly referred to, which did indeed make a difference, is Bill Clinton giving Gerry Adams a visa in February 1994, so he could sell the idea of a ceasefire to US-based groups like Northern Aid.
This undoubtedly helped speed the IRA ceasefire seven months later, by enabling Republican leaders to persuade the foot-soldiers that there was something tantalising on offer: give up the guns and we’ll be well-got in the White House, was the message.
This was a factor in ensuring that when the Republican Movement abandoned the path of armed struggle, it veered to the right and not to the left. We see the result – the wholesale embrace of neo-liberalism – evident in Sinn Fein’s performance in the Stormont Executive.
Whether this is to be regarded in a positive light depends on one’s perspective on neo-liberalism.
What’s certain is that in Clinton’s perspective, it’s not a matter of ask what you can do for the peace process, but what the peace process can do for you.
None of the likely candidates in November’s election fill me with enthusiasm. But if I had to make a choice, it would be for Anybody But Hillary.

The BBC2 programme Horizon offered a more rational assessment of the problems posed by drugs in its edition of February 5. It spoke to an impressive array of doctors, scientists, campaigners and users, analysed the evidence and listed the 20 most commonly-used drugs in order of danger. Here it is, from the top: 1: Heroin; 2: Cocaine; 3: Barbiturates; 4: Street Methadone; 5: Alcohol; 6: Ketamine; 7: Benzodiazepines; 8: Amphetamine; 9: Tobacco; 10: Buprenorphine; 11: Cannabis; 12: Solvents; 13: 4-MTA; 14: LSD; 15: Methylphenidate; 16: Anabolic Steroids; 17: GHB; 18: Ecstasy; 19: Alkyl Nitrates; 20: Khat.
That’s as reliable a ranking as is available. Many readers will recognise that it conforms to common experience. Could anti-drugs zealots, official and unofficial, not be persuaded to put that in their pipes and smoke it? Or would that mean they’d miss the buzz?

Great news from Tyrone, where the 32 County Sovereignty Movement has struck a blow against blow.
In a communiqué issued on January 31, the 32 CSM described how members of the Movement had “uncovered a huge cannabis factory in the Kildress area... On entering the premises, the republican activists found a huge amount of cannabis in various stages of growth, as well as assorted parapenalia (sic.) for its cultivation such as vents, heaters and a sprinkler system.
“The 32 CSM members took a local priest along in order to witness them uncovering the drugs haul and to leave him to do with that knowledge as he saw fit.”
They will have known well what the priest would see fit to do – take the info post haste to the PSNI.
No mention in the communiqué of the PSNI conveying its thanks to the armed strugglers for their civic-minded cooperation in ridding Tyrone of evil.
Not that the active service-persons will have expected thanks. Their eyes are fixed firmly on the prize. Onwards to freedom, comrades!
Sinn Fein has differences with the 32 CSM, but not on the drugs question. Here’s justice spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD hailing a garda bust in Monaghan: “While I congratulate the Gardaí on the seizure of 30,000 ecstasy tablets and two kilograms of cannabis, I want to reiterate Sinn Féin’s demand for the resources allocated to Garda Drugs squads to be doubled...”
The best riposte comes from contrarian US commentator P. J. O’Rourke: “No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”
No shortage of suitable subjects for testing in the ranks of the various Republican factions.