Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sips a beer during a tour of the Pearl Street Brewery in La Crosse, Wisc. on Tuesday, March 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

(CNSNews.com) – In the summer of 2015, a longtime Hillary Clinton adviser had a suggestion for her campaign: Get the Democratic presidential candidate to host a staff party, implying that it would do her image good should she be photographed with a beer and “letting loose to some music.”

“I had a thought,” wrote Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress and a former policy director for Clinton’s 2008 campaign.

“Hillary could have a party for the staff in the headquarters – it’s been a long summer and we need to gear up for the fall, and she can say she’s grateful for everyone’s hard work for her.”

“And if some staff take pictures of her with a beer and letting loose to some music – that end up going viral and eventually on TV – so much the better,” Tanden continued.

“The clubbing she did in Latin America as [secretary of state] was awesome,” she added. “Just thought I’d share.”

Tanden sent the email – released by Wikileaks on Monday – to Clinton aide Huma Abedin, Campaign Chairman John Podesta, and Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri.

“Grazie for both,” came the response from Palmieri, a former senior vice president at the Center for American Progress, where Podesta was formerly president and CEO.

As secretary of state in April 2012, Clinton was photographed drinking beer and dancing in a club in Cartagena, Colombia, where she was attending a Summit of the Americas.

The images of America’s top diplomat having a good time drew a positive response from some quarters.

“Clinton letting her hair down is the kind of thing that would play well in that presidential run in 2016 that some of her supporters have suddenly started talking about in the last few weeks,” Politico’s Maggie Haberman commented.

Clinton’s conduct attracted some criticism too.

“The overwhelmingly liberal U.S. media is treating the story as a bit of fun, with the usually austere Mrs. Clinton seen as letting her hair down,” Heritage Foundation scholar Nile Gardiner wrote in a column for London’s Daily Telegraph.

“But I suspect that a lot of U.S. taxpayers will see it differently – as a senior government official having a jolly time on an official overseas junket at taxpayers’ expense,” he wrote. “And this was hardly a display of good judgment at a time when nearly 13 million Americans are unemployed, and U.S. soldiers are laying their lives on the line every day in Afghanistan.”

The email was among the latest tranche of thousands of Clinton campaign-related emails released by Wikileaks. The administration has accused Russia of responsibility, charging that it is trying to influence the election.