It was arguably the roughest week Clinton has had since she left the State Department. Clinton's no good, very bad week

Hillary Clinton isn’t a candidate for president, at least not yet. But last week felt like she was very much in the 2016 grind.

One day, she was weighing in on gun control, Obamacare and social inequality. The next she was taking heat over Benghazi and facing questions about whether as secretary of state she went too easy on the group behind the kidnapping of Nigerian girls.


Then there was Monica Lewinsky, reviving the scandals of 1998.

It was arguably the roughest week Clinton has had since she left the State Department early last year, highlighting the tensions between the past and the future that will inevitably come to a head if she runs.

( Also on POLITICO: Hillary and Monica)

Lynne Cheney, the wife of the former vice president, picked up the Lewinsky story quickly, telling Fox News host Bill O’Reilly: “I really wonder if this isn’t an effort on the Clintons’ part to get that story out of the way.” It was a sentiment some other hosts on the network echoed.

Lewinsky resurfaced with a Vanity Fair essay she penned about her difficult last decade, detailing her inability to find a job and her feelings about what she insisted was a “consensual” relationship with former President Bill Clinton. She faulted Hillary Clinton for engaging in a “blame-the-woman” mentality by dubbing her a “narcissistic loony toon” to the former first lady’s late confidante, Diane Blair.

Clinton and her aides have not commented on the essay, which resulted in a flood of news coverage of a scandal that took place in 1998, providing anyone who didn’t live through it with a crash course. Clinton supporters approached the topic gingerly in private conversations and wouldn’t go near it for the record.

( On POLITICO Magazine: The return of Monica Lewinsky)

For Republicans who’ve been invoking the Lewinsky scandal as a character question about the Clintons ahead of the presidential race, the essay was a welcome development. For the Clintons, it most certainly wasn’t. There’s nothing new to say about the Lewinsky scandal itself; the newness for Clinton’s critics is in trying to tether it to her presidential aspirations.

As pictures of Lewinsky posing for Vanity Fair went viral, Republicans were busy ramping up a select committee to investigate Benghazi. The House panel, created in a party-line vote, ensures the controversy surrounding the 2012 attack will continue as Clinton’s new book about her tenure as secretary of state hits bookstores next month.

The issue generates heat among the Republican base, although it’s not clear that the general public is engaged on it. House Democrats have been split over whether they should participate in an exercise that their leadership has already dismissed as a partisan farce. But they’re also worried about giving Republicans running room if they stay away.

( PHOTOS: Stars line up for Hillary Clinton 2016)

Clinton officials say there’s been no formal interaction with House Democrats about what their strategy should be; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California has appeared to be adamant about having some of her members have sway over the panel’s scope of activities.

The head of the committee has not said whether he will try to subpoena Clinton. Democrats expect blowback on Republicans for what they say is a gross overreach, and anticipate their base rallying around Clinton. But for Clinton, occupying the familiar space of partisan icon is at odds with the post-partisan message she’s been projecting in her recent speeches.

Clinton addressed the Benghazi committee briefly at an event in New York City on Wednesday, sounding somewhat dismissive as she said she felt everything had been answered from her end already.

( PHOTOS: Who’s talking about Hillary Clinton 2016?)

“That’s their choice and I do not believe there is any reason for it to continue in this way, but they get to call the shots in Congress,” Clinton said of Republicans who called for the hearing.

As if all that weren’t enough, Clinton found herself on the receiving end of questions about the kidnapping of 300 Nigerian girls. The Daily Beast reported that Clinton’s State Department declined entreaties from congressional Republicans and others to label Boko Haram, the group responsible for the kidnappings, a terrorist organization. Secretary of State John Kerry gave the group that designation last year.

Outside of Benghazi, which has dominated discussion of Clinton’s State Department tenure, the Boko Haram issue is the first prominent example of her record being scrutinized in the heightened political atmosphere that now surrounds her.

During Clinton’s time at State, “The FBI, the CIA, and the Justice Department really wanted Boko Haram designated, they wanted the authorities that would provide to go after them, and they voiced that repeatedly to elected officials,” the Beast quoted a former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussion as saying.

Republicans have widely circulated the original Daily Beast story. The actual details of why the Clinton-run Department declined to affix the group with terrorist status are complicated — her former assistant secretary for African affairs, Johnnie Carson, was reportedly concerned about elevating the group among extremist outfits and potentially giving the Nigerian government latitude to go after them in an inhumane way.

But those explanations won’t end up being spliced into a 30-second political ad. And the story gives Republicans another chance to stoke doubts about her leadership at State.

It’s the question of Lewinsky that remains the most personally painful and politically unclear for Clinton. Potential GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has been openly critical of Bill Clinton over the scandal, at a moment when Republicans are trying to counteract the Democrats’ edge with female voters.

Clinton allies like Media Matters founder David Brock have slammed Republicans for resurrecting the ghosts of the past to do the potential candidate harm now. It’s a perspective a number of Clinton backers have offered.

This week, Hillary Clinton will rejoin the political force in earnest by hosting a fundraiser for her son-in-law’s mother, Marjorie Margolies, a Pennsylvania congressional candidate.

But as she takes clear steps toward her political future, the echoes of the old days are making the most noise right now.

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