Lady and the Tramp In conservative bomb-thrower David Brock's surprisingly sympathetic book, "The Seduction of Hillary Clinton," the First Lady is neither a saint nor a bitch -- she's a woman who loved too much. A conversation with the controversial author. By DWIGHT GARNER Illustration by Andrea Ventura Consider the strange case of David Brock, the right-wing hit man who's come in from the cold. Or has he? Best known for his vicious attack journalism, Brock is the man who labeled Anita Hill "a bit nutty, and a bit slutty" (in his 1993 book "The Real Anita Hill"), and the man who authored the infamous "Troopergate" story about Bill Clinton's alleged sexual escapades while the governor of Arkansas. As a writer for The American Spectator, Brock has often seemed to be purely on the Sleaze Beat — the man who is willing to express, under the guise of objective journalism, the skankiest thoughts that swim through most conservative's minds. For liberals, of course, Brock has long been a man they've loved to hate. He's been criticized not only for relying on dubious sources for his most salacious facts, but also for the inherent contradiction of being a gay man who writes for the often gay-bashing American Spectator. For all the controversy Brock has kicked up in his earlier work, it is safe to say that no one quite expected the revelations in his latest bestseller, "The Seduction of Hillary Clinton" (The Free Press). Predictably, Brock dishes some dirt here — notably his allegation that Hillary Clinton hired a private detective in the early 1980s to keep tabs on her husband's philandering. But what has really shocked readers on both sides of the political spectrum is that "The Seduction of Hillary Clinton" is actually a sympathetic, fairly glowing portrait of the First Lady's political convictions and activism. In Brock's view, Hillary Clinton's One Big Mistake was getting involved with Bill Clinton — a con-man who "brought her into contact with the gritty money-politics system of Arkansas, entangling her in a web of unsavory associations from which she attempted to distance herself — first in Little Rock, then in Washington — but which followed her to the White House and ultimately wreaked havoc on her life and reputation." It makes sense that Brock was drawn to Hillary Clinton's story. Like Anita Hill, the First Lady is a lightning rod — people's opinions about her are as visceral as they are factual. As with Anita Hill's story, too, the Hillary Clinton saga has lurid sexual overtones. "My sense of it is that (Bill Clinton) is basically a sex addict," Brock bluntly puts it. Is Brock's pro-Hillary tome the sign of a political conversion? He doesn't think so. "If they read the book, they'll see that there are a lot of themes in here that should appeal to conservatives," he says. "There are a lot of right-wing ideas in the book." Nevertheless, when Salon talked with him by phone at his home in Washington D.C., he said that "The Seduction of Hillary Clinton" has put him in a difficult position, politically. "Right now," David Brock said, "I have no friends."

Next page: From Lady Macbeth to long-suffering wife.