Trump’s playing of the Bill Clinton card is foul — but fair

Fair play can sometimes be a raunchy racket.

In the midst of Hillary Clinton’s promising presidential bid, a blast from the past blew through the backdoor and rattled the joints of the political edifice of Clinton. Juanita Broaddrick, the Arkansas woman who has claimed that in 1978, then-state Attorney General Bill Clinton raped her, said that Hillary Clinton is “not the one” to talk about violence against women and tweeted that she is an “enabler.”

As a heckler promptly inserted herself into a Clinton rally, Donald Trump wasted no time posting a heat-seeking ad on Instagram linking her to a gallery of famous sexual predators and deviants, including alleged rapist Bill Cosby, sexter Anthony Weiner and, of course, her own husband.

Except for the latter, these connections are inarguably tenuous. Hillary Clinton’s involvement with Weiner is primarily through his wife, Huma Abedin, a close adviser. As for Cosby, the ad shows Clinton in a photograph with the once-brilliant star. How many thousands of others were happy to be caught in the same frame with Cosby, long before anyone knew of his alleged predations?

What does any of this have to do with Clinton? She isn’t, after all, a guilty party. Then again, one is judged in part by the company one keeps. The question of character isn’t always “what did you do?” but “what were you willing to tolerate?” Trump’s ad-meister smartly associated Clinton with a cast of characters whose values can’t be heralded as exemplary.

It’s unlikely, however, that anyone’s mind will be changed by what is already known. Many younger voters, who may not be as familiar with Clinton history, have been shaped by a world that bears little resemblance to their parents’, and they may well find such revelations short of earth-shattering or even interesting.

The Trump ad, though obviously dishonest, is nonetheless shrewd. Trump took Clinton’s most shining moment — her defense of women and her 1995 speech at the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women — and turned it against her. As the images flick past, we hear then-first lady Clinton’s famous words: “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.” And then, “Let’s keep fighting for opportunity and dignity.”