Party Wreckers, Left and Right

Peggy Noonan has some harsh words for the president:

George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

I agree that Bush has hurt the Republican Party in many respects. But you have to give the man credit where credit is due: at least he got it right on the judges. Presidents come and go, but judges with life tenure tend to stick around.

Noonan also condemns what Bill Clinton is doing to the Democrats:

[T]he Clintons are tearing the party apart. It will not be the same after this. It will not be the same after its most famous leader, and probable ultimate victor, treated a proud and accomplished black man who is a U.S. senator as if he were nothing, a mere impediment to their plans.

Surprisingly, Noonan's thesis on Clinton is echoed by none other than Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich (via Instapundit):

I write this more out of sadness than anger. Bill Clinton’s ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former President, his legacy, or his wife’s campaign. Nor are they helping the Democratic party. While it may be that all is fair in love, war, and politics, it’s not fair – indeed, it’s demeaning – for a former President to say things that are patently untrue (such as Obama’s anti-war position is a “fairy tale”) or to insinuate that Obama is injecting race into the race when the former President is himself doing it.

Bill Clinton's comportment during his wife's campaign -- and his anger management problems -- gives rise to the question: how long has he been unhinged? Was he always this way, and the White House advance team just spared us the image?