Hillary Clinton’s week just went from bad to worse

Losing New Hampshire by 22 points to an avowed socialist was bad enough for Hillary Clinton. But then came the news  — that the State Department had opened a inquiry regarding the activities of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation during her time time as secretary of state. And bad went to way, way worse.
By my count, this latest State Department inquiry makes for three active investigations by the federal government that touch directly or indirectly on the 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner.
1. The newly revealed State inquiry into the Clinton Foundation and top Clinton aide Huma Abedin

Campaign 2016 Email Updates

Get the biggest election stories in your inbox.

2. The ongoing State inquiry into Clinton's private email server
3. The FBI investigation into Clinton's email server
And that list doesn't include the myriad looks Congress is taking into Clinton's time at State.
It's worth noting right at the top here that Clinton herself is not the target of any of these inquiries or investigations. Which from a legal perspective is very important, but which, from a political perspective, is far less convincing.
Here's why the latest revelation regarding Clinton's time at State is so problematic:
* It furthers the "where there's smoke, there's fire" argument.  This hurts Clinton both coming and going. For Republicans, it hands them yet another way to suggest that something untoward is going on with Clinton. For Democrats, it increases their anxiety about the possibility of nominating someone who could fall under an ethical cloud just as the party is trying to elect them to the White House.
* It makes it increasingly difficult for Clinton, as she has done since the revelation that she had a private email server broke a year ago, to cast the questions raised about her time at State as simply a partisan fishing expedition. "There is a concerted effort to try to make partisan advantage by really trying to throw so much at me that even if little splotches of it stick, it will cloud peoples's judgment of me," Clinton told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow this week. "That is a burden I carry."
There is, without question, a desire on the part of many Republicans to cast Clinton in the worst possible light using almost any means necessary. But it strains credulity to believe that Republicans somehow concocted a way to get the State Department and the FBI to look into Clinton's tenure at State.



      

Sanders, Clinton thank New Hampshire voters

Play Video2:5Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told supporters in Concord, N.H., that his win there sent a "message" across the country. Rival Hillary Clinton said despite the loss, she still loves Granite StatersAs I wrote in this space this week, at some point Clinton will need to directly face down the fact that it's not just Republicans who are talking about her emails or her paid speeches or the Clinton Foundation. The numbers coming out of the New Hampshire exit poll make plain that Democratic voters care about honesty in their politicians, and those that prize it the most are voting heavily against Clinton.

The revelation of another investigation will only further those concerns and worries — at a time when Clinton is trying to face down Bernie Sanders's increasingly robust challenge.  Clinton will almost certainly be asked about the latest State investigation in the debate tonight. How she responds — and whether Sanders or the debate moderators push her on that response — could be a pivot point not just tonight but in the race more generally.