Panties are wadding up as Donald Trump “goes there” by raising a topic that is variously called a conspiracy theory, sleazy, or just plain insane: suspicions about the death of Vince Foster, the highest-ranking government official to die under mysterious circumstances since the death of John F. Kennedy. Because official inquiries, led by the crack sleuths at the US Park Police, found nothing to see here, move along, and because a wide variety of accusations were hurled against Bill Clinton while the affable president was in office, all Right Thinking journalists are appalled.

In his characteristic manner for raising, and denying he is raising ,a subject, Trump introduced Foster to the vocabulary of the 2016 presidential race. Lefty site Talking Points Memorandum summarizes:

Trump called the circumstances surrounding his death “very fishy” and the lasting allegations of foul play in some circles “very serious” in a Washington Post story published Monday night.

“He had intimate knowledge of what was going on,” Trump told the Post about Foster’s relationship with the Clintons before his death. “He knew everything that was going on, and then all of a sudden he committed suicide.”

Trump also said about Hillary Clinton: “It’s the one thing with her, whether it’s Whitewater or whether it’s Vince or whether it’s Benghazi. It’s always a mess with Hillary.”

But in his typical fashion, the billionaire mogul claimed he didn’t know enough about Foster’s death to bring it up in the first place.

“I don’t bring [Foster’s death] up because I don’t know enough to really discuss it,” Trump said. “I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don’t do that because I don’t think it’s fair.”

I won’t attempt to delve into the evidence on Foster’s death, but rather focus on why Trump is raising this now. Undoubtedly, his policy of hitting back ten times harder is at the root. That he is doing it more than five months before the election suggests he believes that raising the evidence will create doubts about the pattern of corruption that has been part of the Clintons’ operations ever sicne Hillary made $100,000 on cattle futures in Arkansas.

Bill Clinton no longer carries the aura of likability and the presumption of innocence that protected him as president. And a substantial portion of the Democrats’ base, Sanders supporters, see Hillary as corrupt. This is in stark contrast to the situation during the Clinton presidency, when Democrats united behind an imperiled office-holder. 

Many Sanders supporters are young enough that they have never heard of Foster. The inevitable re-airing of the evidence and the anomalies involved in the suicide theory will be new to them.

The journalistic consensus is that Trump is beclowning himself. Of course, all along, that has been the consensus, ever since he announced his candidacy.

Meanwhile, doubts of about Bill and Hillary’s integrity mount.