B.J. Clinton explains the rules for the Politics of Personal Destruction [1]. Any percieved enemy of the Clintons is fair game. B.J. makes no distinctino between attacking a politician, who is free to defend himself like John Kerry, and attacking a military officer on active duty, who can not by law respond to a political attack, General David Petraeus.
Dean Barnett explains what is missing [2]:
Actually, much of the blame for the debased state of our modern politics rightly lies at Clinton’s feet. When ordinary people dream of being president, they don’t harbor visions of enacting a micro-agenda that focuses on minutiae like school uniforms, midnight basketball and drive-through deliveries (which Clinton often incorrectly labeled “drive-by deliveries”, a term that made absolutely no sense). For a purely political creature like Bill Clinton, it was all about having power. Doing something or anything with that power was a side thought.
With the Clintons everything is personal, and petty.