“In her acid flashback of a new book, ‘For Love of Politics,’ Sally Bedell Smith describes how First Lady Hillary routinely unmanned Bill and his aides, and engaged in sharp spurts of temper that sparked his temper.

“‘Hillary’s anger was bound up in the intricacies of her marital bargain, which engendered rivalry and resentment along with mutual dependence,’ Ms. Smith writes. Political power was her reward for his marital infidelity.

“When Bill explains why Hillary should be president, his subtext is clear: We owe it to her for all she put up with from me.” — from today’s (10.21) < strong>Maureen Dowd/N.Y. Times column, titled “Cougars, Archers, Snipers.”