Thirteen years ago, in a celebrated New York Senate race, a not particularly adept Republican candidate (there's a surprise!) named Rick Lazio famously stormed across the debate stage demanding his challenger sign an agreement limiting campaign funds.             

Lazio's opponent, Hillary Clinton, in her most vulnerable Meryl Streepian-dismay, appeared stunned by her adversary's bravado.        

hillary clintonThe next day, Lazio was lacerated for his bullying tactic -- of a poor, defenseless female, no less -- and he was never heard from again. From that moment on, PR advisors have counseled high profile clients to avoid appearing the bully in any confrontation.         

Clinton, of course, easily won that election and went on to greater things, most recently stepping down as a beloved Secretary of State, presumably to prepare to become our nation's first female president in 2016.         

But last week, in the endless replaying of her January Senate testimony on Benghazi -- in which Secretary Clinton lashed out at Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson for his audacity in asking her who might have been behind the attack -- Hillary's presidential express took a dramatic turn off track.

In light of newly-discovered emails first, acknowledging Administration knowledge of terrorists behind the Benghazi attacks and second, choosing not to mention that key fact in spokesmen talking points, Hillary's sarcastic Senate eruption looks not only like a case of "bullying" but perhaps even orchestrated bullying to shut down further pursuit of the real story.

In the now familiar testimony, the Secretary threw up her hands, glared at the Senator, and thundered:

"With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night, who decided they'd go kill some Americans. What difference, at this point, does it make?" 

As it turns out four months later, quite a bit of difference.

Might Benghazi be enough to derail the Hillary presidential juggernaut?

It's possible, especially if it turns out to be the colossal cover-up that the Administration and its allies are trying so desperately -- and ham-handedly -- to prevent. The Hillary tape is sure to receive further traction, both today and in four years when she runs for President. Another casualty caught in the Benghazi cross hairs is the President's hapless press secretary, Jay Carney.

Carney, after labeling pursuit of Benghazi, a "partisan exercise," tried to dismiss the story as "old news;" a Public Relations 101 maneuver that only whetted reporters' appetites. When incredulous journalists suggested that the unexplained and unsolved murders of four U.S. diplomats might still be "news," the chief White House spokesman began furiously back-pedaling.

Today, with riveting testimony from stupefied State Department personnel on the ground in Libya, revelations of high-level concerns about "optics" of mismanagement, and disclosure of 12 revisions designed to white-wash talking points, Benghazi looms as a building PR crisis for the Administration.

And right smack at the center of it is the video of the bellicose Hillary Senate meltdown, looping even more than the legendary Mark Sanchez butt tackle every day on cable television.

Somewhere, Rick Lazio is smiling.