A collection of letters and notes has shed light on the thoughts of Hillary Clinton after her husband Bill's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Photo: AP
Washington: A previously unpublished cache of papers has revealed that Hillary Clinton viewed Monica Lewinsky, the intern with whom her husband had an affair while president, as a "narcissistic loony toon".
The papers are part of the notes and archives of the political science professor Diane Blair, a close friend of Mrs Clinton's, that have been held by the University of Arkansas since Professor Blair's death in 2000.
Though open to the public since 2010 they have become the focus of media attention since being accessed and reported upon by the conservative websiteThe Washington Free Beacon, which published stories about them on Sunday night in the United States.
Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky in 1998. Hillary Clinton called her a "narcissistic loony toon". Photo: Reuters
According to its analysis the documents - which includecorrespondence, diaries, interviews, strategy memos and contemporaneous accounts of conversations with the Clintons from the mid-1970s - paint "a portrait of a ruthless First Lady" who was a "loyal friend, devoted mother, and a cut-throat strategist who relished revenge against her adversaries".
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Mrs Clinton is favoured to become the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and Republican foes have already begun their political opposition to such a run.
The Washington Free Beaconquotes a research paper from the archive written by senior Clinton aides in 1992 as warning that "what voters find slick in Bill Clinton, they find ruthless in Hillary".
The archive also shows that Mrs Clinton supported a government-funded health care system, a position that apparently contradicts her public position since.
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Hillary Clinton called Monica Lewinsky a 'narcissistic loony toon'