Back in 1999, Bill Clinton faced impeachment by trial in the Senate after having been impeached in the House. The charges were the same, perjury and obstruction of justice.

Five weeks later, at the conclusion of the trial, Susan Collins of Maine (who broke ranks with her Republican colleagues) said this: ‘’In voting to acquit the President, I do so with grave misgivings for I do not mean in any way to exonerate this man…He lied under oath. He sought to interfere with the evidence; he tried to influence the testimony of key witnesses. And while it may not be a crime, he exploited a very young star-struck employee whom he then proceeded to smear in an attempt to destroy her credibility, her reputation, her life.”

This same man strode across the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport last week to ‘chat’ with the U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who will shortly be presented with the results of a federal criminal inquiry into his wife’s decision to set up her own private email server while serving as the nation’s top diplomat. And who subsequently responded to a public records request by self-selecting what she and her closest aides thought the public had a right to know, and what we did not, what was personal and what was official, and lastly what was confidential, classified, and secret to top-secret. More than half of the server’s contents were deleted, and the IT kid (Bryan Pagliano) who set up the server in Clinton’s Chappaqua home has taken the 5th Amendment 100+ times since the inquiry began. Add to this Clinton and her close aid’s refusal to be interviewed by the State Department’s OIG investigators — like ‘fight club’ they weren’t allowed to mention its existence during the normal course of business for four years, and we’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re in a hot LZ that typically flourishes around the Clintons.

Bill’s breathtakingly entitled tarmac stroll has ratcheted up the stakes for career prosecutors and the Attorney General. It’s not a stretch to guess that everyone involved is pissed off. Bill’s visit means everyone involved is going to shine an extra row of klieg lights on the decisions and dubious explanations for those decisions made by the former Secretary of State.

Hillary Clinton may just be starting down the same well-worn path her husband trod 17 years ago, with the problem being that she does not enjoy his popularity then or now, nor his seal of office. Impeachment is, after all, a grave and profound undertaking.

Hillary is, for the moment, just an ambitious former cabinet member running for president. But she may also be having her own turn at perjury, and potential obstruction of justice. Which leads inevitably to the question most are asking: If this is what HRC does when she’s got some power, what happens when she’s gets a whole lot more?

I don’t dislike HRC, but I’ve never really liked her all that much either. I will vote for her, but I wish she’d stop giving me so many reasons to look down when I do.