Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal has a wonderful article about Hillary Clinton in Friday’s edition.

In it she says people who know Clinton (and she knows a lot of the ones who do) do not have doubts about her toughness, but qualms about it instead.

In New York this week she told a women’s lunch that “we face a new question–a lot of people are asking whether America is ready to elect a woman to the highest office in our land.” She suggested her campaign will “prove that America is indeed ready.” She also quoted Eleanor Roosevelt: “Women are like tea bags–you never know how strong they are until they get in hot water.”

Mrs. Clinton is the tea bag that brings the boiling water with her. It’s always high drama with her, always a cauldron–secret Web sites put up by unnamed operatives smearing Barack Obama in the tones of Tokyo Rose, Chinese businessmen having breakdowns on trains after the campaign cash is traced back, secret deals. It’s always flying monkeys. One always wants to ask: Why? What is this?
The question, actually, is not whether America is “ready” for a woman. It’s whether it’s ready for Hillary. And surely as savvy a campaign vet as Mrs. Clinton knows this.

Who, of all the powerful women in American politics right now, has inspired the unease, dismay and frank dislike that she has? Condi Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein? These are serious women who are making crucial decisions about our national life every day. They inspire agreement and disagreement; they fight and are fought with. But they do not inspire repugnance. Nobody hates Barbara Mikulski, Elizabeth Dole or Kay Bailey Hutchison; everyone respects Ms. Rice and Ms. Feinstein.

Hillary’s problem is not that she’s a woman; it’s that unlike these women–all of whom have come under intense scrutiny, each of whom has real partisan foes–she has a history that lends itself to the kind of doubts that end in fearfulness. It is an unease and dismay based not on gender stereotypes but on personal history.

She has demonstrated her “toughness” when she fired the White House Travel team, brought in an unsavory character to check FBI files on “enemies”, invented the “War Room” and threw a few lamps around in the White House. Not to mention she thumbed her nose at the justice system about her Rose Law Firm billing records. They just suddenly appeared on a White House table, out of nowhere, with her fingerprints all over them. But it was after the statute of limitations had expired. How convenient.

No, we don’t question her toughness. We worry about the way she uses it.