It's been 13 years, but Republicans still chasing after Bubba

What did Monica Lewinsky do to deserve Rand Paul?

Oh, yeah. That.

Paul, of course, is the junior senator from Kentucky of the looneytarian, er, libertarian, persuasion who apparently thinks he would make a good presidential candidate in 2016. He recently shifted from his almost constant attacks on President Obama and the Affordable Care Act to start sniping at the Clintons.

He somehow decided that the best way to win friends and influence Republicans was somehow to resurrect the Clinton impeachment stuff that went so well for them back in 1998.

Rand has the same problem some other conservatives have. He just can't seem to understand why something that bothers him wouldn't bother everyone else.

The stunning thing that causes their brains to lock up is that Clinton was more popular with the country when he left office than when he took office. And in the 13 years since then, he has become a sort of beloved elder statesman to much of the country.

If that was all that was at stake here, Paul probably would be complaining about something different. But of course, Republicans seem to see the greatest obstacle to them regaining the White House in 2016 as Hillary Clinton. A recent survey said 73 percent of Democrats favored her as the 2016 nominee, an amazing number for someone who is neither an incumbent nor a former nominee.

That's why Republicans have been hammering away at her for so long on Benghazi. Since that hasn't worked all that well, Paul took the debate back to the future with Lewinsky.

After all, Republicans' Benghazi attacks were ringing sort of hollow because of the fuss they hadn't made about eight embassy attacks between 2001-09 under President George W. Bush.

And of course there's 911.

Hearing Republicans blather about no one being fired for the four dead in Benghazi sounds almost imbecilic when compared to no firings when more than 3,000 Americans lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.

The irony of Paul going after the Clintons on Zippergate, or Zipperghazi to give the GOP its modern rhetoric, is that in her role as aggrieved yet forgiving spouse, Hillary Clinton found herself on the right side of Americans' affections for the first time.

For every angry woman furious that she stood by her man, there were two or three who understood why a woman could forgive the man she loved and appreciated her for it.

If there's one thing Republicans don't seem to comprehend, it's that when all they do is preach to the choir, to their own hard-core supporters, they are appealing to a voting bloc that is getting smaller every year.

In fact, the demographic group that votes most solidly Republican is white people over the age of 65. That's a rapidly growing group if you consider baby boomers -- I'll join it in December -- but the more boomers who reach 65, the less conservative the overall group looks.

You don't grow a political party by excluding people.

You need to be inclusive, and to be inclusive, you have to find new ways to appeal to people. You don't do that by trying to stir up an old issue that didn't even happen in this century.

Especially when it means going after the most beloved president since Ronald Reagan.