Gail Collins: Shaheen In a Skirt?

Gail Collins might not be as crude as Billy Shaheen. But in her own Grey Lady way, the NY Times columnist has recycled the insinuation that transformed Shaheen into an ex-Hillary co-chair.

Let's first have a look at Shaheen's statement, as reported by the Washington Post:

"The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight ... and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use." Shaheen said Obama's candor on the subject would "open the door" to further questions. "It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" Shaheen said. "There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome."

Compare and contrast with this paragraph from the end of Collins's column of today, "Barack’s Blast From the Past" [emphasis added]:

The question is whether Obama has worked out a way to explain all this to the more conservative voters he’d be wooing next fall. (Particularly if the Republican nominee is Mitt Romney, who has never tried coffee.) That doesn’t rank up there with health care programs when it comes to serious issues, but if you want the candidate with the best chance of winning, it’s a fair concern.

Sounds similar, doesn't it?

So, Collins acting sua sponte, or the Clinton campaign keeping the issue alive . . . with plausible deniability?