Speaking on the legacy of Hillary Clinton at New York's 92nd Street Y last night, veteran journalist Carl Bernstein ruffled the graying feathers of several old gals who came to defend the Democratic candidate for the presidency. Bernstein was promoting the paperback release of his Hillary biography, Hillary Clinton, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, to an audience that skewed over 50, female, and staunchly—rabidly even—in Clinton's corner. No shock, then, that much of Bernstein's candid interview with irksome New York 1 reporter Budd Mishkin was viewed by the Hillary-crazed audience as no less than a rocket-propelled grenade aimed at the hull of their gal's campaign.

It didn't help that the conversation focused on Bernstein's conception that a "fear of humiliation runs through Hillary's life," from coping with a misanthropic father who verbally abused her mother to managing Bill's philandering. When Bernstein got to talking about how Hillary had failed the Washington, D.C., bar exam and hadn't told even her closest friends for decades, he caused one older woman to scream out to him for harping on the point. It wasn't yet time for the Q&A, and these chicks were gettin' ornery! Wild times at the 92nd Street Y.

It must be said that Bernstein wasn't criticizing Clinton for failing the bar and keeping mum about it, but merely using the episode to illustrate her fear of humiliation and what he calls "her difficult relationship to the truth." But there's no pleasing a pack of Golden Girls in search of blood. Bobby's no longer in possession of the sorta good looks that got him some hot tail back in the day (Liz Taylor, Bianca Jagger), so the bar exam issue remained something he couldn't charm away: "I'm amazed that so much of the evening is turning on this. I wouldn't have brought it up," he said.

Then came Bill Clinton and his role in Hillary's campaign. Bernstein called the former president's role "a mess. He has lost it a number of times and said things that are astonishing ... conveying a sense of desperation that makes him seem very small." Ouch.

But the Pulitzer-toting journo didn't have a problem with Hillary turning on the waterworks last week. That was saved for what he sees as the media's intense, overblown focus of the episode, calling the coverage "a step away from real feminism. We're the ones that are overdoing it." And with that came his salvation, the tide of estrogen sweeping to his side in a fit of applause. Maybe the old boy hasn't lost his touch so soon after all.