It’s not just Republicans who play rough in South Carolina. Rumors have been circulating in the Palmetto State, and elsewhere, that Hillary Clinton is having a lesbian affair. Her alleged paramour: a beautiful aide named Huma Abedin (Oscar de la Renta says he longs to see Huma in a strapless dress before he dies). As you can see from the photo, if Hillary is having an affair with Abedin it would not be evidence of her lesbianism as much as of her common sense and sound judgment.

The hard-to-credit rumor of Hillary’s Sapphic excursions is being stoked by right-wing bloggers. They suggest that this supposed romance shows the candidate is not only a lesbian but consorting with terrorists, given that the Michigan-born Abedin is reportedly from a family brimming with known Muslims.

But it’s not just Republicans who are pushing the story. Will Folks, a well-known blogger in South Carolina, reported yesterday that he’d “heard from sources at rival Democratic presidential campaigns who claim that they ‘know it to be true’ that Hill and Huma are romantically-involved.” I called Folks, and he said that two different Democratic campaigns had told him about the alleged affair, but neither had “presented anything remotely resembling proof.”

Folks said he couldn’t identify which campaigns were spreading the story, so I called Rod Shealy, a top GOP consultant. Shealy told me he had no idea of who was talking up the story—but that the only Democrats with active staffs and organizations in South Carolina were Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson. (On an entirely separate note, Shealy had an interesting observation about Ron Paul’s stunning announcement that he had raised several million dollars in a single day. “That shows that his supporters are not just fringe loonies,” he said. “These are people with checking accounts.”)

Most stories that are too good to be true aren’t true, and Hillary having a lesbian affair with her sexy staffer falls into that category, whether you’re a Republican Hillary-hater or a Democrat who opposes (or is simply endlessly annoyed by) her. And even if it were true, Hillary’s not nearly as reckless or driven as her husband, so she’s unlikely to get caught. Meanwhile, if anyone down in South Carolina knows which Democrats are pushing the Hillary-Huma dalliance please send me an email in strictest confidence to ken@harpers.org.