A friend of mine knows someone who knows someone who claims to know that Hillary Clinton is a "compulsive liar."

That sort of fact sourcing, of course, holds about as much journalistic credibility as a story from my three year old granddaughter. As a political writer, I receive anonymous emails almost daily that detail wildly sordid, remarkably silly stories about Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.

The unique problem with Hillary Clinton's veracity, though, is that credible stories of her dicey relationship with truthtelling, and her proclivity for extraordinary embellishment of her own experience, keep surfacing.

Entertainment mogul David Geffen, a generous Clinton supporter during Bill Clinton's administration, famously commented about the Clintons in early 2007, "Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease it's troubling." Geffen supports Obama in the 2008 race.

Take, for instance, the report on April 6, 2008 by Jake Tapper , Senior National Correspondent for ABC News, that "In Oregon, Clinton Makes False Claim About Her Iraq Record Vs. Obama's." Reports Tapper:

"In Eugene, Oregon, Saturday. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., attempted to change the measure by which anyone might assess who criticized the Iraq war first, her or Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., by saying those keeping records should start in January 2005, when Obama joined the Senate. (A measure that conveniently avoids her October 2002 vote to authorize use of force against Iraq at a time that Obama was speaking out against the war.)

She claimed that using that measure, she criticized the war in Iraq before Obama did. But Clinton's claim was false."

A recent example of Hillary Clinton adopting a story, then adapting the facts to suit her purposes, was recounted by the New York Times article on April 5, 2008, "Ohio Hospital Contests a Story Clinton Tells." Writes reporter Deborah Sontag:

"Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee.

"The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured.

" 'We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story,' said Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O’Bleness Health System."

And then there was Hillary Clinton's much-repeated tale of a dangerous landing in Tuzla, Bosnia amidst sniper fire that caused her to duck for cover. But news footage (now at YouTube, along with Hillary's whoppers) clearly capture Chelsea Clinton and the smiling First Lady being greeting by a young Bosnian girl.

Wrote Charles Krauthammer at the Washington Post:

"Now, confabulation is a fairly common psychological phenomenon. We all have internalized childhood stories so oft repeated by elders that we come to falsely 'remember' the actual experience. Adult memories are less susceptible to such unconscious inventions, but past experiences embellished over time by repeated recounting can reach the point where we actually believe the elaborate trappings of our own retellings.

"Clinton's problem, however, is that a corkscrew landing under sniper fire is the kind of thing that is hard to forget and harder still for memory to invent. This is confabulation on a pathological scale.

"A Clintonian scale. And that's the problem."

In responding to my friend who heard Hillary described as a "compulsive liar," I tactfully avoided addressing that harsh label, but I did admit to recently reading an article that piqued my interest.

That March 31, 2008 article, written by veteran Michigan journalist Dan Calabrese, was entitled "Watergate-Era Judiciary Chief of Staff: Hillary Clinton Fired For Lies, Unethical Behavior." Reports Calabrese:

"Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor...

When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.

Why? 'Because she was a liar,' Zeifman said in an interview last week. 'She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.' "

Is Hillary Clinton a "Compulsive Liar"
Is Hillary Clinton a compulsive liar, as my friend heard whispered not-so-quietly?

I'm not in a position to know that, of course. But judging by the recent string of verifiably tall tales told by the junior senator of New York, it's no leap of faith to believe that there's a problem here. A serious problem.

What Sen. Clinton's four-Pinocchio stories, to use the Washinton Post rating system for whoppers, tell us is this:

• Sen. Clinton richly embellishes facts, to the point of falsifications, to support her purposes and agendas.

• Sen. Clinton doesn't take the time to understand the actual facts of some situations, but runs with the version of the story that best suits her purposes.

• Sen. Clinton lies about and vilifies opponents, again to support her purposes and agendas.

• Sen. Clinton admits falsehoods only when confronted with irrefutable, visual proof. And even then, she admits falsehoods via rationalizations, not by accepting responsibility.

Hmmm... a President with a dicey, distant relationship with truthtelling. A President who embellishes or falisifies facts to suit his agenda. A President who doesn't let the actual facts get in the way of a good, usable story. A President who lies about and vilifies opponents and enemies. A President who stubbornly refuses to take responsibility for lies and the destructive impact of those lies.

Sound familiar? Like I asked more than a year ago, Is Hillary Clinton Too Much Like George Bush?

And more important, can the United States survive another President who routinely lies?