Let us resist, in respect of the arrest in New Hampshire of one of Senator Clinton’s campaign aides, Sidney Blumenthal, for drunken driving, the urge to attack him the way Democrats attacked George W. Bush for his 1976 DUI, which was disclosed in the final days of the 2000 presidential campaign. No, what struck us about the news was the affiliation some of the press coverage listed for Mr. Blumenthal — New York University. It turns out, according to the NYU Web site, that Mr. Blumenthal is a “research fellow” at the “Center on Law and Security” of NYU law school, a center that describes itself as “committed to promoting an informed understanding of the legal and security issues defining the post 9/11 era.”

Mr. Blumenthal will no doubt emerge from his dealings of the New Hampshire authorities with a more informed understanding of the legal issues than he had going in. But what the kerfuffle underscores is the way that NYU’s Washington Square campus has become a kind of Clinton administration in exile. Mr. Blumenthal is just one among many, starting with one of NYU’s top administrators, Cheryl Mills. She is identified on the university Web site as “senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary of the university.” Ms. Mills, a 1990 graduate of Stanford Law School, was deputy White House Counsel in the Clinton administration and defended the 42nd president during his impeachment trial. An NYU spokesman told us yesterday that Ms. Mills had moved to part-time status at NYU to serve as general counsel to Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Mr. Clinton’s top White House speechwriter, Michael Waldman, is director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU law school. A director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration, Jacob Lew, was executive vice president for operations at NYU before leaving in 2006 to join Citigroup. NYU will take Democratic Party refugees even if they don’t have strong Clinton ties. A losing Democratic candidate for mayor of New York, Mark Green, ended up as a “distinguished visitor,” lecturing at NYU law school. A campaign consultant to Senator Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, Robert Shrum, has fetched up as a senior fellow at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Now, it’s not as if NYU is the only university that has made itself a home to Clinton administration exiles. Nor is it as if NYU has been adversely affected — applications are soaring, along with the university’s reputation. If Mrs. Clinton is the next president, the connections may redound to the benefit of the university. Its law school has also hosted a few right-wingers, including Kenneth Starr and, this year, visiting from the University of Chicago, Richard Epstein. But it will be illuminating to see whether, should the Republicans lose the White House in 2008, its veterans will be greeted with open arms in the same way that losing Democrats have been.

If not, it will be hard to escape the conclusion that what those doing the hiring at NYU are seeking is not real-world experience that will help manage the institution and educate students, but left-wing ideology. We’ve got nothing but high regard for NYU, which, along with Columbia and CUNY, is a great asset to New York City, and it’s only in that spirit that we offer the suggestion that if donors are really looking simply to subsidize Clinton campaign aides such as Mr. Blumenthal and Ms. Mills, they may find it more efficient to direct their contributions directly to the campaign itself.