Senator Clinton is a politician with whom we’ve had our differences, but we don’t mind saying that she has done nothing to deserve the kind of treatment she’s received in a new book called “The Truth About Hillary.” Some will say that the burden here is on the Clintons, and that the author, Edward Klein, is just conveying the truth. But we’ve rarely read a book about a serious politician with more of an off-putting smarminess. It sent us to the Web site of its publisher, Pearson, to see what its philosophy was. We discovered a statement of corporate values that said, “In everything we do, we aspire to be brave, imaginative, and decent.” But where is the decency here?

It may be true that the president lied in a sworn deposition in a sexual harassment case. That is a serious matter, though there are those of us who believe the case should never have been admitted to the courts in the first place, at least while Mr. Clinton was in office. But Mrs. Clinton’s thighs, her alleged medical condition that does not affect her job performance, the sexual orientations of her college friends are another matter entirely, as are the sexual relations between her and her husband, and there is no bravery or decency in publishing speculation about them.

We don’t want to sound prudish. We relish a good scandal as much as anyone. But the kind of attack that this book levels against Mrs. Clinton strikes us as something different – and something that is not good for America. It is detached from policy. It discourages capable people from entering public service, knowing that they will be subject to this sort of personal denigration. It debases politics and government and turns the talk to genitalia. It is not what its publisher professes to aspire to. The truth about Hillary Clinton is that she is a serious senator who is inspiring in her ambition and right about some things but wrong about many others, and the right way to fight her is on those terms.