We don't yet know whether there will actually turn out to be something nefarious in the emails that Hillary Clinton somewhat belatedly passed on to the State Department, but I feel confident in predicting that this Clinton scandal will likely play out just like every other Clinton scandal. For those of you who don't remember the 1990s, here's how it works:
1. Bill and/or Hillary Clinton does something that on first glance looks a little sketchy.
2. The news media explode with the story, usually including insinuations that something illegal or corrupt took place.
3. Republicans quiver with joy, believing that this scandal will finally be the one to reveal the true depths of the Clintons' villainy.
4. Clintonworld adopts a bunker mentality, insisting that they did nothing wrong yet trying to limit the amount of information that gets out, thereby antagonizing reporters.
5. As the eight zillion journalists assigned to the story learn more information, the story grows increasingly complex, yet no actual illegality or corruption is found.
6. The story drags on for months or even years, with Republicans never wavering in their certainty that the only reason we haven't learned the awful truth is the Clintons' stonewalling.
7. The more committed conservatives begin to lose their minds, eventually coming to believe spectacularly outlandish theories about what actually happened.
8. The whole thing peters out, and reasonable people conclude that while Bill and/or Hillary might have shown better judgment, they didn't actually break the law, violate their oaths, betray their country, or anything else their opponents imagined.
There are variations, of course, but that's pretty much how things go. And even though it's possible there's an email somewhere in which Clinton instructs her paramour Ayman al-Zawahiri to launch the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, it's probably how things are going to go with this one, too.
