Is this what we have to look forward to the next twelve months before Election Day: any time a member of the media asks Hillary Clinton a tough question, her husband is going come to her defense, wagging his finger as he only he can, declaring in his smug tone that she was unfairly treated?

Such was certainly the case Friday when former President Bill Clinton aggressively responded to a reporter’s question about Tuesday’s Democrat presidential debate when NBC’s Tim Russert asked Hillary:

Senator Clinton, I’d like to follow up, because in terms of your experience as first lady, in order to give the American people an opportunity to make a judgment about your experience, would you allow the National Archives to release the documents about your communications with the president, the advice you gave? Because, as you well know, President Clinton has asked the National Archives not to do anything until 2012.

As you likely know, Hillary stumbled a tad with her answer Tuesday, and, as a result, her husband responded to this reporter as if he was back on the set of "Fox News Sunday" poking Chris Wallace in the chest (video available here, h/t Hot Air):

In all my born days in watching presidential debates, Tim Russert holding that letter up to my wife, and telling the American people that that was a letter from me to the Archives to cover up records involving her, and to make sure none were released by 2009. That is what he said. Do you agree that’s what he said? You asked the question, so I’m asking. Why did you ask the question? Because of what he said during the debate, right? What did he say? Have I fairly represented what he said?…No, he used the word "2009," but let me just say, the truth is Hillary didn’t know what he was talking about. The implication was that in the last few weeks since she’s been a candidate, I had endeavored to cover up records involving her. Do you agree with that? That was what people thought when they heard that question. Here are the facts.

Read it all here at Newsbusters