Washington Post staff writers Peter Baker and John Solomon put their speed-reading skills to use and burned through two eagerly-anticipated biographies of Hillary Rodham Clinton that they got their hands on just yesterday: Carl Bernstein’s 640-page, “A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” and the 416-page, “Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” by New York Times investigative reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.

Here’s the Baker and Solomon take on the two tomes:

Two new books on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York offer fresh and often critical portraits of the Democratic presidential candidate that depict a tortured relationship with her husband and her past and challenge the image she has presented on the campaign trail.

The Hillary Clinton who emerges from the pages of the books comes across as a complicated, sometimes compromised figure who tolerated Bill Clinton’s brazen infidelity, pursued her policy and political goals with methodical drive, and occasionally skirted along the edge of the truth along the way. The books portray her as alternately brilliant and controlling, ambitious and victimized.

Bernstein’s book extensively covers Hill’s activities helping Bill fend off bimbo eruptions from the AR statehouse to the U.S. White House, and “includes some damning observations from people once close to the senator,” including Bob Boorstin, who worked for Clinton when she was working on her secret plan to “reform” the nation’s health-care system, and White House special counsel Mark Fabiani, who defended the Clintons during Ken Starr’s Whitewater investigation. Two of Bernstein’s hottest revelations, according to Baker and Solomon:

While in Arkansas … she personally interviewed one woman alleged to have had an affair with her husband, contemplated divorce and thought about running for governor out of anger at her husband’s indiscretions. …

[When Susan McDougal was imprisoned for refusing to testify] Hillary Clinton was convinced she would be next, worried that Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr would indict her for perjury or obstruction of justice arising from statements she made under oath about her work for Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, the Whitewater investment or long-missing billing records. “When I say there was a serious fear she would be indicted, I can’t overstate that,” Fabiani told Bernstein. …

All good stuff, but seeing as how Hillary has been going around the country claiming that she wouldn’t have voted to authorize the Iraq War in 2002 if she knew then what she knows now, Gerth and Van Natta’s book is a greater threat to her presidential aspirations, as the two authors suggest that she did not read the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, “which included caveats and dissents about reports of Iraq’s weapons program,” before casting her Yea vote:

The book looks in detail at Hillary Clinton’s Senate vote in support of the Iraq war, suggesting she may have been motivated by a desire to not abandon her husband’s tough-on-Iraq policy and a need “to prove that she was tough enough” as a woman. …

Clinton’s Senate spokesman, seemed to confirm last night that she did not read the NIE, saying by e-mail that she was “briefed multiple times by several members of the administration on their intelligence regarding Iraq, including being briefed on the NIE.” …

The book portrays Clinton as constantly seeking the spotlight, pushing her way into Senate discussions without invitation. As Senate Democrats were wrestling with their approach to the Iraq war in mid-2006, for example, Clinton is described as inserting her name into a piece of legislation calling for a phased redeployment of U.S. troops. Although she was not originally a co-sponsor of the bill, she said she was, and after storming the floor of the Senate before her turn, she shifted her rationale for her original war vote, the authors write. Her behavior amazed Senate colleagues, they write.

Alfred A. Knopf has printed 275,000 copies of Bernstein’s book, which hits bookstore shelves June 5; three days later, Little, Brown and Co. should have 175,000 copies of Gerth and Van Natta’s book on sale June 8. The WaPo notes, “The size of the print runs mean both publishers expect their books to be major bestsellers.”

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