EDITORIAL: Bill Clinton, in familiar form - Opinion

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Jan. 25, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Bill Clinton, in familiar form

Thick skin would be best for Barack Obama

I "think it's cute how loyal and hard-working he is for her," Sandra Korbelik, an urban planner in Aiken, S.C., told a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

Ms. Korbelik attended a two-hour campaign stop by former President Bill Clinton in the horse-country southern town on Tuesday.

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She was referring to the take-off-the-gloves criticism of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama -- chief rival to former first lady and current New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination -- in which the former president has increasingly indulged while campaigning.

"People are saying he should tone it down. I don't think so," agreed Teresa McMinn, who attended the Aiken town meeting with about 300 other people in the basement of the municipal building. "I think if the other candidates' wives were running, they'd be right there for their wives like he is," said the self-employed home renovator.

Mr. Clinton recently characterized Sen. Obama's account of his voting record on Iraq war funding as a "fairy tale." That grated on many, particularly in the black community. And his interpretation of Sen. Obama's comment that "The Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time" to mean "Republicans have had all the good ideas" has also brought charges that the former president -- anxious to defend his legacy as the era's great "agent of change" -- is willing to bend the truth.

The Obama campaign on Tuesday announced the formation of a South Carolina "Truth Squad" to combat what it called the "misleading negative" Clinton attacks in the run-up to Saturday's primary there.

Sen. Obama has responded by frequently mentioning "Sen. Clinton and President Clinton" in the same breath and in a pejorative way, suggesting they are running against him as a tag team.

People in South Carolina "don't want to see this backbiting, bitter give-and-take that we're beginning to see more and more of, especially from the Clinton campaign," comments former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. "It's wrong ... and it's got to stop. It's not presidential. It's not in keeping with the image of a former president."

Donna Brazile, a veteran strategist on Democratic presidential campaigns including both Clinton-Gore bids in 1992 and 1996, has been critical of the former president's acid tone in some of his comments.

In a Tuesday e-mail, she wrote, "When it comes to mud-fights, the Clintons make their own brew."

Indeed. None of this should surprise experienced Clinton watchers.

When Mr. Clinton was in the White House, an organized "Bimbo Eruption Squad" stood by, ready to attack the credibility of any woman who came forward to allege she had been sexually assaulted by the president.

Most famously, Clinton lawyer James Carville said of Paula Jones, "Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find."

The Bimbo Eruption Squad got busy ass-assinating the character of White House intern Monica Lewinsky when reports first surfaced that she and the married president had engaged in sexual activities under his desk in the Oval Office while he spoke with congressmen on the telephone. Clinton hirelings were already preparing to fly one of her former college professors from the West Coast to do the talk show circuit, characterizing her as a pathetic young woman who fantasized about having sex with powerful men -- the well-oiled character assassination machine falling silent only when it was revealed Ms. Lewinsky had kept the infamous blue dress.

Compared to the Bimbo Eruption Squad -- to whole cadres of once-reputable White House associates suborned into sallying forth and publicly defending Mr. Clinton's innocence of whatever offense had surfaced most recently -- the broadsides we've seen unleashed on Sen. Obama to date are lightweight sparring, indeed.

Should he continue to challenge Sen. Clinton's sense of entitlement to her party's nomination, Sen. Obama had best get ready for a lot sterner stuff.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. ron wrote on January 31, 2008 02:24 PM: Make sure to see the Rolling Stone article - - HILLARY CLINTON, THE NEW NIXON" http://www.alternet.org/election08/75233/ Jeff W. wrote on January 26, 2008 06:33 AM: The fundamental question regarding Hillary Clinton is whether or not she can provide leadership on her own. So far, it appears that she needs her husband to fight her battles for her. We've endured 7+ years of a virtual puppet regime, do we really want another one? ff455 wrote on January 25, 2008 10:42 PM: Idiotic commentary and double standard. Hillary took the high road all year until after much media urging, Obama followed Edwards lead and started the first attacks in the debate in Philadelphia in Oct because he was getting is butt kicked so bad in the polls. Now the media always urges him to attack more and Clinton to keep her mouth shut. Ridiculous. David Johann wrote on January 25, 2008 09:23 PM: "ass-assinating" (actually taken from the above editorial) Really, Sherm, you shouldn't (in the vernacular of Saturday Night Live's "Church Lady") "let your naughty parts get all tingly." Interesting that Sherman implies here that that Clinton coerced Lewinsky. As I recall, Lewinsky reported she flashed her thong underpants to Clinton to get the whole thing going. Coercion by a sexual predator indeed. As for Paula Jones, she posed nude for Penthouse: "This caused her to be publicly denounced as 'trailer-park trash' by author Ann Coulter, who said, 'I totally believed she was the good Christian girl who had suffered sexual harassment and eschewal, that is what she made herself out to be.... [N]ow it turns out she's a fraud, at least to the extent of pretending to be an honorable and moral person.' Jones attempted to defend herself on Larry King Live, stating, 'I haven't been out doing anything and trying to make a lot of money. I haven't been offered a book deal like everybody else in this huge thing has done. Ann Coulter's done books. I haven't seen her call me up and say: "Paula, would you like for me to help you write a book, a really nice, decent book?' I haven't had any help from anybody whatsoever."'" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Jones#Life_following_the_Clinton_lawsuit "Jones subsequently appeared in a boxing match against Tonya Harding in Fox TV's Celebrity Boxing in 2002 filling in for Amy Fisher, which she lost." As for Lewinsky, "In December 2006, Lewinsky graduated with a master's degree in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics[11] where she had been studying since September 2005.[12] Her dissertation was titled 'In Search of the Impartial Juror: An exploration of the third person effect and pre-trial publicity.'" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Lewinsky#After_the_scandal Any London School of Economics graduates working for Stephens Media, Sherm? David Johann wrote on January 25, 2008 05:08 PM: Pardon the typos, (meant to type "Clintons'" and "compare," not "come"). Also, here's another fun fact! "Poll: Clinton's approval rating up in wake of impeachment December 20, 1998 "(AllPolitics, December 20) -- In the wake of the House of Representatives' approval of two articles of impeachment, Bill Clinton's approval rating has jumped 10 points to 73 percent, the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows. "That's not only an all-time high for Clinton, it also beats the highest approval rating President Ronald Reagan ever had. . . . http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/12/20/impeachment.poll/ David Johann wrote on January 25, 2008 04:47 PM: When people talk about the Clinton's ethics, I like to come the Clinton administration with that of the right-wing darling, Ronald Wilson Reagan. 29 Reagan appointees were criminally convicted. Of what? Number of Reagan administration era convictions in the Iran-contra scandal: 14 (two overturned on appeal). Number of Reagan officials convicted for illegal lobbying: 2 (Michael Deaver; Lyn Nofziger, overturned on appeal). Number of Reagan officials convicted in Housing and Urban Development scandal: 16. Total number Reagan era convictions: 32 (29 arrived at by subtracting the 3 overturned cases). In addition, Bush [Reagan's vice-president who later became president] pardoned Reagan's Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, indicted on 5 charges. Moreover, the record of actual convictions doesn't tell the whole story. Over 30 additional Reagan appointees resigned or were fired following charges of legal or ethical misconduct, including Secretary of Interior James Watt, Secretary of Interior Raymond Donovan, CIA Director William Casey and EPA Administrator Anne Burford. Many dozens more were investigated. Contrast this to the number of Clinton officials indicted or convicted in Whitewater, Travel Office, FBI files, Monica Lewinsky, Bruce Babbit, Michael Espy investigations: zero. (Assistant Attorney-General Webster Hubbell was convicted of embezzlement, a crime he committed before joining Clinton Administration). Clearly, we don't need another Ronald Reagan or anyone of his ilk. And we certainly don't need another W. What we need is another Clinton! George HW wrote on January 25, 2008 04:38 PM: I think 'tm' needs a spell checker worse than Junior W. does! Andrea Feodorov wrote on January 25, 2008 02:25 PM: bastart? tm wrote on January 25, 2008 02:17 PM: Bill Clinton is nothing but Lying bastart,cheat,you name it he all that tm oldlawdawg wrote on January 25, 2008 12:44 PM: I am not a rabid partisan by any measure, but the thought of another Clinton administration literally makes me physically ill. Yes, I, too, am sick of Bush, and it is time for a change. But HILLARY CLINTON AND HER HUSBAND ARE A STEP BACK, NOT A STEP FORWARD, AND THINKG THE CLINTONS STAND FOR ANYTHING BUT THE CLINTONS IS PURE NONSENSE. WAKE UP, AMERICA, AND JUST SAY "NO!" Read All Comments