Schieffer Asks Pelosi: Is Bill Clinton Working To Undermine Wife's Candidacy

Would Hillary Clinton's candidacy be on firmer footing if her husband hadn't run off at the mouth and said such crazy, small-minded things every time a camera was around? One could easily argue for the possibility. But are you one of those who look at the litany of Bill Clinton's remarks - from the "Jesse Jackson" comment way back in South Carolina to his inexplicable resuscitation of the Bosnia story this week - and realize that you can't stand it? Because you think he planned it? And you want to set it straight...this Watergate? Well, CBS's Bob Schieffer actually dared give voice to the possibility that it's no mirage, telling all of y'all that it's sabotage:

SCHIEFFER: Let's talk a little politics here. Hillary Clinton's husband is now... has now brought up this whole business about the story that she told about her arrival in Bosnia and about the snipers and all that, he says she's being very unfairly treated. This was something she said late at night. In fact, he has mis-characterized it because she said this on three different occasions. My question is, why would he bring this up again? It seems to me as if it was all dying down, this whole controversy. Now here it is back in the news. Do you think this was a good thing for him to do?

PELOSI: Well, I think you started off the question appropriately. Hillary Clinton's husband. I think Hillary Clinton's husband was being a husband and wanted to be protective of her. To tell you the truth I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about the motivation of comments like that. We're trying to address the subprime crisis, deal with the war in Iraq, have a stimulus package to turn our economy around, deal with global warming issues and the rest. I know it's fun to talk politics but I couldn't possibly tell you the motivation for that remark.

SCHIEFFER: I'll tell you what a lot of people are saying and what's kind of the buzz, it may be....

PELOSI: Tell me because I haven't heard.

SCHIEFFER: Maybe he's trying to undermine her candidacy. Could that be possible?

PELOSI: Maybe it was late at night when he said it and maybe he should be forgiven. What did he say age and time of night? Maybe the same applies to him as he used for Senator Clinton. Senator Clinton and Barack Obama, we have two great candidates. One of them will be President of the United States. The other one will emerge as a great leader and respected leader in our country. It's fun to talk politics. we all know that. But we have serious work to do to take the country in a new direction. I can't for the life of me figure out why the president would have said it except he may have been having a late night adult moment. Let's leave it at that.

[WATCH.]

Comments

[kellygrrrl]

personally, I 'm pretty tired of dissecting the psychological dynamics of The Clinton Marriage.
I feel like we've already been subjected to Too Much Information.

I wish them both the best of luck, whether together or apart from each other.
I just don't want them on the public stage any longer.
Let's move on

[goodsnservices]

Bill Clinton's motives for hurting his wife's campaign, whether conscious or subconscious are debatable and we will never know the truth of it. However, his acts are undisputable. He has harmed her campaign at almost every key juncture as if right on cue. The question I want answered is how is it possible that the "Teflon Kid," a man so crafty that no charge, no matter how sorded or venal, ever stuck to him, could be so simple-minded as to think he was helping Hillary with his comments when time and again, the opposite occurred. You'd think this man would have gotten a clue.

I'm sorry folks, I just don't buy it that he's suddenly lost all his brain cells where his wife is concerned and now can't keep his foot out of his mouth. It doesn't fit with the image of a man who parlayed his speaking skills into a successful lifetime of local, national and international politics.

I speculate that he may know something about Ms. Clinton that we don't, and that he doesn't want her in the office. Or maybe it is something that we DO know about Ms. Clinton, that she can't be trusted with that kind of power.

[RobertAndropolis]

Mr. Clinton is operating on two levels. He has an unconscious motivation that is directing his actions and consistently overriding his conscious desire to help his wife. By definition he is unaware of this unconscious motivation. He does not want to scuttle his wife's candidacy; he wants to scuttle his own legacy. Remember, everything concerning Mr. Clinton is always, ultimately about Mr. Clinton. He has within him a deep-rooted need to balance his long history of tone deafness on moral issues, both professional and personal. This is similar to O.J. Simpson's thuggish behavior last year in Las Vegas; it wasn't so much an indication of Mr. Simpson's arrogance (although that was the conscious-level ingredient) as it was his driving, unconscious need to be punished for his past murderous actions.

[northeast73]

Some things people shoudl know by now....

1. Bill Clinton is more defensive about his wife, then he ever was about himself. Any inkling that she is being treated badly, and he gets very fiery in his defense. If he acted any other way, we might accuse him of being unchivalrous.

2. Bill Clinton wants his wife to get the presidency, perhaps more than he wanted it for himself. Why? HRC gave up her own politcal career early on to be supportive of his....now he is trying to return the favor. Not to mention, she has put up with a lot of his crap, and he probalby feel he owes her.

Nothing more, nothting less.

[Nonamnesiac]

Bill knows better than anyone else that Hillary is not Presidential material. He can't outright oppose her, so he undemines her regularly. Bill knows she's a warmongerer with an incredibly limited world view. He remembers when people in the White House told her that they send in the First Lady when it's too dangerous to send in the President as a way to make her feel important, knowing that she had no idea that he had already been to where he was sending her because she only focused on her own stuff. Never in a million years did they think she'd repeat the comment verbatim.

Bill may not be the most moral guy in the world, but he's not a warmongerer and knows that deep down she is.

So he does what he can -- acts like a bumbler (can you imagine this guy -- one of the smartest politicians in history making this many gaffes unintentionally?) To paraphrase Claude Rains in Casablanca, I remember when he bumbled into the Presidency -- twice.

[Independent voter]

I suspect that on a subconscious level, bill clinton and his massive ego can't deal with the prospect of hillary being a better president than he was.

bill clinton could have been a better president had he only been a better man.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Given the popularity of the phrase "senior moment," methinks the Off-The-Table Pelosi pulled her punch at the last minute... such being one of her specialties.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I'm sure Hillary's been asking herself the same thing.

(Shame on me if same has already been said umpteen times below.)

[PoliticalJunkessa]

I have asked myself this question a time or two. His behavior during this campaign season has left me scratching my head quite often. Despite all his potential upsides and his political gifts, he has definitely shown incredibly poor judgment and plain old stupidity at times. No finesse whatsoever and it almost seems intentional. The prospect of unconscious, unintentional sabotage is definitely intriguing and apsychological analysis of Bill would be fascinating. But, let all that wait til after he successfully completes the digging of her political grave. LOL.

[Seattlelite]

Bill is doing a fine job - don't listen to this nonsense Bill you're doing a fine job for Hillary, keep up the good work, I'm begging you. LOL.

[valleygent]

Ya that's right keep it UP Bill...Get it? Monica did...ha ha ha. Just had to say that.

[tanyainsacramento]

bwaaaaahahahaha

[castlerider]

There is only one thing that stands out in my mind about Scheiffer.
When he was on the campaign trail, asked IN '04 by an Anchor at Network about Dean's scream, and he nodded his condescending nod, saying: " Oh yeah, he's really done it now!" Signalling the beginning of the media onslaught against Dean that was SO NOT AN ISSUE.
In that moment, he showed what he is all about. The capitulation, the conspiracy and the execution of the corporate media's attempt to control the public with what they think is newsworthy and what they think is fair game to destroy.

He is a hack and just another reporter whose actions suggest that people are idiots. Actually if they, or we, were all to think like he does, we all would be idiots, just like him.

[nohat]

This is not a question that the Speaker of the House should ever have been asked---did he really expect her to answer it outright? If, suppose, even Pelosi thinks that Bill is trying to pickle his wife's chances, she cannot, as Speaker, say so---can she?
Without real proof, it borders on defamation of character anyway, I hardly think she is dumb enough, especially as Speaker, to go down that road.
But since it has been asked so publicly, I expect Bill to address it any day now. He will start out with something like, "Y' know, some folks are saying that I don't want Hillary to win the nomination because I don't want Hillary to be President. Let me tell you something..." (finger starts to wag and wave)...", etc.

[LetgoofmyEggo]

Maybe Bill got his orders from Democratic headquarters and was told it won't be a first woman prez but instead a first black prez. After all Obama is male and we all know males are supposed to be superior at least they all think so. If one examines Obama's meteoric rise from relative obscurity this concept really isn't so off the mark. Maybe Billy is just doing what he is told. He's too smart to be making all of this mess accidentally. And this won't be the last horse race to be fixed.

[Seattlelite]

If one examines Obama's meteoric rise from relative obscurity -- interesting comment that's the same thing they said about Bill Clinton when he first ran for President.

[illinB]

Linkins - Now your crystal ball aint so crystal clear...

[plooger]

What the hell is a "late night adult moment"? Especially when used in reference to Bill Clinton, the meaning isn't exactly clear, and certainly wanders from the topic of conversation.

[hubbstan]

I think Nancy did a gracious job to answer the question and trying to bring the focus back to important business.

[neem]

Is Bill undermining Hillary's candidacy? Think about it. She's the President, and she can order people to keep track of his every move. Bill's freedom is over! Hillary will know where he is at any moment. He'll continue to seek romantic liasons, but with his wife as President, this will be much more difficult, if not impossible.

[rwinstl]

although I disagree with your premise, it brings up an interesting thought. would secret service divulge knowledge of such an event to the president (i.e. would Madame President be informed of the first husbands actions)?