Bill Explodes But Then Apologizes

So in Milbank, South Dakota on the day before the primary there Bill Clinton grabbed the hand -- and wouldn't let go of it -- of Huffington Post "Off the Bus" blogger Mayhill Fowler. He exploded in a tirade of invective against Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum -- a "scumbag" -- for his "slimy" article about Bill Clinton's life post presidency in the magazine's July issue ("Bubba Trouble: The Comeback Id").

By so doing, Clinton proved one of Purdum's points: that the former president has an anger management problem; that he seems to suffer from persistent rage. He also shows that, as usual, he thinks first about himself. Wouldn't it have been better for Hillary, if, on the eve of the last two primaries, as practically everyone -- except her spokesman, Mo Elleithee, her superdelegate counter/enforcer, Harold Ickes, and Clinton spinner/toady Lanny Davis -- has her finally quitting the race for Bill to have just kept his mouth shut.

But when it comes to trying to scrub the tarnish from his legacy, Bill just can't be quiet. He just keeps adding fuel to the fire; calling attention to the fact that the memo released on Sunday from the "office of President Clinton" -- likely written by Clinton's former "butt boy" Doug Band, one of the targets in Purdum's piece, and not a very attractive character in my book either -- ignores the most incendiary of Purdum's insinuations: that Bill Clinton is still philandering.

The former president told Fowler that he had not read the Vanity Fair article. The truth is probably closer to this: one of his aides printed it out for him -- Clinton does not use a computer and, as I describe in detail in my just-published book, Clinton in Exile: A President Out of the White House, aides print out emails and blogs -- and Clinton read it in the middle of the night, likely turning red-faced and furious and doing as he often does; calling FOBS and yelping about the unfairness of it all and refuting the story point by point where possible or even where not possible.

Of course the president broke the cardinal rule of PR 101: don't call attention to an article that rehashes a lot of what was is already out there and would have died on its own. Had Clinton not reacted, Todd Purdum would not have been talking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN. He would not have been repeating the meat of the piece, including the controversial assertion that Bill's bypass surgery on Labor Day, 2004, in essence, messed up the former president's head, and that aides worried about rumors that Bill had been "seeing a lot of women on the road."

Jay Carson, a spokesman for Bill and later the traveling press secretary for Hillary, trashed the article on Sunday night as a "tawdry...attack piece...includes numerous errors." But a day later Carson was conveying apologies for the president's "inappropriate language," including, presumably, the use of the word "scumbag." That was not a great word choice for a man whose biography will always have attached to it the colorful phrase, "bimbo eruption," coined by an Arkansas aide as Bill considered running for president and aides worried abut his alleged zipper problem.

When Bill grabbed the hand of Mayhill Fowler one wonders if he realized that she is the same blogger who recorded Obama at a private fundraiser in San Francisco referring to working class folks who cling to their guns and religion out of frustration. Did Bill think he had a friendly audience?

And is that why he seemed again to stick his expensively clad foot in his mouth, just as the possibility that Hillary could be on Obama's ticket surfaced again. (The attention span in national politics is short; wasn't it just recently that Hillary's comments on Bobby Kennedy's assassination in June 1968 outraged Obama and made it impossible for this ticket to ever come together?) Now comes Bill hitting Obama the Inevitable over the head with Father Pfleger, the Catholic priest and Obama friend from Chicago who mocked Hillary during a sermon/tirade at Obama's now former church, Trinity United.

Did Bill just dash his latest strategy -- that Hillary gets on the ticket as the surest route to the White House. Again, Bill Clinton proves one of my book's central points: that it is always about him.

Showing a tin ear when it comes to himself, he even repeats in his outburst to Mayhill Fowler words that apply precisely to him throughout his public career: Purdum "...ought to be ashamed of himself. But he has no shame."

Comments

[BubbaC33]

The piece in Vanity Fair is unfair speculation. No one in the article accuses President Clinton of actually having an affair. No one in the article claims to have any proof of an affair. This article should have been in Glode or The National Enquirer, not Vanity Fair.
But it is indicaative of the manne in which the MSM treats the Clintons. Rolling Syone's Matt Taibi admitted in an article to hating the CLintons, but was allowed to continue to write about the campaign, clearly showing a lack of ethics at RS and a lack of ethics on the part of the "reporter" for RS. And Rs is nnot an isolated journalistic entity, but fits the herd mentality of the MSM. Obama was given a pass for his actions and for the actions of those around him. Consider the priest who visited at Obama's church. Had he mocked a black person in a similar manner Obama supporters would be calling for his head. But since it was Ms. Clinton it was acceptable for the sexist rant.
Anything and everything the Clintons say or do is misconstrued by the MSM, purposely and with the goal of attacking them as often as is possible. Obama, on the other hand, has largely been given a pass.

[tweety1]

Wow, it's amazing how quickly people turn on others. It was not so long ago the the Clintons (Both Bill and Hillary) could do no wrong. NOW they can do no right! When people realize that ALL policiticians are POLITICIANS then you won't be so disappointed when they don't live up to all the "promises" they make!

[califlefty]

I thought that the Clinton political machine was dead and buried? Oh wait, I see there's another 12 hours to go - let the bashing continue.

[wizened]

If someone had written a novel with this plot the critics would have panned it as totally unrealistic. We live in very weird times. Unfortunately, the Clintons, both of them, have vastly detracted from the dignity of the Presidential Office and the new standard of behavior is accepted and defended by many Democrats. Their positions on the issues are not very different.- for the most part only nuance seperates them. Obama conducted himself with great dignity. Lapses were rare. Hillary and Bill were outraqgeous a good part of the time. Yet she still got 19 million votes in the primaries. And now Bill ends it with this vulgar display. 19 million votes! You have to ask "Why?"

[kiga]

I don't suffer from "abused woman syndrome" with nowhere to go. DNC has this wrong. This time, I have the strength to leave this relationship and not vote for "Donald Duck" as I have for the past 2 times. Hillary has won more votes and Obama has stolen the nomination by stealing the caucuses. I, for one, will not reward a cheater with my vote, I don't care if Hillary tells me to vote for him; this is bigger than Hillary! I am sick of DNC producing an out of touch, elite, loser every 4 years and will write her in (I already have asked for absentee ballot, so I can do that).

[XME]

What does your revenge rant have to do with this article?

[ReportThis]

Considering the more serious altermative, throwing away your vote on a write-in for Hillary strikes me as an eminently sensible idea. Thank you for your participation in the political process.

[rmreddicks]

When you're dealing with Bill Clinton you're dealing with a would be Napoleon. It's difficult to imagine the troubles that Hillary Clinton has had to deal with as his spouse. Lord, he was lucky when he was president (despite all the Gingrich inspired attacks) excepting some of those Serbians and Somalians.

I'm inclined to think that Hillary Clinton sees herself as more than Josephine. Catherine the Great? Elizabeth I? Thatcher?

If she didn't have the baggage of her husband or her lies and her seemingly avaricious intent, I would have been happy to support her.

[doodlefarbe]

Poster Geoffo writes, "...one expects a former President to ...speak in public with an air of graciousness, dignity and .... The temper tantrums only make Bill look a trifle sad and foolish "
- - and in her article, Ms. Felsenthal writes, "Clinton proved one of Purdum's points: that the former president has an anger management problem; that he seems to suffer from persistent rage. "

Tantrums? Rage?

I'm not a Clinton cheerleader, but have you people listened to the audio Ms. Fowler taped?

He's not having a "tantrum" in a "rage". He's just speaking more or less conversationally. And for Geoffo, if you listen to the audio, you can tell that Fowler set him up. This was not a public Q/A session where he's calling Mr. Purdum a scumbag, etc. It was a private question from Fowler to Clinton.

And when I say "set him up" - listen to the question she asks - she calls the Vanity Fair article "that hatchet job somebody did on you in Vanity Fair", which makes her out as a sympathetic listener to him. She also doesn't tell him she's recording the conversation, nor identify herself as a HuffPo reporter.

Should he have used the words "scumbag", etc? Probably not. But listen to the audio and you can tell his responses were pretty measured - it's obvious he was not speaking in anger, just speaking his mind.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/bill-clinton-purdhum-a-sl_b_104771.html

[Siryn]

I think he doth protest too much.

[independent32955]

Name just ONE time that Bill has kept his mouth shut?

The kind of hubris that people like the clinton suffer from is not easily removed. Of course, that's probably part of the reason why so many people wanted a new direction this election cycle.

[StephenDedalus82]

Clinton doesn't have free speech? Even when being baited into saying his opinion on a trashy hit job written about him?

[ann1]

Mr. Clinton, it's called ANGER MANAGEMENT

[harriscrl3]

This is the kind of DRAMA Obama does NOT want in his administration. I do not think Hilary is going to be VP.

Carol

[Piatt]

"Wouldn't it have been better if Bill had kept his mouth shut?" Yes...from New Hampshire and South Carolina on. This "man" is a childish, undisciplined, self-pitying, obfuscating and irresponsible egomaniac. I wonder how many clicks his meltdown have generated for the Vanity Fair article?

[Mdazes]

Obama is in big trouble. A white man said crazy stuff about Sen Clinton at his church and he is blame.
A white man write a sleazy article about Bill Clinton and Obama is put in the mix. I dont think Obama know what he has gotten himself into.

[missette]

This is just the kind of behavior people fear would dominate the headlines should Hillary be chosen as the vice presidential candidate. Obama'd have to spend way to much time babysitting Bill and giving him time outs, just as Hillary had to early in her campaign. It IS an important consideration.

[OtayPanky]

Carol Felsenthal: Wouldn't it have been better for Hillary, if, on the eve of the last two primaries, as practically everyone has her finally quitting the race, for Bill to have just kept his mouth shut?

===

There are two Bills in play, so the question is, "Better for who?".

Would it have been better for good Bill - the one that worked his heart out from the back of a flatbed truck in Podunk to get her elected - or at least a VP spot so she could be elected later?

Sure.

Would it have been better for bad Bill - the one that is terminally narcissistic, and is tortured by the prospect that she would replace him as the center of attention in Billaryworld?

Not so much.

[sed68]

That's pretty interesting. I wonder how much speculation will emerge about whether Bill's bad behavior during this primary was par-for-the-course, or passive aggressive attempts to prevent Hillary from overtaking him.