TPM’s Josh Marshall has a few words for Bill Clinton:
I have to admit that the intensity of Bill Clinton’s attacks on Barack Obama really makes me uncomfortable. I know there are a lot of Democratic party insiders, mostly older than I am, who don’t like it either.
No kidding. I read Newsweek, too:
Prominent Democrats are upset with the aggressive role that Bill Clinton is playing in the 2008 campaign, a role they believe is inappropriate for a former president and the titular head of the Democratic Party. In recent weeks, Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, both currently neutral in the Democratic contest, have told their old friend heatedly on the phone that he needs to change his tone and stop attacking Sen. Barack Obama, according to two sources familiar with the conversations who asked for anonymity because of their sensitive nature.
So long as it is effective however, Bill will continue to wield the hatchet:
“This is excruciating,” says a member of the Clintons’ circle, who asked for anonymity. “But the stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s worth it to tarnish himself a bit now to win the presidency.”
As always with the Clintons, it is all about them.
For Justin Gardner at Donklephant, anguish has congealed into anger:
For the record, and as a Democrat, Clinton’s attacks don’t make me uncomfortable…they make me furious. So much so that I would consider voting against Hillary in the general election. Yep. I’ve said it. It’s much more likely I’d simply sit it out, but as I follow the Hill and Bill show it makes me want to see that vicious style of politics lose, regardless of party affiliation.
Josh, one other thing to consider…it’s unprecedented for a former President to go after a PRIMARY candidate like this, and I don’t think that historic significance should be lost in this conversation.
According to Newsweek, Truman was not kind to Kennedy, but it has been a while. As noted here a few days ago:
During the Clinton era of the 1990s, the Left (including its members in the media) was willing to overlook the Clintons’ often ridiculous bits of spin, on matters both small and large. Indeed, when the punditocracy deigned to take notice, it was often to marvel at the Clintons’ audacity and applaud it.
It increasingly appears that those days are over. Hillary Clinton always lacked the charisma to pull off Bill brand of über-spin. Bill’s efforts as a surrogate have stripped away his once-industrial-strength layer of Teflon.ÂÂ
Now that it is being applied against a charismatic black Democrat, Clintonian über-spin  a key element of Clintonian politics  is becoming an object of mockery, even among a substantial segment of the Left. Obama will not be able to entirely undo that damage, even as part of a potential Clinton/Obama ticket.
To the extent Gardner implies that he would be happy to have that “vicious style of politics” return in a general election against a Republican, he exposes himself as a hypocrite within his own post. It is an attitude that encourages much schadenfreude among those right of center and fuels the vicious cycle Obama ostensibly wants to break.
I will say to partisan Democrats that I will try to rise above that temptaton. It is clearly dispiriting and infuriating for them to realize that the Clintons remain every bit as narcissistic and destructive of the Democratic Party as they were throughout the 1990s, losing the party’s majority in Congress, governorships, and state assemblies, then forcing the party to ditch its pretense to feminism and to wallow in conspiracy theories, all to defend Bill’s habit of promoting women who sexually serviced him and freezing out those who refused his philandering advances.
I feel their pain.
Update: ABCNews reports that Obama will take on Bill and his “statements that are not factually accurate” on Monday’s Good Morning America.
[…] But don’t expect Paul Rosenberg to buy it. This guy would cross the Jersey Turnpike on foot to spit on an Obama picture. To the point where he’s ready to declare Obama “the enemy”. Oddly enough, this is on a website that castigates “Bush Dog” Democrats for not supporting the other Democrats in Congress. I guess so long as Obama was a good boy and took orders he was fine. Or maybe he doesn’t want Bill Clinton to have all the fun. […]
It’s not just the Clintons, Karl. How many partisan Democrats cheered when ex-President Carter publicly and pointedly criticized the foreign policy of sitting President Bush? Their attachment to tradition and decorum is entirely dependent upon whose ox is being gored.
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You do? I think I’ll rather enjoy watching the Clintons and Obama rip each other apart while making a mockery of the racial and sexual identity politics that are so dear to the hearts of their party faithful. With any luck they’ll plow that ground and salt it well.
The Clintons are an American disgrace !! They disgraced their party and this country ….so many times !! Why the democrats even entertain this corrupt couple is beyond me !! Haven’t they sold out this country enough already !! They OWE so many people for their power ….do you really think they care about Americans ?? Too bad this corrupt pair can’t run for Mr. & Mrs. World King and Queen …..then maybe this country could finally be rid of this EVIL DUO !!
Yeah I kinda don’t like them much either.
So tired of Clintonia…so weary…it feels like they’ve been around for 40 years in public life. Why is it that so many libs want this couple back desperately? They have no problem knowing that at least half of the population has highly negative reactions to them. And that’s going to increase on Day One, and steadily go up from there. Pity.
The Democrat primary looks like a Pokemon game with only four cards, Race, Gender, Gassy Platitudes and Lies, that the players skim at each other like pasteboard shuriken.
Why is it that so many libs want this couple back desperately?
Because the Clintons are their party.
Swen,
Flies. Honey. Vinegar. I would prefer that they keep their ill feelings focused on the Clintons than on our schadenfreude.
Not to sound too Beavis-and-ButtHead, but isn’t “titular head of the Democratic Party” a peculiarly appropriate phrase to describe Bill Clinton?
Because the Clintons are their party.
Actually the Clintons are their party’s winners. Sure there are some on the far left who are irritated with Bill for all the reasons that Karl enumerated and more (what about signing welfare reform?).
But, the fact is, nothing succeeds like winning (aka beating Republicans) and the Clintons know how to do it.
Josh Marshall and all the other oh-so earnest chatterboxes will shut up when they have to (or told to). Like the lady said, you don’t have to fall in love, you just have to fall in line.
“Comment by Dr. Weevil on 1/20 @ 9:40 pm #
Not to sound too Beavis-and-ButtHead, but isn’t “titular head of the Democratic Party†a peculiarly appropriate phrase to describe Bill Clinton?”
No.
It should be reserved for Hillary.
It should be reserved for Hillary.
Reminds me of an old geek joke….
Q. What’s Bill Clinton’s email address?
A. president@whitehouse.gov
Q.What’s Hillary’s?
A. root@whitehouse.gov
The Dems aren’t upset at WHAT Bill Clinton is doing, but WHO he’s doing it to.
This is the lesson I take away here, and in fact have been learning my entire adult life. Some people just make themselves untrustworthy.
And to think some here won’t vote for McCain. A two-headed hydra of huckster bullshit is at the gates of the highest seat of power of our great country and you people – you petty backbiters! – won’t do this great country the favor of voting for whoever is the Republican nominee. Bad partisans! I mean, as long as it’s not Huckacreep, you have to man-up and fight the Presidential pardon-selling two-headed hydra.
Jeff, you don’t really want smooth Jethro’s old lady take the helm, do you? Deep inside, I know you’ll come through for the team.
I agree with Thor.
Basis the previous thread with the Wiki post regarding McCain’s torture sessions. This guy is a bad ass for what he endured and y’know given that he may have come down on the wrong side of the classical liberal position on a couple issues doesn’t not give us the luxury on sitting out in November to let Obamalama or Hilde walk in. That would be eons worse than McCain in the WH.
If as conservatives, we cannot settle for a lesser evil and plan to stay at home to suck our collective thumbs, then we have no right to bitch when the shit is lumped on our heads by the neo-socialist, pinko thugs now travelling under the stage name of the Democratic party.
Shame on all of you if you let your ideological purity drive this country to that outcome in November.
[…] analysis, Ari Melber from The Nation delves into the voter suppression charges on HuffPo, and Protein Wisdom channels classic 1990s Bill: “I feel their pain.” On the right, Blue Crab Boulevard has […]
John McCain is a war hero, and the war he was a hero in ended more than 30 years ago.
So I suppose it would be totally out of line to point out that on this MLK Day we should be reminded to judge people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin or, by extension, their sex? Yes, under the circumstances I suppose it would be out of line.