The Dhimms will fight! ... but only with each other :-)
Clinton vs. Obama: the gloves come off
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The two front-runners in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination traded jabs Wednesday over remarks made by a Hollywood mogul and a powerful South Carolina lawmaker.
Sen. Hillary Clinton's spokesman called on Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to renounce comments made by Hollywood executive David Geffen that were sharply critical of the New York Democrat and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Geffen is quoted extensively by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd in Wednesday's edition disparaging the former president and questioning whether Sen. Clinton can win the presidency in 2008.
Geffen is quoted in the column as saying the former president is a "'reckless guy' who 'gave his enemies a lot of ammunition to hurt him and to distract the country.'" That apparently refers to the former president's sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
As for Sen. Clinton, Geffen is quoted by Dowd as saying, "Not since the Vietnam War has there been this level of disappointment in the behavior of America throughout the world, and I don't think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is -- and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? -- can bring the country together." ...
Woman, fetch mah beer! Little woman, fetch some popcorn! Whoo-Doggies! Color this Old Dog's tail just a waggin'!
*** Those damned anti-Clintites strike again! Geffen!
The Anchoress
On this Ash Wednesday Barack Obama’s people are being warned to turn away from the sin of vicious politics…oh, and return any checks you’ve gotten, too! Writes the Clinton team:
“If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money.
“While Democrats should engage in a vigorous debate on the issues, there is no place in our party or our politics for the kind of personal insults made by Senator Obama’s principal fundraiser.
Well, slap my ass and call me Sally, but it seems to me that a strong and confident campaign does not demand that other candidates denounce their supporters and return contribution checks to them, but this is what Hillary Clinton’s campaign does all the time! Particularly if an opponent's donor has dared to say something mean about poor old Hillary, who is just a girl and should be treated nice, because politics is about niceness and sweetness, and she would never, never indulge in a scorched earth, slash-and-burn sort of politics, herself.
Clinton already played this “denounce and return the checks” charade to Rudy Giuliani, and as I wrote then, she’ll do it again - anytime she feels the least bit criticized. Because she’s too special for that, dammit!
It’s one of the things that has fascinated me over the past ten years - the press’ seeming perspective that there are Clintons and Clinton supporters…and then there is the rest of the world, which contains - among other things - anti-Clintites.
Those are very, very bad people, the anti-Clintites. The don’t simply dissent, they actually focus their dissent on the god and goddess in particular. Let them be identified! ...
*** Hillary Wounded In Drive By In Dem H'wood
Dan Riehl
Former Clinton bag man David Geffen pulled up to Mo Do's Left Coast copy desk and popped a cap into Hillary Clinton's ass-pirations of the Presidential sort. I don’t think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is — and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? — can bring the country together.
“I don’t think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person,” Mr. Geffen says, adding that if Republicans are digging up dirt, they’ll wait until Hillary is the nominee to use it. “I think they believe she’s the easiest to defeat.”
“It’s not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t,” Mr. Geffen says.
“I’m tired of hearing James Carville on television....
Bleeding but very much alive, the former First Lady reached for a shiv and bypassed Geffen to take a slash at his new number one political whore. "This corner belongs to me, Biatch!" Fork over the dough! Pimp Daddy Bill is apparently unavailable for comment, maybe he's gone to the mattresses in his Harlem digs. ...
*** Hillary's phony coat of armor
Michelle Malkin
From my column today: Look out: Hillary Clinton is pulling the armor cloak from her rhetorical closet again. As long as she pairs it with a skirt, Italian designer Donatella Versace approves. But for any leading presidential candidate with a shred of integrity, this political wardrobe malfunction goes in the "fashion don't" column.
In her latest campaign video, Hillary attacks the Bush administration for sending soldiers off to battle unprotected: "Promises just aren't enough anymore. After almost four years, longer than we were in WWII, our troops still don't have all the body armor and armored vehicles and other equipment they need. It's a disgrace."
...The Democrats' latest talking point involves a reported shortage of armored Humvees in Iraq. The armchair generals of The New York Times editorial board waxed indignantly about the story last week — lambasting the "Army, the National Guard and the Marine Corps" for being "caught constantly behind the curve" on armor upgrades. The Times' editorial titled their anti-Bush tirade, "Not supporting the troops." The meme has penetrated from Hillary and Ted Kennedy down to every last, lowest-level Democratic strategist looking to burnish pro-military credibility....
I reprinted some of the responses from troops first published here, and also
added the observations of milblogger T.F. Boggs: ...
***
Closely related:
*** Democratic Party Cage Match
John Hinderaker
So far, I haven't taken Barack Obama very seriously as a Presidential candidate, mostly because of his lack of experience. I've suspected that his real objective is to be someone's--likely Hillary Clinton's--running mate. After today, though, that may be less likely.
Maureen Dowd stirred the pot by quoting Hollywood tycoon David Geffen, who once raised $18 million for Bill Clinton, in her column. Geffen is now supporting Obama; he had this to say about the Clintons: * Marc Rich getting pardoned? An oil-profiteer expatriate who left the country rather than pay taxes or face justice? Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.
* God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton?
* It’s not a very big thing to say, "I made a mistake" on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t. She’s so advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base. I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.
Many worse things have been said about the Clintons, but, for whatever reason, Hillary was unwilling to take it in stride. Her communications director, writing on her campaign web site's blog, made this heated response:
[...]
Most interesting to me was this reply from Obama's campaign: We aren’t going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because he's black.
So: Barack Obama is playing the race card against Hillary Clinton! The fireworks continued as Clinton's spokesman updated his blog entry as follows: ...
*** Video: Obama responds to Clinton,
considers her “ally in the Senate”
Ian Schwartz
[video link]
Sen. Obama responded to criticism he received from Sen. Hillary Clinton because of support from David Geffen:
Transcript: ‘My sense is that Mr. Geffen may have differences with the Clintons. That doesn’t have anything to do with our campaign… I’ve said I’ve had the utmost respect for Senator Clinton. I consider her an ally in the Senate. And will continue to consider her that way throughout the campaign…
*** The all-important Charles Barkely vote
Michelle Malkin
Obama's got it locked up. Phew. The suspense was killing me.
Obama's also got the coveted Rep. Keith Ellison endorsement. And here's vid of him smoothing out the ruffled feathers with Hillary.
At an Obama-less forum, the rest of the Dems talk amongst themselves. Bitterness, backbiting, backstabbing, and backtracking ensue. More from the NYTimes: ...
*** It's Her Party, And She'll Cry If She Wants To
Ed Morrissey
It's difficult to figure out what Hillary Clinton hopes to gain with her spectacular temper tantrum today, directed as it is against the wrong man. After Maureen Dowd briefly achieved relevancy by relating some tough criticisms of Hillary by Hollywood mogul David Geffen, the Democratic front-runner blamed Barack Obama for his newfound Geffen support. And make no mistake, Geffen drew blood: Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times today, in which she quoted former Bill Clinton supporter David Geffen offering a few caustic comments, has incited a strong Hillary Clinton campaign attack on Geffen -- and the candidate he now favors, Sen. Barack Obama.
Then Obama's team fired back.
"Everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it’s troubling,” Geffen had said. ...
Hillary's campaign came out swinging -- but at Barack Obama instead of Geffen, who just finished a fundraiser for the neophyte Senator. Linking to an ABC story on Obama's expressed distaste for "slash and burn politics", Team Hillary demanded that Obama cut Geffen from his campaign, return all of the funds raised by Geffen, and apparently take monastic vows and give himself a Britney Spears haircut: "While Senator Obama was denouncing slash and burn politics yesterday, his campaign's finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Senator Clinton and her husband.
"If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money.
"While Democrats should engage in a vigorous debate on the issues, there is no place in our party or our politics for the kind of personal insults made by Senator Obama's principal fundraiser.
Well, the short answer is that Obama didn't make the remarks, and Geffen didn't say anything out of bounds about the public character of the Clintons. ...
The longer answer is that Hillary looks about ready to self-destruct. She got rattled by the loss of her exclusive connections to Hollywood, which has made clear that they will not commit solely to her. With Obama scoring big in his Tinseltown debut, Hillary understands that a major portion of her husband's contributions has just dried up. Instead of redoubling her efforts to woo the celluloid titans back to her side, she blew her stack and demanded ridiculous penance from a competitor who hadn't sinned against her.
In fact, Obama has decided to allow Hillary to look as bad as she can, issuing a classy response this evening: ...
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