Mr. Clean Gets His Hands Dirty

I listened in on the press conference call this afternoon and Hillary’s team talked about the recent stream of personal attacks and distractions that have been tossed out by Sen. Obama’s team – from circulating a picture of Wright with President Clinton just 48 hours after making his famous speech (as if that one handshake would be the same as his own 20 year relationship with Wright) to jumping all over some comments Bill had made recently in North Carolina.

Let’s take a look at what Bill said, shall we?



Now sadly, BO’s playing the victim here – again. Even though Bill never once mentioned his name, this is (as usual) all about him. Suddenly, this is being twisted into something it’s not – an attack on Obama’s patriotism. My goodness but he’ll try to use anything to deflect attention from his troubles this week won’t he?

Now here’s what one of BO’s surrogates had to say about Bill’s remarks. First Read has some of what McPeak said about Bill here…

Source

"I think it's horrible. I'm really disappointed because I worked for President Clinton, you know?" McPeak said when asked by reporters.

"We know Barack Obama don't we? Do we think Barack Obama loves America? Is this stupid or what?" he demanded of the press surrounding him.

"It sounds more like McCarthy. I grew up, I was going to college when Joe
McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it," he added.

He then goes on to remind reporters of another time BO’s campaign went after Bill and twisted his words around into something they aren’t.

Take a look at what Hillary’s campaign put up on Fact Hub in response to this desperate attempt to divert attention from BO to Bill…

Source

Fact Check: What Bill Clinton Said In Charlotte
3/21/2008 7:58:36 PM

Some are suggesting that the following remark by President Clinton was intended as a personal attack:

I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country and people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.

Actually, as is indicated by the quote itself, President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues, rather than falsely questioning any candidate's patriotism.

He was lamenting that these kind of distractions "always seems to intrude" on political campaigns. This is consistent with his criticism of the "politics of personal destruction," which dates back 16 years.

I mean really… First they call him a racist and now they’re comparing him to McCarthy.

This is President Bill Clinton we’re talking about here – right?

To borrow a few of Bill’s words… GIVE - ME – A - BREAK!

I think Howard Wolfson – Hillary’s Communications Director responds to this BS best…

RE: Bill Clinton = Joe McCarthy?!

Recent attacks by Obama Campaign surrogate General Merrill McPeak comparing Bill Clinton to Joe McCarthy are outraegous and divisive, but not surprising. They are in keeping with the Obama campaign's daily attacks on Senator Clinton's character in starkly personal terms.

Suggestions by the Obama campaign that Bill Clinton was questioning Barack Obama's patriotism are equally irresponsible and incorrect. In discussing a possible Clinton-McCain race, the former President said: "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country and people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

We can not imagine that the Obama Campaign really believes that the comments above were an attack on Senator Obama in any way; rather their attempt to cast the comments in that light are nothing more than a transparent attempt to shift the media’s focus away from his recent troubles (http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=6668).

Of course, this is not the first time in this campaign that General McPeak has engaged in personal attacks. On February 2, General McPeak was forced to apologize for remarks he made about Senator Clinton ( http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-iraqpol2feb02,0,1272905.story).

Many Americans were taken with Senator Obama's call this past week to engage in a high minded debate. Now, just days later, his campaign is comparing Bill Clinton to Joe McCarthy.

Hat tip to eRiposte over at the Left Coaster for finding this quote by Kathleen Parker – who was present when Bill made the comments at issue here, and she says McPeak’s accusations are rubbish. Take a look…

In no way did I interpret Clinton’s remarks as questioning Obama’s patriotism. Clinton was making the case for his wife’s electability against McCain, who last time I checked is the presumptive Republican nominee and her challenger should she win the Democratic nomination. He may have intentionally bypassed Obama in his leap to match Hillary against McCain, but he didn’t say anything that could be construed as questioning Obama’s patriotism. The sequence went as follows: He noted that Hillary polls ahead of McCain in Ohio and Florida and also that McCain leads “Hillary’s opponent” (I quit typing here and don’t recall exactly which states he mentioned in that part of his comment.) His point, obviously, was that Hillary should be the nominee and, in that case, she and McCain would face each other in the final contest.

This was toward the end of his talk, which focused on Iraq and the economy. Obama was no longer on the radar at this point.

These comments claiming Bill’s the modern day equivalent of McCarthy are bad enough but it isn’t really the point of my post tonight.

This latest load of manufactured outrage on BO’s part has little or nothing to do with Bill Clinton, and everything to do with his attempts to distract our attention from his rotten to the core week.

First the news hits (with video) of his longtime friendship with his pastor (Wright), and a speech that was supposed to make it all go away but didn’t.

Then we watch as BO sits on his hands as hopes of a new vote in Michigan and Florida evaporate, in effect disenfranchising some 2 million Democrats in this election.

Then two days after his big speech where he calls for folks to heal and move past it all, he circulated a picture of Bill shaking hands at a prayer breakfast 10 years, in some lame effort to convince us that that 10 year old picture of a single handshake equals his own 20 year relationship with Wright.

And in the last day or two, we’ve seen BO and his minions make demands that Hillary drop out of this race altogether in an effort to avoid facing her in a real and fair contest come convention time, which (if she complied with their demands) would disenfranchise millions and millions more Democrats in the states that have yet to vote in their upcoming primaries.

And now this.

Now, usually BO gets his pals and surrogates to go on the attack while he’s nowhere to be seen – in another state or whatever but in this case, he’s standing right on stage with McPeake as he goes after Bill on these trumped up charges of McCarthyism – right next to the guy for crying out loud as he twists Bills words into something they’re not.



McPeak attacks Bill at one of BO’s campaign events, while BO stands beside him arms folded and lookin’ all serious and – well like he’s ashamed to be a party to these lies and distortions about a good and decent guy like President Bill Clinton.

His silence speaks volumes no?

So much for wanting to change the way we do politics eh? Mr. Clean’s gone and gotten his hands dirty – again.