CLINTON: BILL LASHES OUT AT PURDUM

[BridgeTheGap]

The same Huffington Post reporter who broke the Obama “bitter” story got a new scoop yesterday of Bill Clinton lashing out at Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum and calling him “sleazy,” “dishonest” and “slimy” for his critical magazine article on Clinton. It’s worth noting that the HuffPo reporter didn’t identify herself as a reporter and said she disliked the article when asking for his reaction.

From the piece: “Tightly gripping this reporter's hand and refusing to let go, Clinton heatedly denounced the writer, who is currently married to his former White House Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers. ‘ sleazy,’ he said referring to Purdum. ‘He's a really dishonest reporter. And one of our guys talked to him… And I haven't read . There's just five or six blatant lies in there. But he's a real slimy guy,’ the former President said. When I reminded him that Purdum was married to his former press spokesperson Myers, Clinton was undeterred. ’That's all right-- he's still a scumbag,’ Clinton said. ‘Let me tell ya--he's one of the guys -- he's one of the guys that brought out all those lies about Whitewater to Kenneth Starr. He's just a dishonest guy-- can't help it.’”

Bill continued, “‘It's just slimy. It's part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for Obama. It's the most biased press coverage in history. It's another way of helping Obama. They had all these people standing up in this church cheering, calling Hillary a white racist, and he didn't do anything about it. The first day he said “Ah, ah, ah well.” Because that's what they do-- he gets other people to slime her. So then they saw the movie they thought this is a great ad for John McCain -- maybe I better quit the church. It's all politics. It's all about the bias of the media for Obama. Don't think anything about it.’”

“‘But I'm telling ya, all it's doing is driving her supporters further and further away-- because they know exactly what it is-- this has been the most rigged coverage in modern history-- and the guy ought to be ashamed of himself. But he has no shame. It isn't the first dishonest piece he's written about me or her.’”

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/03/1099061.aspx

[ben_meyers]

1. That sure sounds like the Bush WH reaction to

Scotty McClellan's book. Where do these guys learn this type of act?

[leftofcool]

2. Hit him where he lives Bill.

[susankh4]

3. Give 'em hell, Bill!

And... no... you don't have to take this shit. We are behind ya!

[crikkett]

4. Well, well, well.

I think that Bill was set up and it was a cheap shot.

It's one thing to be a member of an audience and write about what you hear a public figure say, as Fowler did when she reported on Obama's guns-and-bible gaffe. It's another to purposefully bait a public figure without identifying yourself as a journalist.

Cheap, amateur, yellow. Tsk, tsk.