ThetaBurst

Title
Congressman to Bill Clinton: 'Chill a little bit'

Link
CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Congressman to Bill Clinton: ‘Chill a little bit’ « - Blogs from CNN.com
-----------------------------------------------------
Excerpt

CNN) – House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, whose criticism of Hillary Clinton’s recent remarks on Martin Luther King Jr. helped fuel a heated back and forth between the New York senator and Barack Obama, said Monday it was time another Clinton watched his words.

Bill Clinton’s attacks on Barack Obama, Clyburn said in a CNN interview, were unfair because a former president’s viewpoint “carries with it extra weight.”

“I think they would say in Gullah-Geechee country, he needs to chill a little bit. I hope he understands what that means,” Clyburn told John Roberts on CNN’s American Morning. “I can understand him wanting to defend his wife’s honor and his own record, and that is to be expected. But you can’t do that in a way that won’t engender the kind of feelings that seem to be bubbling up as a result of this.”

“I think he is a former president of these United States. He is revered in many sections of the African-American community, and I think he can afford to tone it down,” he added.


In a recent interview with the New York Times, the South Carolina congressman had said he was disappointed with comments from Hillary Clinton that some took to suggest President Lyndon Johnson had more to do with passing the Civil Rights Act than Martin Luther King, Jr. He also expressed frustration over Bill Clinton's recent remark that the characterization of Obama's record on Iraq as consistently anti-war is a "fairy tale."

“We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics," he told the New York Times. "It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone’s motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal.”

Last week, Clyburn said it was time for both Hillary Clinton and Obama to move on. He said Bill Clinton had called twice to explain what he meant by his comments — most recently, an hour after the congressman returned to the United States from a trip abroad. He also said he'd spoken to Hillary Clinton about the issue, and has accepted both Clintons’ explanations of their comments.

"I don't think we ought to be so politically correct about everything that we say every time someone makes a mistake, 'throw the person off the campaign,' or something of that sort," he said. "I think what we do is accept their explanation as to what they meant by what they said and go on. A lot of people who work in campaigns get very excited sometimes."

Clyburn, one of the most powerful African-Americans in Congress, has continued to insist he will not endorse any presidential candidate, upholding a pledge to the candidates and to the Democratic Party that he would stay out of the race ahead of his state's key January vote.

------------------------------------------------------
Comment:

Translation: STFU

djack

I'm sure Bill Clinton is going to take advice from a congressman. He knows what he's doing. The fact that Clyburn doesn't shows the gap between the best politician of my lifetime and a congressman.

__________________

EvilMonkey

Besides that, Hillary doesn't stand a chance without him. She has never gotten anywhere in office without his name and support and she won't start now.

djack

I wouldn't say that. Bill is doing the stuff Hill can't do at the moment. No one has really made a point of it except the shit heads in the media.
It's not hurting her at all in the polls. She beat Obama in Nevada despite his pandering to culinary workers and the party giving them an advantage by holding the caucuses at their work sites.
People are smarter than they get credit for. They know that making speeches about change won't change anything. You need somebody who can actually do the job.

__________________

EvilMonkey

By doing the job you must mean relentless attacks because other than that, Hillary hasn't done shit.

ThetaBurst

I think he meant Hillary in her role as quintessential enabler for her serial-adulterer husband; standing by her man when she said she wouldn't; denying, deflecting and lying about Monica, ala "vast, right-wing conspiracy".

Of course, I can't speak for him.

Heretic

It's funny. In 1992 Hillary refuse to grasp the concept that she didn't elected for shit, and now Bill's pretending it's his campaign.

I use to dismiss the notion that Drew Carry eluded to on Real Time about them partnering for a long term uni-career in politics, but that wall of doubt is crumbling on a daily basis.

__________________
"In space no one can hear you scream. in D.C. it won't matter..." -Clinton Resurrection: The Alien Queen lives!

djack

That shrewd political pundit Drew Carey would know all about that. He voted for Bush twice. Not once. To the idiots that consider getting a blow job from an intern worse than moving your mistress into your home while your wife and kids still live there, taking divorce papers to your cancer ridden wife in the hospital, soliciting sex in an airport restroom, treating the congressional page pool as your male harem, or various and sundry violations of laws and moral codes I just say you're the ones who should shut the fuck up. You obviously don't have enough life experience to be judging anyone. Which should make you wonder if you're really qualified to choose a president of the United States.

__________________

Jonesy

People will keep lying. People will keep cheating. People will keep manipulating. What is the solution? Ask them to stop? Force them to stop? Instead of trying to change them, why not change yourself?

A lie is only hurtful if it works.