DICK MORRIS: The real Clinton emerges...

The Hill ^ | 9/26/06 | Dick Morris

[standingfirm]

From behind the benign façade and the tranquilizing smile, the real Bill Clinton emerged Sunday during Chris Wallace’s interview on Fox News Channel. There he was on live television, the man those who have worked for him have come to know – the angry, sarcastic, snarling, self-righteous, bombastic bully, roused to a fever pitch. The truer the accusation, the greater the feigned indignation. Clinton jabbed his finger in Wallace’s face, poking his knee, and invading the commentator’s space.

But beyond noting the ex-president’s non-presidential style, it is important to answer his distortions and misrepresentations. His self-justifications constitute a mangling of the truth which only someone who once quibbled about what the “definition of ‘is’ is” could perform.

Clinton told Wallace, “There is not a living soul in the world who thought that Osama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk Down.” Nobody said there was. The point of citing Somalia in the run up to 9-11 is that bin Laden told Fortune Magazine in a 1999 interview that the precipitous American pullout after Black Hawk Down convinced him that Americans would not stand up to armed resistance.

Clinton said conservatives “were all trying to get me to withdraw from Somalia in 1993 the next day” after the attack which killed American soldiers. But the real question was whether Clinton would honor the military’s request to be allowed to stay and avenge the attack, a request he denied. The debate was not between immediate withdrawal and a six-month delay. (Then-first lady, now-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) favored the first option, by the way). The fight was

[OkieDoke]

"..on his show last night, he was defending Clinton."

I saw O'Really being interviewed a couple nights ago, and he said that he thought Willie was a "good president". Reminded me of why I don't watch his show anymore.

[Screamname]

You may be right but I am sick to death of these Clintons constantly deflecting direct confrontation by intimidation. I mean think about it, this Hellary wins a Senate seat and is now being seriously considered for POTUS without one hard interview on the BS her and her husband pull. Guliani drops out and they got that complete metrosexual idiot Rick Lazio to debate her. I would give my left nut to see her debate someone for once who knows his stuff and doesn`t let them pull this intimidation crap. This freggin` Clinton jabbing his finger...F- him...Wallace should have grabbed that thing and shoved it up Clintons arse.

[detroitdarien]

O'reilly was praising clinton last night. I think he was sucking up trying to land an interview.

I never put any trust in the media punditry, whatever their political bias. They are first and foremost entertainers. O'Reilly is only interested in O'Reilly. If the political winds are changing, he'd become a raving leftist in a NY minute, just to get the ratings.

[brwnsuga]

I was thinking the same thing. I would have had some facts for him while he was throwing out his "facts". This lack of preparation on Wallace's part did show that he did not expect Clinton's drama about the question.

[newcthem]

O'Reilly's defense of Clinton yesterday was enough to gag a maggot. Said he was a true "patriot" and was just frustrated at not being able to stop OBL. A real first class crock.

[sine_nomine]

So true, but the comment was written on his face. He was also thinking, "This will make me high-profile forever."

[NutCrackerBoy]

If the CIA and FBI weren't doing a satisfactory job, why didn't Clinton fire the heads of the respective organizations?

True. But there are limits to what any American President can do in the modern era or any era. Could President GHW Bush or President Dole, even with their much superior strengths of character, have turned those Titanics of policy from their icebergs of changing threats? Maybe not, but I don't think Clinton even saw the need.

[sine_nomine]

Live, on tape.

[Screamname]

You have to be kidding me! Holy shiet, O`Reilly has really lost it. I guess in B.O`s mind a "true patriot" sells nuke secrets left and right and pardons the biggest tax cheat in history for a freggin` library. Lest O`Reilly (who is a New Yorker) forget, Bill Clinton put the lives of the people of New York secondary to Hillarys Senate campaign by pardoning the FALN, the FALN who bombed sites around New York 132 times. It would be interesting to see what B.O.`s "talking points" comments would be if the FALN blew his wife and kids into oblivion one day.

[brazzaville]

Good afternoon.
"Bill O`Reilly probably would have done it"

O'Reilly has repeatedly shown his true colors. He would lob billy jeff softballs and praise him.

Michael Frazier

[alwaysconservative]

I'm not a huge O'Reilly fan, and I believe Chris Wallace has WAY more credibility as a reporter and interviewer with the general public than BOR, because he was polite and didn't make the interview about himself, the way BOR would have done.

Actually, I thought Wallace handled xxx42 perfectly; he let him rant on, get purple, and yet he remained calm. He asked xxx42 if he wanted to return to Global initiative discussions, but by then, Slick was too deep and too emotional to grab on to the lifeline. I am NOT one who thinks he planned his breakdown on the air: 1) he's not that smart 2) he has a terrible temper. Wallace just sat back and let it play out. He, not Slick, was the cool customer. Any Dems who want to think that Slick did the Dems a favor is engaging in fantasy.

[ichabod1]

"There, go put some ice on that",

No, he really did say that. That's why Clinton said that about him sittin' there with that little smirk like he thought he was so clever.

For the record, Wallace DOES smirk, but it's just part of his normal expression.

[wouldntbprudent]

I agree with everything you said.

[Burkean]

That one chance to Clinton's 8 to 10 is what is so crazy about his contention that "At least I tried, that's better than some, I tried and failed." No Bill, you didn't try and fail, at most you THOUGHT about trying and did nothing.

[ichabod1]

Yeah, me too. I disagree with Mary Matlin's version of it last nite on H&C. She said everything they do is for a reason, as if it were staged. I think he was really PO'd big time. His eyes were raging mad, like they could kill.

I think he went into the interview intending to give a "spirited" defense of his policies. I don't think he intended to start jumping around like a _itch, jabbing his finger, and looking unbalanced.

[GretchenM]

Some people wake up at 6 AM.

Some people wake up at noon.

Morris has been a Rip Van Winkle, slowly coming to his daylight senses. He's one of the few who were under bubba's spell to have done so. I don't trust him a lot but sometimes, as he crawls away from his intoxication with bubba, I can tell he's got ahold of the truth.

It takes an enormous effort to separate one's self from the likes of bubba and his WINO because they mess with people's thought processes. I give Dick credit and hope he continues to rearrange his brain.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Anyone care to fill in the blanks on that one???"

Hillary: Bill, I know you would do anything with legs, but Madeline Albright?

Bill: Well at least she works out which is more than I can say for your ugly a$$.

[GretchenM]

This is choice: One also has to wonder when the volcanic rage beneath the surface of this would-be statesman will cool. When will the chip on his shoulder finally disappear? When will he feel sufficiently secure in his own legacy (cough) and his own skin not to boil over repeatedly in private and occasionally even in public?

[ZULU]

In a less genteel and more masculine and honest society, his carcass would have been dangling from a rope long before he started his political career.

This is a man who UNDERMINED the U.S. war effort in Viet Nam by protesting overseas, who made a totally unexplained trip to the Soviet Union when he was in college - as did his mother, who lied on numerous occasions, who was a sexual predator of the first order, who very probably raped one women and destroyed or attempted to destroy the reputations of his many other victims, who got us involved in an idiotic war in Europe in support of Islam, who presided over the Somali catastrophe, who slept while Bi Laddin plotted, who committed perjury and had his license jerked.

Clinton is such a disgrace, only his monumental narcissism keep him in the public eye.

YOUR tax dollars and MINE are going to provide this thug and criminal with a library, free mailing privileges, $200,000 + a year AND Secret Service protection for himself and his ghoulish consort for LIFE.

There is no justice in America anymore.

[Captain Beyond]

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