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PissingOffTheLeft@yahoo.com
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"Bill Clinton, Stumping and Simmering"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/us/politics/18bill.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Hillary Rodham Clinton may be the spouse running for office, but it is
more Bill Clinton who appears to be feeling the heat.
Candidate Topic PagesMore Politics NewsAfter weeks of complaining
publicly about Barack Obama's record, the news media's coverage of the
Democratic presidential race, or both, Mr. Clinton on Wednesday ripped
into a television reporter who had asked him about a Nevada lawsuit
concerning participation in the state's caucuses this Saturday. Mr.
Clinton believed the question had seemed sympathetic to Mr. Obama's
stakes in the suit, Clinton campaign officials said.
A federal judge in Las Vegas ruled in the case Thursday, with a
decision that will apparently benefit the Obama campaign. The judge,
James C. Mahan, held that some hotel-casinos, as arranged by the
Nevada Democratic Party, would be permitted to set up caucus precincts
on site so employees who work Saturday can participate. Many of those
Nevadans are members of Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which has
endorsed Mr. Obama, and their votes on Saturday could help him
significantly against Mrs. Clinton.
The suit was brought by the state teachers' union, which maintained
that the arrangement gave the hotel employees an advantage that others
working Saturday did not have. Some of this union's top officials have
endorsed Mrs. Clinton. But her campaign has denied involvement in the
suit, and when the television reporter suggested a connection between
it and her supporters, the former president, stumping for her in
Oakland, Calif., narrowed his eyes. As his aides looked on with
concern, Mr. Clinton's voice took on an edge.
"When you ask me that question, your position is that you think that
the culinary workers' vote should be easier" than those of other
Nevada workers, Mr. Clinton told the reporter, Mark Matthews of KGO-TV
in Oakland. "If you want to take that position, get on the television
and take it. Don't be accusatory with me."
Mr. Clinton's temper has been an issue for him as long as he has been
in public life. But it has played an unusual role during the current
campaign, his face turning red in public nearly every week, often
making headlines as he defends his wife and injects himself, whether
or not intentionally, into her race in sometimes distracting ways.
Some Clinton advisers say the campaign is trying to rein him in
somewhat, so that his outbursts become less of a factor to reporters,
but his flashes of anger only seem to be growing. Last week, for
instance, a clearly agitated Mr. Clinton told Dartmouth students that
it was a "fairy tale" for Mr. Obama to contend that he had been
consistently against the war in Iraq. And in December he said that
voters supporting Mr. Obama were willing to "roll the dice" on the
presidency.
"The bottom line is, his outbursts don't help the campaign," said
James A. Thurber of American University, an analyst of the presidency
and Congress. "They become an issue, and it can grow into a real
problem. I think the campaign is worried about him right now."
But some advisers say a former president at times prone to outrage can
draw attention to issues as no one else can. They say Mr. Clinton's
"roll the dice" comment, made on the PBS television program "Charlie
Rose," helped focus public and media attention on Mr. Obama's scarce
experience relative to Mrs. Clinton's, a factor that her campaign saw
as contributing to her victory in the New Hampshire primary.
At the same time, Mr. Clinton was releasing steam that had built up
within the campaign over news coverage.
"Bubbling just below the surface is a deep resentment on his part
against the press about the way he feels she is portrayed against
Barack," said David R. Gergen, a Harvard professor of public service
who has been an adviser to presidents of both parties, including Mr.
Clinton. "He is a bit like Mount Vesuvius: he'll just erupt, but then
it's over, because the good thing about his temper is that he doesn't
bear grudges."
Aides and advisers to both Clintons say he tends to explode in anger
more often and more fiercely than his wife, whose temper is usually
described as that of a slow-burn and clipped-tone variety.
His so-called "purple fits" and "earthquakes" have been a constant to
those who have worked with him. Some have dealt with it by avoiding
him, others by simply responding with silence. One senior White House
aide, George Stephanopoulos, who was often a target of Mr. Clinton's
fury, has written of taking an antidepressant because the vicissitudes
of the job were so intense.
Mr. Clinton has reflected on his temper over the years, perhaps most
revealingly in his autobiography. At one point in it, he recalls a day
in junior high school when he hit a boy who had been taunting him. It
was a moment from which he came to draw lessons.
"I was a little disturbed by my anger, the currents of which would
prove deeper and stronger in the years ahead," Mr. Clinton wrote.
"Because of the way Daddy behaved when he was angry and drunk, I
associated anger with being out of control and I was determined not to
lose control. Doing so could unleash the deeper, constant anger I kept
locked away because I didn't know where it came from."
Steve Friess contributed reporting from Las Vegas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/us/politics/18bill.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Hillary Rodham Clinton may be the spouse running for office, but it is
more Bill Clinton who appears to be feeling the heat.
Candidate Topic PagesMore Politics NewsAfter weeks of complaining
publicly about Barack Obama's record, the news media's coverage of the
Democratic presidential race, or both, Mr. Clinton on Wednesday ripped
into a television reporter who had asked him about a Nevada lawsuit
concerning participation in the state's caucuses this Saturday. Mr.
Clinton believed the question had seemed sympathetic to Mr. Obama's
stakes in the suit, Clinton campaign officials said.
A federal judge in Las Vegas ruled in the case Thursday, with a
decision that will apparently benefit the Obama campaign. The judge,
James C. Mahan, held that some hotel-casinos, as arranged by the
Nevada Democratic Party, would be permitted to set up caucus precincts
on site so employees who work Saturday can participate. Many of those
Nevadans are members of Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which has
endorsed Mr. Obama, and their votes on Saturday could help him
significantly against Mrs. Clinton.
The suit was brought by the state teachers' union, which maintained
that the arrangement gave the hotel employees an advantage that others
working Saturday did not have. Some of this union's top officials have
endorsed Mrs. Clinton. But her campaign has denied involvement in the
suit, and when the television reporter suggested a connection between
it and her supporters, the former president, stumping for her in
Oakland, Calif., narrowed his eyes. As his aides looked on with
concern, Mr. Clinton's voice took on an edge.
"When you ask me that question, your position is that you think that
the culinary workers' vote should be easier" than those of other
Nevada workers, Mr. Clinton told the reporter, Mark Matthews of KGO-TV
in Oakland. "If you want to take that position, get on the television
and take it. Don't be accusatory with me."
Mr. Clinton's temper has been an issue for him as long as he has been
in public life. But it has played an unusual role during the current
campaign, his face turning red in public nearly every week, often
making headlines as he defends his wife and injects himself, whether
or not intentionally, into her race in sometimes distracting ways.
Some Clinton advisers say the campaign is trying to rein him in
somewhat, so that his outbursts become less of a factor to reporters,
but his flashes of anger only seem to be growing. Last week, for
instance, a clearly agitated Mr. Clinton told Dartmouth students that
it was a "fairy tale" for Mr. Obama to contend that he had been
consistently against the war in Iraq. And in December he said that
voters supporting Mr. Obama were willing to "roll the dice" on the
presidency.
"The bottom line is, his outbursts don't help the campaign," said
James A. Thurber of American University, an analyst of the presidency
and Congress. "They become an issue, and it can grow into a real
problem. I think the campaign is worried about him right now."
But some advisers say a former president at times prone to outrage can
draw attention to issues as no one else can. They say Mr. Clinton's
"roll the dice" comment, made on the PBS television program "Charlie
Rose," helped focus public and media attention on Mr. Obama's scarce
experience relative to Mrs. Clinton's, a factor that her campaign saw
as contributing to her victory in the New Hampshire primary.
At the same time, Mr. Clinton was releasing steam that had built up
within the campaign over news coverage.
"Bubbling just below the surface is a deep resentment on his part
against the press about the way he feels she is portrayed against
Barack," said David R. Gergen, a Harvard professor of public service
who has been an adviser to presidents of both parties, including Mr.
Clinton. "He is a bit like Mount Vesuvius: he'll just erupt, but then
it's over, because the good thing about his temper is that he doesn't
bear grudges."
Aides and advisers to both Clintons say he tends to explode in anger
more often and more fiercely than his wife, whose temper is usually
described as that of a slow-burn and clipped-tone variety.
His so-called "purple fits" and "earthquakes" have been a constant to
those who have worked with him. Some have dealt with it by avoiding
him, others by simply responding with silence. One senior White House
aide, George Stephanopoulos, who was often a target of Mr. Clinton's
fury, has written of taking an antidepressant because the vicissitudes
of the job were so intense.
Mr. Clinton has reflected on his temper over the years, perhaps most
revealingly in his autobiography. At one point in it, he recalls a day
in junior high school when he hit a boy who had been taunting him. It
was a moment from which he came to draw lessons.
"I was a little disturbed by my anger, the currents of which would
prove deeper and stronger in the years ahead," Mr. Clinton wrote.
"Because of the way Daddy behaved when he was angry and drunk, I
associated anger with being out of control and I was determined not to
lose control. Doing so could unleash the deeper, constant anger I kept
locked away because I didn't know where it came from."
Steve Friess contributed reporting from Las Vegas.
