One lesson I have learned over the last sixteen years is that Bill Clinton will always find new ways to disappoint, if not humiliate, his staunchest supporters. Today is no different.
In an interview Monday, President Clinton mounted a less-than-vigorous defense of comments a prominent supporter of Senator Clinton’s presidential bid, Robert Johnson, made which many interpreted as a reference to Senator Obama’s admission of drug use during his younger years.
The interviewer, Roland Martin of WVON-AM in Chicago, played Mr. Johnson’s statement Sunday in which he praised the Clintons for having “been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood – and I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book…” Mr. Martin sounded incredulous about Mr. Johnson’s subsequent denial, in a statement issued by the Clinton campaign, that he was referring to drug use by Mr. Obama. “When you listen to that tone and the inflection, he was not talking about community organizing. It seems to me very clear what he was implying,” Mr. Martin said.
“Ironically, this is the first time I’ve heard it, what you just said,” Mr. Clinton said. “I listened to it on the tape and I think we have to take him at his word.”
Mr. Clinton then launched into a defense of his “fairy tale” comments from New Hampshire which had not been raised at that point.
If you are looking for an explanation for this, you might want to start by looking at Bob Johnson’s political contributions. Notice that he gave $28,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) this year alone. That is in addition to maxing out with $4,600 for Hillary’s campaign ($2,300 for the primary, $2,300 for the general). And he gave $1,000 to Mitt Romney and $250 to John McCain. He gave $1,000 to bankruptcy-bill loving Rep. Al Wynn, and tossed in some cash to Reps. Donald Payne (look into his record), Charlie Rangel, James Clyburn, and Melvin Watt.
Clearly, Mr. Johnson is not the kind of man that a Democratic politician will readily criticize. No, not even when he uses a shared stage to call Barack Obama a lazy-ass crackhead posing as a Dr. John Wade Prentice-like wannabee. But take a look at the real Bob Johnson and ask yourself…’why would any self-respecting Democrat want this man’s endorsement in the first place?’ What does it say about the Clinton campaign’s priorities that they would even appear with this swine on stage, let alone revel in his endorsement, let alone sit by while he calls Barack Obama a shiftless ghetto negro from their podium?
Bill Clinton says we have to take him at his word that he was only talking about Barack’s (presumably shameful) community activism on behalf of the poor. At what point do the Clintons pass your point of no return?