Chris Wallace's interview with Bill Clinton on FOX News Sunday was truly something to behold.
Watch Clinton's eruption here.
More later.
The Packers are winning. I must savor the moment.
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WOO HOO!!!
The Packers beat the Lions, 31-24. Things got a little dicey when Ahman Green fumbled and gave Detroit another chance, but it turned out OK in the end.
Congrats to Brett Favre on his 400th NFL career touchdown pass! It makes me wonder why he even considered retiring last year.
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Back to Bill Clinton--
UNBELIEVABLE!
UNBELIEVABLE!!!
Clinton was shockingly out of control.
He sounded drunk to me, slurring his speech. He looked drunk too, spitting mad, threateningly leaning into Chris Wallace.
This was not a former president defending his record. This was a pathetic figure flipping out like a moonbat lib on a loony Left Internet discussion board.
I loved Chris Wallace's expression. He wasn't wearing a "little smirk," as Clinton claimed. He looked stunned; and that was completely understandable.
I think his finger-wagging performance on FOX may become the bit of tape that will replace the "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" as his defining moment.
It was that incredible.
I'd consider it reasonable for Clinton to be defensive about how he handled, (or failed to handle), Osama bin Laden. It would be reasonable for him to show some controlled anger. He thinks he's being judged unfairly. Clearly, the ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11 is still driving him nuts. He's freaked out about his legacy. He can't bear the thought of going down in history as the president that let bin Laden get away.
The thing that made Clinton's response to Chris Wallace's completely legitimate question totally weird was his vast Right-wing paranoia.
It was like watching someone have a mental breakdown. Really.
Clinton seemed so unstable.
It was more than losing his temper during an interview. It was like he was losing his mind.
Some choice moments:
"You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because [News Corp. Chairman] Rupert Murdoch's supporting my work on climate change," Clinton said. "You said you'd spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7-billion-plus in three days from 215 different commitments. And you don't care."
When Wallace offered to return the conversation to Clinton's philanthropic efforts, the former president wanted to continue talking about terrorism and recent criticisms that his administration was weak on terror.
"There's a reason it's on people's minds: Because there's been a serious disinformation campaign to create that impression," Clinton said.
I'd call it a serious campaign to give the public the truth, not distort it.
Clinton pointed the finger at Republican factions in Congress and Pentagon for stymieing his anti-terrorism efforts.
"All of President Bush's neo-cons thought I was too obsessed with bin Laden. They had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office," Clinton said. "All the right-wingers who now say I didn't do enough, said I did too much — same people."
"Bush's neo-cons," "right-wingers" -- Now, now, settle down, Bill. You're sounding rather Michael Moore-ish.
Clinton vigorously defended his efforts to hunt down Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden after the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, saying he authorized the CIA to assassinate him and ever contracted with other parties to kill him.
"I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him," Clinton said. "I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it, but I did try and I did everything I thought I responsibly could."
Clinton also said:
"Now I've never criticized President Bush, and I don't think this is useful. But you do know we do have a government that thinks Afghanistan is only one-seventh as important as Iraq."
So, let me get this straight. Bill has "never criticized President Bush," but he proceeds to attack President Bush for failing to get bin Laden, but he believes that he deserves a pass.
Riiiiiight.
Here's more.
"And you (Chris Wallace) got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever, but I had responsibility for trying to protect this country.
That's truly bizarre.
It's surreal.
Accusing Wallace of staging a "conservative hit job" on him is just weird.
I bet Hillary is royally ticked off at Bill for this. She's probably shrieking at him right now for creating such a mess and drawing so much attention away from her. You know reporters will expect her to comment on Bill's meltdown.
Fair or not, Bill unhinged, just as Bill unzipped, reflects poorly on her.
Even if it's just a subliminal connection, Clinton going ballistic on Chris Wallace has to turn people off to the Clinton clan in general.
I don't understand Bill's pent-up rage. He really needs to find a way to release that energy.
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Partial transcript of the interview
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