No Man’s Blog

This past Wednesday, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos moderated a forum for Democratic presidential candidates in Carson City, Nevada.  The event was attended by Senator Hillary Clinton (who represents but doesn’t come) from New York, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Senator Christopher Dodd, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, former North Carolina senator John Edwards, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, and former senator Mike Gravel of Alaska.  (Yeah.  That last dude has about the same name recognition quotient as Vilsack.)

But Senator Barack Obama made the biggest splash at the candidates’ forum, and he didn’t even attend.  You see, Senator Obama had bigger fish to fry—fish named Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen.  The three Hollywood movie moguls had previously arranged a Beverly Hills fundraiser for Obama that was scheduled to be held this past Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning, the day of the Carson City event, a Maureen Dowd (the New York Times) interview came to light in which producer Geffen, one of the Democratic party’s most prominent donors, had some pointed words for Senator Clinton.  Besides calling Clinton “the easiest to beat” in the Democratic field of candidates, Geffen had something to say about the war in Iraq and Clinton’s voting record in the Senate.  The Washington Post quotes Geffen as saying, “It’s not a very big thing to say ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t.”  Says WaPo:

Geffen, who was a co-host of an Obama fundraiser Tuesday night in Los Angeles, saved even sharper criticism for former president Bill Clinton, to whom he was close before a falling-out over the pardoning of financier Marc Rich at the end of Clinton’s second term. ‘I don’t think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person,’ Geffen said in an oblique reference to questions surrounding the former president’s private life.

And feelings were hurt in the Clinton campaign.  (Sniff.)  WaPo continues:

After seeing the comments Wednesday morning, the Clinton campaign immediately issued a call for Obama to disavow Geffen’s remarks and return his $2,300 donation, arguing that it contradicted Obama’s pledge to run a positive campaign.
[…]
‘A day after Barack Obama goes out and eschews the politics of slash and burn, his campaign embraces the politics of trash,’ said Phil Singer, Clinton’s deputy communications director, referring to a speech Obama made Tuesday in Las Vegas.
[…]
Obama communications director Robert Gibbs took a markedly different course. After refusing to get in the ‘middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters,’ Gibbs pointed out that Hillary Clinton had recently praised Robert Ford, another South Carolina state senator who endorsed her and said the Democratic ticket would be in serious trouble if Obama was the nominee because of the color of his skin.

It wasn’t long until Senator Obama himself made a statement for the record. “It’s not clear to me,” he said, “why I would be apologizing for someone else’s remarks. My sense is that Mr. Geffen may have differences with the Clintons, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with our campaign.”

Meanwhile, at the candidates’ forum in Carson City, moderator Stephanopoulos (newsman that he is) asked Senator Clinton if she agreed with her campaign spokesman that Obama should “disavow Geffen’s comments.”  More from the Post:

Clinton did not answer directly. ‘I want to run a very positive campaign and I sure don’t want Democrats or supporters of Democrats to be engaging in the politics of personal destruction,’ she said. ‘I think we should stay focused on what we’re going to do for America.’ She then added, to a chorus of applause, ‘And, you know, I believe Bill Clinton was a good president. I’m very proud of the record of his two terms.’  (Especially some of his shenanigans in the Oval Office – Effluent.)
[…]
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson sided with Clinton, and called on Obama to denounce Geffen’s comments. ‘I think these name-callings are not good,’ he said. ‘I don’t know Mr. Geffen. I don’t know what was said. … But we don’t need that. We Democrats should sign a pledge that we all be positive. That’s what the American people want.’

Right, Bill.  And if you renege on your pledge to “be positive,” you should check yourself into a Promises Residential Treatment Center à la Britney to get some well-needed rehab…  (Holy crap!  Click on the link to that “Promises” deal if you want to see the most ridiculous, lugubrious piece of shit ever!  My God, the MUSIC!!!  It sounds like something from Elizabeth Taylor’s “Cleopatra”!  No wonder these Hollywood celebrities are out-of-touch, mindless morons.)

It sounds to me like this deputy communications director fellow with the Clinton campaign—Phil Singer—needs to grow a couple more layers of skin along with a few million brain cells.

I looked up the word disavow at the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and found two definitions:

1. To deny responsibility for.
2. To refuse to acknowledge or accept.

If this Singer ne’er-do-well was using the first definition of the word, then he should be satisfied.  Because that’s exactly what Obama and his campaign did: They (rightly) denied responsibility for Geffen’s statement.

But if Singer was using the second definition of the word, I think he’ll be waiting a long, long time for redress.  It would be a sign of weakness for Barack Obama and his campaign to react further to this mournful sniveling that’s emanating from the Clinton camp.  Barack knows that.  Or at least I hope he does.…

At any rate, a full twenty months before the 2008 election, the “big doggie” in the Democratic field of candidates is already yipping and ankle-biting like the dirty little French poodle she is.

Someone in the Clinton campaign—Bill, maybe—needs to sit Hillary and Singer down and remind them of this notable dictum from the world of sports:

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Yep.

Don’t I love to see the Democratic field fragment this early in the political season!

Arianna Huffington said yesterday evening that Obama raised $1.3 million at the Beverly Hills Geffen-Spielberg-Katzenberg affair.  Too bad it couldn’t have been more.

Raven at Flight Pundit thinks it’s funny, too.

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