You are using an outdated browser.
Please upgrade your browser
and improve your visit to our site.
Skip Navigation

It Takes One To Know One

According to Newsweek, Clintonista and Ilinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel is telling Bill Clinton to turn the temper down a notch (hat tip: Matt Continetti):

Prominent Democrats are upset with the aggressive role that Bill Clinton is playing in the 2008 campaign, a role they believe is inappropriate for a former president and the titular head of the Democratic Party. In recent weeks, Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, both currently neutral in the Democratic contest, have told their old friend heatedly on the phone that he needs to change his tone and stop attacking Sen. Barack Obama, according to two sources familiar with the conversations who asked for anonymity because of their sensitive nature.

Nevermind the absurdity of Ted Kennedy giving advice to anyone on civilty, but is this the same "foul-mouthed ballet dancer" Rahm Emanuel whose "brash, punish-your-enemies style aptly reflected a White House in which certitude sometimes outpaced judgment?" I was always under the impression that Clinton's outlandish attacks on Obama over the past week were the accepted course of action in the Clinton camp, and that they all knew the former president would be deployed in such a fashion were Obama to become an actual threat to his wife's chances of winning the nomination. Now that Clinton is doing the Clinton thing, it's more than a little amusing to see a bunch of Clinton hacks telling him to behave better.

--James Kirchick