This is fantastic news.  The more he does this NOW, the less likely the VP options becomes for Hillary.  Simple: do you want Bill as an enforcer every time there is a policy disagreement between the Prez and the VP in the Obama administration?  Even more immediate - do you want him to be the news in the run up to the GE?

It is now up to Rendell and Rangel and the other supporters of the Unhinged One's wife to tell her and him and Lying Davis to quit it, to stop it, to end the spectacle.  The primaries are done.  Period.  Begone.

"I would think one of his top priorities now is a major niceness/contrition offensive in which he explains his anger--best spun as a husband who loses perspective when it comes to his beloved wife--and shows he's come to grips with it. "

I don't see niceness being a priority for Bill right now.  He had to bow and scrape enough back in '98-'99, I think its all gone out of him.

Whichever one of you guys--Crowley?  Scheiber?--who came up with the impeachment redux formulation had it right, but I'd add this twist: Hillary's election this year was, in the Clintons' minds, going to be their vindication, and with the outcome as it is, Bill feels like he's getting bent over all over again--this time by his own party.  The requirements of being in the US Senate are going to rein Hillary in somewhat, but Bill is under no such constraints.  He might disappear from the scene for a while, but don't look for him to make nice.  Who does he owe?  Nobody.  I reckon Bill's had his fill of apologies.  To me he seems like a man who basically doesn't give a shit anymore.

Back on my hobby horse: I wonder how much of what Starr did to Clinton arose out of what he saw in them - close up - that we were spared at the time.

The Clintons -- as has been said on these pages many times -- play by their own rules, so it's not at all clear to me that Bill feels the need to be a good team player. I suspect he still thinks that he's the most important asset to the Democratic party and that it's up to Obama to bow and scrape to him, not the other way around.

I hope he proves me wrong.

Don't worry BHL, you won't be disappointed.  Bill will live down to your worst expectations.  They are two peas in their little pod.  

I was just watching the little NYT video retrospective of Hillary's campaign.  There she was extolling herself as the "most qualified" person on the planet to be president, ready to start "Day one" and I thought again, "My god, how could this woman be so tone-deaf.  If she were anyone other than Mrs. William J. Clinton, no one would take her candidacy seriously."

I get a pang of sadness reading this stuff, although - as I've said on other thread - I know that Bill has always had a very dark side.  It just seems to have taken over.  It's sad.

In honor of Robert F Kennedy, here is a Tennyson poem I dug up in 1992 to put in a paper I wrote about Bill Clinton (I guess "she" is the US).

I wish I could hear again

The chivalrous battle-song

That she warbled alone in her joy!

I might persude myself then

She would not do herself this great wrong,

To take a wonton dissolute boy

For a man and a leader of men.

Ah God, for a man with heart, head, hand,

Like some of the simple ones gone

For ever and ever by,

One still strong man in a blatant land

Whatever they call him  - what care I?

Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat - one -

Who can rule and dare not lie!

And ah for a man to arise in me,

That the man I am may cease to be!

"I get a pang of sadness reading this stuff, although - as I've said on other thread - I know that Bill has always had a very dark side.  It just seems to have taken over.  It's sad."

My thoughts exactly, Wandrey.

I sometimes wonder if his recent "unhingedness" could possibly come from the heart by-pass he had. I had read a few articles discussing the physical and mental changes that can occur in people who have had heart surgery. I've no doubt that Bill has a dark side but I would if it is being exacerbated by the surgery? If DrDan reads this maybe he could elucidate a little for us., I'm I totally off base here?

As yard had mentioned, I reserved my sadness for the children who died in China and Burma. I don't live in the US so I have gotten a lot more international news. CNN international is based in Hong Kong.

I am not a woman, but I do sympathize with women who think that this was a great opportunity, but I honestly think we have turned a corner for women, from here on out a woman will be on the ticket in at least one party in some form. And in a generation envisage a rough parity in Congress.

And just to think, when this all began, I was kind of excited about having Bill back in the White House. At that point, he was the only reason I would have voted for Hillary. O lost innocence.

Roid: Women can be tone deaf too.

That's good, liberal.  A little light wit goes a long way.  You can say almost anything with the right bit of humor and get away with it.

Even Hitler in the bunker knew what it was over.  And what to do.

And, please, save the tears for Billy.  This guy has gotten away with murder all his political life.  

Democrats, like the wife who doesn't want to know, simply were in epoch denial.  Mainly for the selfish reason that Bill was the only one who could keep them on the map.

So, what's the big tragedy?  Power has been snatched away from this overweening, overambitious couple.  The extent and the neediness of their ambition is, frankly, outside the American tradition of the presidency.  

The Roosevelts and the Kennedy's had a spirit of noblesse oblige.  Eisenhower and Truman earned their way in after long, often unglamorous  public service, and never cashed in at the level of greed of the Clintons.

George Washington set a precedent by walking away from power when he could have kept it for a lifetime and been an American king or dictator.

The Clintons are unseemly in the style of South American power grabbers like the Peron's.

So, don't cry for Bill or Hillary.  They have been taken down some notches.  But, they have not by any means fallen into an abyss.  The money will still flow their way.  Hillary will still be in the Senate.  And with 18 million votes behind her, will still have leverage to wield.

And, for that matter, I'm still not so certain this is over.  The Democrats, when McGovern ran (bad parallel) pulled Eagleton off the ticket after the shock treatment revelations.  And that was after the convention.

Obama, still not fully vetted, seems to have things fall out of his closet at regular intervals.  If the rumored Michelle "whitey" tape emerged, or something worse, then what?

And don't think the Clintons aren't still holding out privately for just such a possibility.

TYPO CORRECTO.  That was obviously supposed to be:

Even Hitler in the bunker knew when it was over.