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Bill Clinton Responds To Rush Limbaugh: He Doesn’t Make Any Sense

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Former President Bill Clinton (calmly) responded to Rush Limbaugh’s statement yesterday that the responsibility for a “future incident such as Oklahoma City” would fall “squarely on the shoulders of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama” telling This Week host Jake Tapper that Limbaugh “doesn’t make any sense.”

“The only point I tried to make was that we ought to have a lot of political dissent — a lot of political argument. Nobody is right all the time. But we also have to take responsibility for the possible consequences of what we say…”I think we all have to be careful, We ought to remember [that] after Oklahoma City we learned something about the difference in disagreement and demonization.”

It’s interesting to hear Clinton tangle with Limbaugh, especially in such a calm, measured tone. It makes me wonder whether the Obama administration couldn’t put the former president to use as a sort of counter weight to the strident hyperbole coming the right. Clinton also said that he worries “about more careless language … some of which we’ve seen against the Republican governor in New Jersey, Gov. Christie.” Noting that between the rise of militia movements, and right-wing talk radio, the plummeting economy, and the rhetoric (now to be found on the blogosphere) there were “lot of parallels between the early nineties and now.” Add to that at lot of the current rhetoric coming out of Washington and “it all creates a climate in which people who are vulnerable to violence because they are disoriented like Timothy McVeigh was, are more likely to act.”

Those parallels, however, apparently don’t extend to midterms: “I think that the dissent is just as intense, if not more intense…But I think the outcome of the election is likely to be far less dramatic than it was in ’94″ and that while the Republicans will likely see gains in November, if history is any guide, “I don’t think they’ll win either house.”

As for rumors of a Clinton on the Supreme Court Clinton admitted that he’d probably enjoy it and that Hillary would be fantastic, but that they were both too old, and preferred more active roles, and that “I’d like to see him put someone in their late 40s, early 50s on the court and someone with a lot of energy for the job.”

Part one of the interview below. (side note: Clinton looks to be in fairly good health all things considered).


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  • TylerDurden

    “The only point I tried to make was that we ought to have a lot of political dissent — a lot of political argument. Nobody is right all the time. But we also have to take responsibility for the possible consequences of what we say…”

    And Bill, what exactly was the political dissent that set off McVeigh? Whose words made him bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Building ?

    It was his own delusional thinking that drove him. He didn’t do what he did based on what someone told him. It was his idea all along. He was so out of it , he thought the Govt. had implanted a device in him to keep track of him.

    He didn’t need anyone to talk him into what he did, he needed only to listen to the voices in his head.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Here’s what Rush Limbaugh promotes and celebrates. It’s April 19th eve, and another Right Wing Holiday is tomorrow. The Tea Party and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck will celebrate it in various ways, all the Tim McVeigh Wannabes will remember Oklahoma fondly and the Branch Davidians/Koresh cult will perform its ceremonies. And added to the list of right wing cult heroes… will be the Homicide Pilot, Joseph Stack; the Pentagon Shooter and the Holocaust Museum Shooter. Rush Limbaugh, you unmitigated anti-American fool.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    The voices in McVeigh’s head are the same voices in your head, Turdin – the voices of Rush and Glenn and Savage and Hannity and Levin and all the other 24/7 right wing AM radio bin Laden wannabes.

  • TylerDurden

    Bill Adkins – go back to HP, racist!

  • TylerDurden

    Answer, Billy boy- Voices like those from the left???

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    And DylerTurden in only two posts plays the race card!!! We have a winner in the Moron Derby! DylerTurden gets the blanket of ragweed!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    And DylerTurden places riding Incoherence!!

  • TylerDurden

    BTW, Bill, You are pretty as a picture and we’d love to hang you.

    Some drink from the fountain of knowledge, but you just gargled.

    Some day you will find yourself – and wish you hadn’t.

  • TfT

    I didn’t watch the show, did Tapper have on anyone who would counter the Clinton BS?

    The left celebrated the movie “The assassination of a president” (or whatever it’s name was) about Bush when he was a sitting President. The left celebrated the “we support our troops when they shoot their officers” posters, the left had no problem with that dissent. Now, all of a sudden when a lefty is in office, the left (read that media) has an issue with free speech.

    I am sick and tired of the double standard and the complete total BS from the likes of so-called “journalists”. Clinton’s words were the theme of MTP as well…..I guess David got his talking points from team Obama as well. Pathetic bunch of no-nothings hosting these talk shows.

  • TylerDurden

    Still can’t answer.

    You are a libby imbecile.

    LMAO!

  • TylerDurden

    Bill, I must say the liberal hate I posted is some of the finest hate this nation has ever seen! Congratulations, boy!

  • TylerDurden

    Bill, Hey, act your age — senile!

    LOL

  • TylerDurden

    Bill, for the white trash you are, you can’t speak very well. Is your wife still flossing with rubber bands? Are you still making keys with your teeth?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    DylerTurden just spent 5 minutes googling insults and posting them. Says nothing, is incoherent, and Turden chose today to prove himself an absolute idiot. Turden here is the kind of clown who shoots from the lip — but never aims from the brain. It’s a genetic flaw, passed down through the Turden line from brother to sister as they procreate in an incestuous pattern. All those uncles who were their daddies, y’know.

  • TylerDurden

    Bill answer the question–Bill, for the white trash you are, you can’t speak very well. Is your wife still flossing with rubber bands? Are you still making keys with your teeth?

    Bawaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

  • TylerDurden

    It’s a genetic flaw, passed down through the Turden line from brother to sister as they procreate in an incestuous pattern. ”

    Bill, don’t give away your family secrets.

    Judging by the old saying, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” you are practically invulnerable.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    You make me laugh, turden, and that’s just because of your appearance. What you say is even more hilarious – is english your FIRST language? Did you ask a question? Are you smoking crack and drinking cheap wine this early or are you really just that stupid?

  • TylerDurden

    Billy boy- address the liberal hate I posted, BOY!

  • TylerDurden

    “drinking cheap wine this early ” LMAO

    A well know HP phrase! Go back there Billy- they are so dumb they will embrace (-) like you with open orifices!!

  • TylerDurden

    Billy boy, you come across also as union trash. Are you a union thug, boy?

    I bet ya are- you like going around beating up college kids, eh?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Wow – obviously I hit a nerve on the incest in your family, Turden – hadn’t your aunt/mom told you? Oh, and I note your ‘pussy’ avatar. So appropriate.

  • TylerDurden

    Billy, you are not half the man your mother is.

  • TylerDurden

    Oh, and I note your ‘pussy’ avatar.- Billy boy, that’s as close as you will ever come to “pussy.” Just continue driving up the Hershey Highway, boy!!

    LOL

  • TylerDurden

    Billy, I wonder how many angels could dance on your head?

  • TylerDurden

    Billy boy, the white trash union thug who is so incapable of doing a job that he has to get a thug group, union, to keep him employed, can I borrow your face for a few days while my ass is on vacation?

  • TylerDurden

    Billy boy, you are one dumb piece of human waste- the world can’t flush itself enough times to get rid of your libby stench.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Hey! Dyler TURDen!! Don’t get lost in thought; you’ll be a total stranger there. Don’t you ever get tired of having you around? If you said what you thought, you’d be speechless. You think you’re a wit, and you’re probably half right. Why don’t you go blow your brains out, you’ve got nothing to lose. If there’s ever a price on your head, take it. Is your family happy, or do you go home at night?

    But most of all you put the stupid in boring.

  • http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

    Bill Adkins:

    You are an ignoramus. Every time you post that bullshit about Joseph Stack, and the Pentagon shooter, and the Holocaust shooter, I respond with actual citations to their writings that definitively show that they were not conservatives. You, however, never respond to the actual evidence and keep on spouting your propaganda and Media Matters talking points.

    I’ll try one more time. Here is a sampling of Joseph Stack’s on-line manifesto. Please read it and explain to me how you can claim he is a conservative. He sounds like another Left winger to me:

    _____

    I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

    As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

    I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough . . .

    The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

    The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/joseph-andrew-stacks-insane-manifesto-2010-2
    _____

    That’s not a conservative, or a Tea Partier, or a Rush Limbaugh listener. Frankly, Bill Adkins, I’m tired of you spreading your hate while being unwilling to respond to the facts. Put up or shut up. Explain how this can be reconciled with your claim that Stack was a conservative, or just shut up.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    AF, I don’t give a tinker’s dam about what you post because it is consistently apologia for the right’s misdeeds, for the right wing’ media’s lies, for your own lies. I think you’re full of shit. If you don’t recognize the Tea Party’s allure for bringing together under one tent all the anti-government groups from the Klan to the militias to the tri-corner hat set to the racists to the neo-nazis to you it’s your flaw, not mine. Stack was a nut of that stripe as was McVeigh as was Bedell – their your group, not mine. That you can’t handle the truth is just too damn bad.

  • http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

    Bill Adkins:

    Any thinking person who reads the passage above that I linked to would have to admit that Stack was not from “my group.” You’re not interested in the facts; therefore, your opinion is meaningless.

  • TylerDurden

    Bill Adkins, I hear that you and millions of libbys join the Catholic Church BECAUSE of the pedophilia charge.

    You are such a nice POS.

  • TylerDurden

    Oh, Billy boy!

    ~~~~~
    I’m trying to imagine you with a personality.
    ~~~~~
    I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce.
    ~~~~~
    If you had your life to live over again, do it overseas.

  • TylerDurden

    Billy, cretin is thou name!

  • TylerDurden

    Bill, your Schutzstaffel pals are calling you home.

    Your fantasies are more deranged than those of Carl Kolchak.

  • AmericanCowboy

    Are all Libs crazy?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Harris/514630301 Michael Harris

    yea know i hear all this and dem. and rep. but if the blacks and obama would do some checking they would find over 85% of the KKK memebers they hate and call us every time they disagree with us were ane are now registered dem’s.

  • AmericanCowboy

    The ACLU has provided legal support to various factions of the KKK in defense of their First Amendment rights to hold public rallies, parades, marches and their right to field political candidates

  • Munch

    ACLU- The American Communist and Liberal Union

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ruth-Gretzinger/596613915 Ruth Gretzinger

    so let’s see if I have this right:

    even though none of the Tea Partiers have resorted to violence, it’s ok to accuse them of it anyway. at the same time, even though there’s overwhelming evidence that Islamists DO resort to violence, it is NOT ok to talk about “Islamic terrorism.”

    if George W. Bush is president, then dissent is the “highest form of patriotism” and it’s our duty as citizens to stand up against him. if Barack Obama is president, however, dissent is not only unpatriotic, it’s racist, and the dissenters should be connected with Timothy McVeigh and Waco as much as possible, even though there is in reality NO CONNECTION.

    I understand Rush perfectly, and I bet Bubba does too.

  • beckaleck

    “I understand Rush perfectly”

    i’d say as soon as ANYONE has this thought, it’s time for self-examination. i personally don’t know ANY republicans, libertarians, independents or democrats who give Rush a 2nd thought. probably because i don’t hang around people who will believe any lie or rant just because it fits in with their delusions. there are plenty of level-headed, honest conservatives out there worth listening to. this guy is not one of them.

  • Cecelia

    Right on, Ruth Gretzinger!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alfred-J-Lemire/100000045361210 Alfred J. Lemire

    Anonymous Finch has again responded ably to a false claim. But something else angered and wounded me, beyond anything any Leftist has claimed in this country in my lifetime:

    “It’s April 19th eve, and another Right Wing Holiday is tomorrow. The Tea Party and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck will celebrate it in various ways, all the Tim McVeigh Wannabes will remember Oklahoma fondly and the Branch Davidians/Koresh cult will perform its ceremonies.”

    That remark ought to be used and repeated, whenever some Leftist tries to tar all on the Right because of one person’s angry, hate-filled, and foolish remark. What from the Right can match that? Nothing. Those few words have a number of hate lies, as ugly as anything any Nazi ever claimed against the Jews. Perhaps Bill Adkins (I cannot call him Mr.) could claim to cut its venom slightly by asserting that “the Tim McVeigh wannabees” referred only to two people, perhaps somewhere in some forest or desert in this country. But it’s apparent that the target is vastly larger than that.

    Bill Adkins may be no more than 20 years old and does not remember the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City. I do. For the rest of my life, I will never, ever forget the photo, that deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize, as the hate-filled cartoons of Mark Fiore do not. I cannot forget fireman Chris Fields holding the limp body of one-year-old Baylee Almon. I cried when I saw the photo; Adkins’ disgusting remark reminded me of something I wish I could forget, but cannot.

    It takes a lot to make this man cry, but I cried when I read that sickening passage from Adkins. It may be in the power of God to forgive him. This fallible human cannot. If American—he could be the English-speaking guy hiding in Yemen—Adkins has to rank in any listing of the most disgusting Americans in our history, along with the guy whose name I do not want to repeat, whose act deservedly got him the death penalty, something I normally oppose.

    And I copied Joseph Stack’s manifesto, from the Smoking Gun. The only parts of him that were right: a hand, an elbow, an arm, a knee, a foot, a leg, i.e., his body parts, but his mind came from the same side of our politics as Adkins.

  • Ted

    Not sure what the problem is. The sun sets in the west, gravity is the reason that tea-baggers don’t fly off into space, tea-baggers are racists and Rush Limbaugh doesn’t make any sense. Duh!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alfred-J-Lemire/100000045361210 Alfred J. Lemire

    I can be emotional, as indicated above, but I try to be a “level-head, honest” conservative, leaning close to libertarian. Many on the Left have good intentions, though their methods, ethics, claims, and objectives are almost entirely faulty. And Beckaleck is wrong about Mr. Limbaugh.

    As to “people who will believe any lie or rant just because it fits in with their delusions,” that fits better with those who accept what the President tells them. I can prove Mr. Obama’s lies or, more accurately, falsehoods, like his claim, “I am not an ideologue. I’m not.” And, though he does not “rant,” or speak loudly, as Rush does, he is demonstrably a demagogue. Listen to him talk about the cause–only one cause, in his mind–of the financial meltdown.

    x

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alfred-J-Lemire/100000045361210 Alfred J. Lemire

    I also did not consider that Adkins is a conservative, aiming to discredit the Left. I can imagine that the mouse trapped yesterday and released in the woods is another life for Joseph Stalin. Had I thought of that yesterday, I would have used a different trap. But Adkins appears to be the real deal.

  • timzank

    Alfred J. Lemire …you make a lot of oustanding points, but save your breath. All the facts and common sense in the world will not be accepted by Adkins. He’s a true follower with no moral compass whatsoever.

  • TylerDurden

    Ted is still an a-hole and all is well with the world.

  • shootfromthehip

    If aliens were to descend from outer space and happen upon this thread, they would learn that TylerDurden is an insecure and sad person to post so much (ruining this website, arguably), yet say so little.

  • TylerDurden

    Hey,shootfromyourass,

    Just take some Homo-seltzer at night, and in the morning, you will wake-up feeling yourself.

  • beckaleck

    AJM, i respect people with views different than mine, but i do not and never could respect Rush. i don’t know how anyone could respect someone who so willfully distorts the truth the way that man does. Rush is so hell-bent on demonizing Obama that he will say anything. here is just a TINY example:

    a few days after the Haiti earthquake, Rush implied on his show that the Obama was trying to capitalize off of this travesty. he urged people that if they wanted to donate to aid in Hait they should definitely NOT do it at whitehouse.gov because the Obama administration would skim money off the top for “administrative costs” and their money wouldn’t get where it was supposed to. he said “I don’t know of a president ever who has asked people to donate to a relief effort through a White House Web site. It’s never happened before…” as if there was some shady conspiracy going on at whitehouse.gov where the socialist president was trying to get more of our hard earned money. he said if you donate through whitehouse.gov it would just go to the government and in that case you’ve already donated to Haiti by paying your income taxes. (oh, he also said if you went their, your email addresses would be put on lists to receive funding appeals and that Obama was using the disaster to build ‘credibility’ with the black community — in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.” but that’s unrelated to my point [kind of].)

    instead of going on a rant like this on his show, do you know what Rush could have done? if he had any integrity and cared one bit about honest reporting rather than wanting to say anything to cast doubt on Obama and his intentions, he could have gone to whitehouse.gov himself. if he had, he would have seen that there was no link to donate money directly through whitehouse.gov at all. all there was were links directing people to http://www.redcross.org and http://www.clintonbushhaitfund.org where they could donate.

    like i said, this is just a tiny example. and it’s pretty insignificant. but it shows how Rush is willing to spew ridiculously false claims about anything to get his listeners to hate and distrust this current administration.

  • pyrope

    Just because someone doesn’t understand Einstein’s theory of relativity doesn’t mean that Einstein made no sense. Similarly, just because Cliton doesn’t understand Rush Limbaugh doesn’t mean that Mr. Limbaugh doesn’t make any sense.

    There’s a lot I think Mr. Cliton doesn’t understand–like marital fidelity and the importance of listening to the military when they tell you it would have been a good thing had he let them take out bin Laden when they had him in the crosshairs.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Commentbug-Here/100000846533692 Commentbug Here

    did bill just become president of haiti? lol. Rush and Bill need each other yin and yang.

    http://www.commentbug.com

  • jimkerosh

    Tea Party and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck will be celebrated in different ways, and all the aspirants Tim McVeigh, Oklahoma and fondly remembered Branch Davidians / Koresh cult and rituals there.
    memory card reader

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

    Lemire, you demonstrate a complete and absolute inability to deal with the truth so I re-state it: “Here’s what Rush Limbaugh promotes and celebrates. It’s April 19th eve, and another Right Wing Holiday is tomorrow. The Tea Party and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck will celebrate it in various ways, all the Tim McVeigh Wannabes will remember Oklahoma fondly and the Branch Davidians/Koresh cult will perform its ceremonies. And added to the list of right wing cult heroes… will be the Homicide Pilot, Joseph Stack; the Pentagon Shooter and the Holocaust Museum Shooter. Rush Limbaugh, you unmitigated anti-American fool.”

    You promote violence, then deny you’ve done so – Bedell and Stack and the Holocaust Museum shooter rant in a clear reflection of Glenn Beck et al and you claim they’re ‘liberals.’ You distance yourself from the effect even though you’re the cause. I remember very well the bombing in Oklahoma and I believe you cry crocodile tears and will celebrate with a sweet memorial about McVeigh. Your type has been around throughout history, in this country and other nations. I liken you to the American Bund or the America Firsters who gave aid and comfort to those enemies who would destroy us. I liken Glenn Beck et al to Julius Streicher, Trotsky, Goebbels — inflammatory journalists and ‘infotainers’ all. The Tea Party has more in common with Milosevic and Karadzic and you and they present the same danger to this nation. The Balkanization of this nation is begun and I have no desire to see us the next Bosnia but I will not submit to the stupidity with which the name ‘Lemire” is now synonymous nor will I turn a blind eye to the danger presented by the Tea Party and their components, be it Stack or Hutaree or those members of Congress like Bachmann or those leaches like Palin.

  • TylerDurden

    Clinton on Obama during primary: Bill Clinton believes the Democratic nominee, far from practicing a unifying, transformational brand of politics, has the political instincts of “a Chicago thug,” one longtime associate said.

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