when you do something stupid don't pile on. back off, think about it and keep your mouth shut. but no, carville decided to write an op-ed piece and of course, it was published. he's still whining that bill richardson endorsed obama and not clinton, which reminds us what clinton politics is all about, loyalty over sense. if that's the kind of people the clintons are, then richardson's endorsement of obama was probably like getting out of an abusive relationship. he probably feels relieved and free. loyalty is not a virtue that should overtake sense, especially in politics.
carville says bill richardson was lifted by the clintons and that richardson couldn't have become who he is any other way, and that he owes his very life to them. how foolish is that thought? it's an abusive thought: if i give you a hand up, if i help you become more of what you are, then you owe me loyalty. first of all, bill richardson isn't who he is because of the clintons. he is who he is because of whatever strengths he has and the work that he did.
bill richardson's endorsement says a lot about obama and it says a lot about the clintons.
there is a difference between loyalty and stupidity. what is so amazing to me is that people with money and power aren't what you'd expect. you'd expect them to be brighter somehow. but neither money nor power can make someone intelligent.
what carville is saying loud and clear is that he wishes he was a free man. he wishes that he could do exactly what bill richardson did, endorse obama. but he's so deep in muck that he's a prisoner of loyalty.
from the wash post:
So, when asked on Good Friday about Richardson's rejection of the Clintons, the metaphor was too good to pass by. I compared Richardson to Judas Iscariot. (And Matthew Dowd is right: Had it been the Fourth of July, I probably would have called him Benedict Arnold.)
I believed that Richardson's appointments in Bill Clinton's administration and his longtime personal relationship with both Clintons, combined with his numerous assurances to the Clintons and their supporters that he would never endorse any of Sen. Hillary Clinton's opponents, merited a strong response.
I was fully aware of what kind of response calling someone a Judas would evoke.
Certainly, it didn't take long for the resign-renounce-denounce complex to kick into high gear.
In a bit of bloviation that brought joy to my heart, Bill O'Reilly pronounced himself "appalled."
Keith Olbermann, about two degrees shy of the temperature necessary for self-combustion, quipped, "So if he's Judas in this analogy, who's Jesus?"
Even Diane Sawyer took the analogy to the extreme, questioning, "Are you saying that he made a deal of some kind when you talk about 30 shekels?"
then he says this:
believe that loyalty is a cardinal virtue. Nowhere in the world is loyalty so little revered and tittle-tattle so greatly venerated as in Washington. I was a little-known political consultant until Bill Clinton made me. When he came upon hard times, I felt it my duty -- whatever my personal misgivings -- to stick by him. At the very least, I would have stayed silent. And maybe that's my problem with what Bill Richardson did. Silence on his part would have spoken loudly enough.
