Sharpton: Reid Forgiven, Clinton Next

On Fox & Friends today, Reverend Al Sharpton gave Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a much needed boost and put former President Bill Clinton on notice. First, he defended Reid’s 2008 anachronistic-at-best description of then Senator Barack Obama  as a “‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect'” as “clearly a misstatement.” [This detail is contained in Game Change authored by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann.] Second, Sharpton contrasted it with those of former GOP Majority Leader Trent Lott and former President Bill Clinton. Further, unexpectedly, he indicated that he would be calling President Clinton to account (which would probably take the spotlight off of Reid).

In his interview with F&F co-anchor Steve Doocy, Sharpton contended that Reid’s statement paled in comparison to that of Lott. He stated, “To say that what he [Reid] said is near anywhere comparable…to what Trent Lott said is insulting to the American people. Trent Lott commended a Dixiecrat [1948 prez nominee Senator Strom Thurmond] for running for office, who left the Democratic Party to run to fight integration. How do you compare Trent Lott (saying that I wish this guy Thurmond we’d had those days where blacks would have been at the back of the bus, because that’s what the guy was running on) to a guy [Reid] saying why a guy could be elected President?”

Subsequently, Steve asked Sharpton about a former President Bill Clinton’s controversial quote contained in Game Change. (Clinton allegedly tried to solicit an endorsement for his wife Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic prez primaries from Senator Ted Kennedy: in doing so, Clinton allegedly commented, “A few years ago, this guy [Obama] would have been getting us coffee.”) Sharpton responded, “That is far more disturbing to me than even the comments that were made by Mister Reid….If someone said that he would have been getting us coffee like that in the context they said he said it, that would be very offensive to me. And, I would definitely take Mr. Clinton on as I did in South Carolina [when] he made some statements that I felt was wrong.”

As a follow-up, Steve queried, “I remember. It was in the news. You gonna call him up?” Sharpton replied, “He hasn’t call me so I guess that I will have to make the call.

D&C Do “Courtney”

Not again, Dave & Clayton! Just when Fox & Friends Weekend viewers thought that co-hosts Dave Briggs and Clayton Morris were gaining their sea legs and establishing their separate identities, they re-embraced their Doublemen Twin avatars in the very first segment of the show today. Happily, their sexy tutor Alisyn Camerota was there again to save the day for her F&FW audience.

In the trio’s discussion of Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s new book, “Game Change,” they turned to the passage about former President Bill Clinton’s purported slam of then Senator Barack Obama (in a conversation with Senator Teddy Kennedy in an effort to secure Kennedy’s endorsement of then Senator Hillary Clinton for President). After showing on screen Clinton’s cited quote, saying, “A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee,” Dave stated that Kennedy got so turned off by such negativity that he switched his support to Obama. Interestingly, when Aly asked, “But what does that comment mean?,” Dave replied, “Well, I don’t think that’s racial: that’s experience.” Echoing Dave, Clayton chimed, “It just meant his experience.”

After their bald assertions, Aly delicately observed, “I think that’s giving him the benefit of the doubt. That’s great, and you may be right that.” Insisting he was indeed, Dave interrupted, “I don’t take anything racial from that.” Once again, Clayton reverberated, “Yeah.” Not completely cowed, Aly continued, “But it’s still sort of a nasty comment.” Seemingly, not satisfied with Aly’s lack of assent, Dave insisted, “I think that he would have said that about any low level staffer or representative.” Immediately, Clayton concurred, “Yeah. He was making the point that it’s just lack of experience.”

Unfortunately, the Doublemen Twins sounded like Courtney Friel vacuously opining about the healthcare plan. Not racial? Why did a “fuming” Senator Kennedy recount the quote to a friend and, further, switch his support to Obama? About lack of experience? Would a past Harvard Law Review president and University of Chicago School of Law constitutional law professor likely be subserviently serving Bill Clinton and Teddy Kennedy coffee? (As an aside, perhaps, both Dave and Clayton forgot about Bill Clinton’s stirring the racial pot in his comparison of Obama’s 2008 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary victory to prior ones by Jesse Jackson.)

The author was beginning to believe that the boys were able to fly on their own (and let Aly soar to new heights). At least, for today, it was not to be.