Clintons rushed to reach Clyburn on race controversy

[babylonsister]

Odd, Clintons did nothing wrong, yet they're remorseful? :shrug:


Clintons rushed to reach Clyburn on race controversy
By Klaus Marre
Posted: 01/15/08 12:52 PM


Seeking to quell the fight between the presidential campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), former President Bill Clinton spoke to House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) within an hour of the lawmaker returning from a 10-day trip abroad.

Over the past few days, surrogates of the campaigns have traded accusations of whether the camps of the two leading candidates are trying to make race an issue in the Democratic nominating process.

Clyburn, who also noted that he “has no plans to make an endorsement,” also spoke with Obama and Hillary Clinton upon his return, he said Monday night on PBS’s “The Charlie Rose Show.” It is unclear who initiated the conversations, though Clyburn suggested that Bill Clinton reached out to him, saying he “heard” from the ex-president.

The swiftness with which the Clintons reached out to the lawmaker, who has remained neutral in the race for the nomination but said he was not pleased with statements from the campaign of the former first lady, highlights the urgency and importance of the issue.

“We talked about the unfortunate circumstances that we find ourselves in,” Clyburn, who is black, said with regard to his conversation with the former president. The lawmaker pledged to Bill Clinton that he would do his “level best to help get us beyond this, because this campaign is about change.”

Clyburn characterized the Clintons as “remorseful” over what has transpired since the senator made a remark that some have interpreted to belittle the accomplishment of Martin Luther King Jr.

Obama told Clyburn that he “would love for this to get behind us,” the lawmaker said in the interview.

Clinton issued a statement Monday expressing the same sentiment.

more...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/clintons-scrambled-to-reach-clyburn-on-race-controversy-2008-01-15.html

[AtomicKitten]

1. If by "remorse" you mean caught with their pants down, I agree.

[HeraldSquare212]

2. And note, he's only neutral because he has focused on bringing

the primary to SC early. I guess he didn't want to be seen to be favoring one candidate over all the others by trying to do that. I don't know who he would have endorsed, but it seems like he was close to endorsing Obama but his desire not to undo all he had done with the primary won out.