Questioner calls Bush 'the bastard,' Hillary Clinton smiles

Over the weekend there was an as yet little-noticed incident in Bridgeton, Mo., just outside St. Louis. Sen. Hillary Clinton addressed a town hall meeting there and was taking questions from the audience.

One elderly woman rose and was asking the Democratic candidate about a rumored economic union among the United States, Canada and Mexico that is widely discussed, feared and abhorred among conspiracy fanciers. The woman said the president planned to implement the secret agreement in 2010.

Then the woman called the president "Bush the bastard."

The Democratic crowd immediately roared its approval.

Sen. Clinton nodded her head slightly and smiled.

Then, she proceeded to ...

answer the question, saying "there's not a lot of truth to it." Our colleagues over at the Swamp have posted Glenn Thrush's detailed account of the incident, which you can read here.

It'll be interesting to see if Clinton's silent assent to that crude comment arouses as much criticism and controversy as last year when a Republican woman in South Carolina asked Sen. John McCain about Clinton, calling her "the bitch."

At the time, CNN showed a video clip of the incident and strongly criticized McCain for not admonishing the woman, although the candidate did say belatedly that he respected the New York senator.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[frank]

When will Hillary apologize ?????

[R.G. Frano, A.C.L.S.]

I can think of a lot of phrases I MIGHT use to describe (ALL) the so-called
'presidential aspirants'...'sociopath' is a favorite, as is {"Expletive Deleted}", which is the actual phrase I type so as to get past the (inappropriate), ever-increasing censorship in this country, particularly affecting 'Netizens' iike myself.
By the way, I DID SAY: 'ALL THE CANDIDATES', including those who have already dissappred from this 'electory_farce'.
Meanwhile, drudgereport.com has an item in which Mrs. Clinton is quoted,
saying she's considering "garnishing wages" to enforce health care coverage. Since millions of Americans don't have health insurance because they can't afford it, (due to the fact that Mr. Bush has an "any illegal forign employee,
anytime" national security concept!!), thereby throwing all of us out of work,
how dores Mrs. Clinton plan to "garnish wages" from those Americans who DON'T have wages???!!!

[Carl]

Heaven HELP US !!!!!!!!!!! The culture WAR continues !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With the Liberal media as it is I'm surprised this has been reported - you won't see it in many national medias.

[rrs]

As long as LA Times agrees with comments or they are not too harsh on their pet candidates then they will display the comment. Thanks for holding true to the 1st amendment as long as it suits you

[flo jones]

The "B" word doesn't bother hillary because she's married to the mother of all "B........s"............she's one herself!

[Hawkeye]

Doesn't surprise me since Hillary has no class

[David]

I haven't heard a thing about this ...left-leaning media, of course.

[chas]

When expressed ideas are without substance- name calling results. It's comforting to see that leftists are this ideologically bankrupt. I hope this bitter woman is allowed to speak her mind again soon.

[flo jonz]

Thanks hillary, for reminding us why we don't want you and your disgraced husband in the White House. Thanks bill clinton for losing your temper and showing us the 'real you.' Thanks bill, for playing the race card. Thanks bill, for lying under oath. Thanks bill for showing men how to disrespect their wives and get away with it. Thanks bill for taking millions from questionable donors to line your pockets. Thanks bill, for showing a new generation of voters the dirty side of politics and that you aren't the great leader they thought you were. In other words, thanks for nothing!
Finally, thank you hillary for showing us what a real B..........your husband is!

[R]

Last year someone called Hillary a bit**. Hmmmm. I think that calling her that is probably somewhat of a compliment and if not it means that bit**es everywhere should be offended that she is grouped in with them. I think that the more appropriate label to put on her is c***.

[Scott]

I am shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you, that the media has chosen to ignore the nasty language Hillary endorsed by having no negative reaction to it after the lefty rags admonished McCain for the same thing - although I seem to recall J.C. politely saying he did not feel that way towards her. Welcome to media bias 101.

[Welll]

Well, in Hillary's defense, she probably didn't want to attract any more attention to the poor old crazy lady.

Though saying "There's not *ALOT* of truth to this" will only make things worse.

[Xeno77777]

Calling Mr. Bush silly insults, demeans the seriousness of t he challenge he presents to Democracy. A more apt term is a note that Bush is a Pirate By Stealth who lied when he took his Oath of office, invalidating the Oath. He is the Third
generation of a Social Darwinist Family who have shown vast disrespect for the US, its Consitution and its Laws. He now plans to cut 193 Billion from Medicaid and Medicare. His sect of Baal worshipping politicians and wall streeters, such as Moody's Frank Hess, do not want to repay the I.O.U.s they issued to Social Security when they took its funds, and spent these Social Security Moneys wasting these on un-related expenditures. it may be that the US has reached the point that there is no Honorable Persons left to elect to Public Office. Read the Book of the Prophet Amos, the first in time after King David. After the Death of Solomon, Israel broke up into two Kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Amos admonishes the Northern Kingdom;s rulers and their rich allies, for stealing the Tithes, which were the Social Security of the day, and spending these moneys on themselves! The tithes were suppposed to be used to prevent the poor from freezing and/or starving! We have the same type of people in power that Amos admonished. Seeing the wild spending of the Northern Kingdoms Royalty and weallthy hangers oons,
ancient Assyria decided to come in an d conquer the Northern Kingdom, and take its Ten Tribes into captivity. Thus they dissappeared from History. Go to http://www.Hotsheet.com, scroll down to the search engines; skip politically sanitized google and findtarget; click on dogpile or search, or ixquix or ask: enter "Bush Family Nazi connections" and click on search . try other famous old families such as Rockefeller, DuPont, Ford, Harriman, Walker, Dulles, etc. and also try famous old corporations such as Exxon, General Motors, ALCOA, etc. You will be amazed at what you find. Auschwitz Death Camp was built to supply slave laborers to the Coal Mines owned by Prescott Bush, George W. Bush's Grandfather, in the East Prussian Province. The Oriiginal Bush Fortune came from aiding the Nazi's, and helping put Adolph Hitler in power..

[MrClean518]

Typical how the "party of change" seems to stay the same. One standard for themselves and another for their enemies. A "big tent" for everyone except those that don't agree with them. How dare a republican allow someone to call a democrat a bad name, after all they're evil. But it's OK for a democrat to make hellacious comments about republicans, because they must be true. Who cares about the logic behind it.

[jlr]

The denegration of the office of president began with her husband, so it is no surprise that she holds no respect for the office, if not the man. What she doesn't understand is that by allowing or even condoning this type of attitude toward our world leaders she is undermining her own effectiveness should she be elected. This type of thinking is perjudicial to our country in general, and the loss of civility among our representatives will lead the way for the deterioration of our great nation.

[rplat]

That's about the level of intellect of a crowd one would expect to find Hillary pandering to.

[Fred]

I would have used much stronger language than that.

[Pepper]

does the old woman not know that Hillary supports the NAU also????? Why are democrats such idiots?

[Mo]

I think our country can do better than this. Vote Obama in '08!

[Frank Stella]

Mr. Malcolm would do well to understand that, in both the Clinton and McCain situations, his charge of "silent assent" is more "gently treating the crazies."
What would he do if a nut came up, started cussing and laying out a conspiracy theory? Probably crack a little smile and do what it takes to move the weirdo along. This is obvious axe-grinding and whining.

[Rich]

What is so funny is that Hillary's husband is an actual bastard. Look up the definition of bastard and then research information on Bill's dad.

[flounder]

Maybe Hillary was thinking of Bill?

[James Smithson]

Sure, CNN will jump all over Hillary. Fat chance!

[ragu4u]

I was told she was thinking about her lovely Chelsea when the "bastard" word was used. No wonder she smiled. You make the connection!

[Daniel]

It isn't simply Republicans who insist that the media applies a far stricter standard to them than to the Democrats. I haven't voted for any Republican in decades, have only voted for perhaps three in my lifetime, and expect that I will never again vote for one, but I see this egregious bias too. Most of America sees some of this bias, though perhaps they aren't aware of how far-reaching it is.

[Misty M]

As usual with a Democrat, they can say & do what they want and get confronted by NO-ONE! I am sick & tired of the DIRTY politics that the Dem's are encouraging around them. When will our country finally have enough and step up? Let's get us a Republican President who isn't invested in the legal or illegal hispanic businesses. Let's wrestle the House & Senate away from the Liberal-crats and fix our country once & for all.

[Bill]

Yeah, just keep holding your breath for the hue and cry from the MSM over this outrage...

[hsing lee]

In a SANE world, one which didn't allow cousins to marry like you do in the USA, George W Bush's parents, who ARE cousins, should never have been married in the first place... everyone knows that when cousins marry, they produce inbred morons like GW.

So even if he's not a bastard in the strictest sense of the word, he SHOULD be one, and would be one, if Southerners weren't so gung-ho about incest...

Peace

[Jan]

Andrew Malcolm, the problem is, most of the world calls Bush a lot worse than "a bastard."
So... Do you think she would lose votes or GAIN votes with more publicity?

[Michael Tremblay]

As if this should surprise anyone. You know, you would almost think there is an element of bias in how the media reports the news. Oh, wait! They continuously remind us that there is no bias in media! How stupid of me to think that - I think I will have some more kool-aid....

[vivian bennett]

Democrats are never called on the carpet for what they say, why should we start now?
We do live in 2 americas, the vindictive democrats and the republican.

[zippy]

What should we call her husband, or her. How rude, so she wants to be Presdient and now she demeans the office as well. They should the class of the Bush Family. Oh, it took a Bush to clean the Clinton mess.

[AJ]

C'mon, we all know the rules are different for each party.

Modern day democrats sees no fault in themselves or their views.

We are all humans, and none of us are right all the time.

[DJH]

Don't make any bets on whether or not the media will even acknowledge this happened, in fact don't be surprised if they haven't made this woman a 'hero of the journalist corp'. With the amount of mis-information or lies by omission from the media it's hard to tell what is and isn't true anymore.
Thankfully, for those of us smart enough and willing enough to search it out, the truth is always available.

Too bad the media cant do it's job and stop trying to push an agenda. Integrity and pride mean nothing when it comes to ideology I guess.

[Truth: The Anti-Newshound]

"It'll be interesting to see if Clinton's silent assent to that crude comment arouses as much criticism and controversy as last year when a Republican woman in South Carolina asked Sen. John McCain about Clinton, calling her 'the bitch'."
=

Please, what planet are you on? You know darn well that the mainstream media, an adjunct to the Democrat party, is never going to show Hitlery in a bad light (while they love to do the same to Republicans).

Eh?

[jJanie]

Does this mean I am free to address Hillary as Bitch?

[Joseph]

She knows intimately of bastards, she married one. Good thing the word vagina did not appear!

[Randall]

Hello, Pot, ...meet kettle.

[john a]

sort of like listening to dick chaney address a member of the senate.

[PNW Trojan]

DELIGHTED! The Times backed Obama...usually, we see the Times backing the worst of the Party Stooges...the Freak Left's choice here, on the Left Coast. But Cal has gone down hill for far too long, and that, is laid at the Democrats' door. Too impotent to beat 'Bush the bastard' as one Bridgeton, Missouri lady correctly put it, Pelosi, Feinstein (once, a GREAT moderate) and Boxer + a slew of local yokels, that have sold Cal to Mexico. Of course even as a Republican, I'm isgusted with, and revile Bush, Rove, DeLay, Cunningham et al, the lying, duplicitous thieves of the Freak Right. I want a solid individual in the White House to balance BOTH corrupt freak fringes. Bloomberg would be IDEAL, but I would welcome Obama over geriatric McCain (zzzzzz) but please folks... we saw the sleaze of Clinton BEFORE electing him 2x! Let's prove to the world we're NOT idiots, too stupid to be trusted with being a bastion of Democracy, and KEEP Hellary the Hun out of the White House. Sadly, women politicians have proven to be no better, no less trustworthy than the men. If not Bloomberg, then, OBAMA!

[CLAY BENJAMIN]

HOW CAN ANYONE CALL PRESIDENT BUSH A BASTARD WHEN HE HAS A BIOLOGICAL MOTHER AND FATHER AND THEY ARE MARRIED TO EACH OTHER? AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE?

[James]

Hmmm.. that's sort of got a nice ring to it... "The Bitch and the Bastard: You Decided 08".

The irony here is that elections should be about ideas which are in response to common issues we face as Americans. Name calling and/or agreement therein undermines the process. A one party dominated government is not in the interests of any American as it only stimulates swelling pride and arrogance which leads to corruption. This corruption has been seen in both parties - neither are immune.

Tangible results should be the metric by which politicians pass or fail. Them them state their goals for the nation, and be thus measured as a indicator of their performance. Too logical? Maybe. But at least we'd be spared the melodrama of being sold salacious news not worthy of print.

[Angry Citizen]

Dam right she agreed, the president is a bastard. Makes me side with her even more.

[joe markovich]

Hillary was called a bitch and that is totally disrespectful but to defame the president of the country and the senator smiles is an order of magnitude worse. shame on those adultswho can't do any better than a foul mouthed rapper.

[Michael]

of course it'll be the leftists and feminists that'll decide what is civil and what isn't

[Michael]

of course it'll be the leftists and feminists that'll decide what is civil and what isn't

[Tim1979]

As a conservative backer of Senator McCain, I don't see this story as anything more than a blip on the radar screen. Political campaigns get hot and heavy, and when an audience members surprises everyone with a moment of blue-language candor---and a candidate may smirk or chuckle, as a knee-jerk reaction and against their better judgement. In the end, though, who cares? Much more important that all of us get back on track and have a vigorous, civil and constructive debate about the issues that matter to us all.

[doug]

This woman has NO class! She AND Obama are media creations, and neither have a chance to see the Oval Office.

[Mark Smith]

For the love of god. Is this the most important thing for you to write about and for LAT to put on the front splash.

No wonder journalism is so little respected.

[no socialist USA]

a vote for any democratic nominee will result in us collectively taking several steps toward a socialist country. i do not want higher taxes. i do not want bigger government. our government is not here to provide us services. it can barely provide us with what it is supposed to provide us with! our freedoms, our security, our sovereignty. take a close look at how much freedom and security you have left. and after you take your rose colored glasses off and wipe the tears from your eyes, maybe you can clearly see thats not all these people want to take from you.