Opinion: Hillary Clinton’s disputed slam at the South

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Hillary Clinton’s campaign maintains that people who recall her making a pointedly derisive remark about Southern voters many years ago are not remembering it right.

The question was stirred by a column inThe Huffington Post this week, in which Sam Stein wrote about an account of the comment published a few years back by an author:

‘In January 1995, as the Clintons were licking their wounds from the 1994 congressional elections, a debate emerged at a retreat at Camp David. Should the administration make overtures to working-class, white Southerners who had all but forsaken the Democratic Party?’’ Stein wrote. ‘The then-first lady took a less than inclusive approach.

‘Screw ‘em,’ she told her husband. ‘You don’t owe them a thing, Bill. They’re doing nothing for you; you don’t have to do anything for them.’

‘The statement -- which author Benjamin Barber witnessed and wrote about in his book, ‘The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House’ -- was prompted by another speaker raising the difficulties of reaching ‘Reagan Democrats’,’’ Stein wrote.’ It stands in stark contrast...

to the attitude the New York Democrat has recently taken on the campaign trail, in which she has presented herself as the one candidate who understands the working-class needs.’’

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer, on a conference call with reporters this morning, said, “I think this quote that has gotten some attention … differs from the recollection of other people who were in the room,’’ Others who were there ‘not only don’t remember the comment being made, but also don’t reflect a meeting … reflecting the kind of tone and tenor that is implied ….

‘If you look at the way that Sen. Clinton has lived her life, the kind of policies she has pursued,’’ the spokesman said, ‘I think it is quite clear that she has advocated a progressive agenda aimed at lifting all Americans up… not just those in one region.’’

So, are they saying that the author, a noted political scientist, got the story wrong? Are they saying the author is wrong? ‘I’m not going to get into an argument with him or anyone else whose recollection may be different,’’ Singer said. ‘We’ve given our answer on this.’’

-- Mark Silva

Mark Silva writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau