Oh, yeah. Like Dan McLaughlin, I forgot that Hillary Clinton said this. Or possibly burned it out of my mind:

In May 08, Hillary was asked why she was staying in race v Obama.”We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”

— Niall Stanage (@NiallStanage) June 20, 2015

As the New York Times itself wrote at the time: “…Mrs. Clinton’s mentioning the Kennedy assassination in the same breath as her own political fate struck some as going too far.”  Still, funny story there: Bill Burton, who was professionally upset there at Hillary Clinton for making that comment in 2008, is now going around being professionally upset at the mere suggestion that Hillary Clinton might not be as pure as new-fallen snow. Although I will give [mc_name name=’Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’C000537′ ]  props for consistency: he didn’t like Hillary Clinton in that article then, and – despite her best efforts to suck up to him – he’s not really fond of her now.

Clyburn doesn’t plan on endorsing anyone for the primary this time and he eagerly invited Clinton’s challengers to visit in a statement to the Globe.

“I welcome any and all Democratic presidential candidates to South Carolina, a state that offers distinctive opportunities to hone messages in relatively inexpensive media markets,” Clyburn said.

There is a point to all of this: the 2008 Democratic primary was just flat out nasty. Endlessly fascinating to watch, and while it ostensibly ended well for the Democrats anyway things just apparently just got delayed, not resolved.  The big question is going to be: how many Democrats are going to be like opportunistic mercenaries like Bill Burton, and how many are going to be grudge-holding holdouts like Rep. Clyburn?

Yes, yes, I know: the safe way to bet is that every Democrat that matters will be a mercenary.  Which is a perfectly reasonable way to bet.  Still. You would have thought that Hillary Clinton would have spent the last seven years smoothing ruffled feathers and pouring oil on troubled waters, yes? – Because she’s not acting like this has happened.  More importantly, neither is the Democratic party leadership cadre.

Moe Lane (crosspost)