When Bill Clinton talks, people listen

At this point, it would be news if Bill Clinton, an E.F. Hutton-like figure in the political sphere, didn't make news.

Barack Obama and Chris Dodd have both seized on comments the 42nd president made at an American Postal Workers Union convention yesterday in Las Vegas. Clinton brought up the "Swift Boat" campaign that helped sink John Kerry in 2004 in discussing the recent controversy over his wife's position on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. But was Bill Clinton really saying, as Obama and Dodd apparently believe, that his wife's policy positions shouldn't be scrutinized by her primary rivals?

Obama told the Associated Press that he was "stunned" by the former president's statement. "How you would then draw an analogy to distorting somebody's military record is a reach," he said. Dodd called Bill Clinton's remarks "outrageous." "To have the former president come out and suggest this is a form of swiftboating ... is way over the top in my view," Dodd told the AP.

Hillary Clinton's campaign singled out Obama and said he was taking her husband's comments out of context to score cheap points. "Sen. Obama is well aware that the former president was saying that the Republicans will do anything to play politics with a serious issue," spokesman Phil Singer said in an email. "So instead of launching another attack against the Clintons, Sen. Obama should join with them in working to prevent all Democrats from being attacked by the GOP."

Here's what Bill Clinton actually said, as recorded by the AP, on Hillary Clinton's comments in the last debate about a proposal by New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to grant illegal immigrants driver's licenses:

"I had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy land again. Ya'll raise your hand if you're for illegal immigrants getting a driver's license. So, we then let the Republicans go ahead saying all the Democrats are against the rule of law. I think it's fine to discuss immigration. We should. I believe immigration needs to be discussed. And it's fine for Hillary and all the other Democrats to discuss Governor Spitzer's plan. But not in 30 seconds, yes, no, raise your hand. This is a complicated issue. This is a complicated issue."

UPDATE: Obama spokesman Bill Burton points to an interview Clinton gave to CNN today in which she would not answer whether she thinks illegal immigrants should be granted licenses. "The only person playing politics today is Senator Clinton," Burton said. "It's absurd to compare a simple yes or no question about immigration that Senator Clinton still won't answer seven days after the debate to the despicable Republican attacks against John Kerry and Max Cleland's patriotism. Senator Obama believes that to truly stand up to the Republican attack machine, we have to be honest and straightforward about where we stand on the major issues facing America."