Hillary on Working Class White Southerners in 1995: 'Screw 'Em'

In light of the brouhaha surrounding Barack Obama's comments about high unemployment in small towns making Americans "cling to guns, or religion," one has to wonder whether press outlets are going to go gaga over derogatory statements Hillary Clinton made in 1995 about working-class white southerners.

This is especially the case given how media ignored revelations about Bill Clinton's 1991 and 1992 campaign remarks about "economically insecure white people."

As reported by the Huffington Post's Sam Stein Wednesday (emphasis added, picture courtesy AP):

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? 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."

In reality, ABC's Jake Tapper reported this at his Political Punch blog on October 25 of last year (emphasis added):

Interestingly, there's a passage in Sally Bedell Smith's new book on the Clintons' marriage, "For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years," that may be relevant to this all.

Smith tells of the Clintons attending a 1995 retreat called the "Camp David Seminar on the Future of Democracy," where a dozen scholars -- half liberals, half centrist "New Democrats" -- were there to "replicate the stresses and strains inside the Democratic party."

Hillary Clinton seemed to play the role of liberal conscience to Bill Clinton's master conciliator.
"I think we can do both," Bill Clinton would say.

Writes Smith: "Somewhat surprisingly, Hillary also attacked working-class white southerners who had forsaken the Democratic party, and in an oblique way she took on her husband as well. 'Screw 'em,' she said, 'you don't owe them a thing, Bill, they're doing nothing for you.'

Given the Obama gaffe, it seems peculiar that it's taken this long for these comments to be exposed.

Regardless, it's going to be very interesting to see what kind of coverage this gets in the coming days, and how it will be portrayed.

For instance, the New York Times' Nicolas Kristof has just reported this at his blog stating (emphasis added):

I haven’t done any reporting on myself, but MSNBC’s First Read says it has independently confirmed the incident. Apparently three people there have confirmed the quote. Frankly, I don’t think a single quote from 1995 is revealing about Senator Clinton’s mindset, any more than i [sic] think the “bitter” quote reveals anything deep about Obama. I wish the focus were less on “gotcha” moments and more on what the candidates would do if elected.

This from a man working for a paper that specializes in gotcha moments when a Republican is involved, especially if the last name is "Bush."