Bill Clinton's tirade stunned some delegates

Bill Clinton has let loose at a meeting of super delegates with a tirade that left most of them reeling and led one of them to declare it, "one of the worst political meetings I have ever attended."

It all kicked off when Rachel Binah told Bill how sorry she was to see James Carville label Richardson a "Judas" for endorsing Obama.

It was as if someone pulled the pin from a grenade.

"Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that," a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.

The former president then went on a tirade that ran from the media's unfair treatment of Hillary to questions about the fairness of the votes in state caucuses that voted for Obama. It ended with him asking delegates to imagine what the reaction would be if Obama was trailing by just 1 percent and people were telling him to drop out.

"It was very, very intense," said one attendee. "Not at all like the Bill of earlier campaigns."

When he finally wound down, Bill was asked what message he wanted the delegates to take away from the meeting.

At that point, a much calmer Clinton outlined his message of party unity.

"It was kind of strange later when he took the stage and told everyone to 'chill out,' " one delegate told us.

"We couldn't help but think he was also talking to himself."

Indeed, even Bill appears to have realised that his outburst was over the top as, when Binah returned home, there was a message waiting for her relaying Clinton's apology for what had taken place.

However, as news of Bill's outburst became public a spokesperson for Richardson said that Richardson had never promised the Clinton camp that he would endorse them.

And Bill does, on some level, appear to be defending Carville's claim that Richardson is "a Judas".

This is a further example of what I find most distasteful about the Clinton election machine. The notion that it is fair game to trample anyone and anything which stands in your way.

There are rumours that this is why many super delegates who favour Obama are reticent about coming out and announcing their intention to endorse him, and it's because they fear that the Clinton camp will take vengeance on them.

What those remaining undeclared folks are telling me in private, though, is that they hope the race will play itself out and Obama will emerge as the clear winner so that they don't have to piss the Clintons and their machine off. They don't want the Clintons and McAuliffe and those donors who signed the letter to stop raising money for them. They don't want Carville and Wolfson to call them a traitor. They don't want all the behind-the-scenes trashing that they know will come.

Fear of vengeance might be a good way to keep cowardly super delegates in their box, but it's a morally repugnant way to achieve a democratic victory. Bill, by defending what Carville said, is endorsing those kind of tactics. This is what makes so many of us, who would have enthusiastically supported a Clinton presidency, now back away in disgust.

Obama really is offering a new kind of politics, and hearing of Bill's latest rant, it feels like it's long overdue.

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Tags: Bill Clinton, Carville, Richardson, outburst, tirade, endorsement, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama