Delayed Reaction: Bill Clinton Blows Top Over Richardson's Endorsement Of Obama

Whoa! Another meltdown from Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton unleashed one of his famous red-faced, finger-wagging tantrums when he was asked during a private meeting last weekend about New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's endorsement of Barack Obama.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the angry outburst to California superdelegates occurred just before the former President took the stage at the Democrats' state convention and calmly urged delegates to "chill out" when questioned about the deadlocked contest between his wife, Hillary, and Obama. "It was very, very intense," said one anonymous attendee of the backstage hissy fit. "Not at all like the Bill of earlier campaigns."

The meltdown apparently began when Rachel Binah, a former Richardson delegate who now supports Clinton, told the former President how "sorry" she was to have heard ex-Bill Clinton campaign manager James Carville call Richardson a "Judas" for backing Obama.

It was as if someone pulled the pin from a grenade, the paper reported. "Five times to my face, [Richardson] said that he would never do that!" a furious, finger-pointing Clinton retorted.

Clinton's tirade meandered from there to the media's treatment of his wife, to the unfairness of the votes in caucus states. It ended with him asking delegates to ponder the reaction if Obama were trailing by just 1% and people were telling him to drop out.

When contacted by the Daily News yesterday, Binah declined to comment on the meeting. "I really don't want to talk about it," she said. Asked if there's a reason why she wouldn't talk, she replied, "Yeah, there is a reason why. We have two magnificent candidates in this race. And, um, that's all I have to say."

Bob Mulholland, an adviser to the California Democratic Party, said only, "I thought it was a great meeting."

"It was informative, personal and we talked shop," he added. "It was great." Richardson, meanwhile, had his say yesterday in a Washington Post column in which he wrote that he never told the Clintons, or anyone, that he would refrain from endorsing Obama. "Those who say I did are misinformed or worse," wrote Richardson, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Clinton administration and later as energy secretary.

It does seem a bit back-stabby that Richardson would endorse Obama after being in Bill Clinton's cabinet. And after supposedly promising Bill five times that he wouldn't.