Barack Obama challenged Bill Clinton's truthfulness Monday in a deepening feud with the husband of Obama's Democratic presidential rival.
Obama's rebuke of the former president, who is still extremely popular with Democrats, came on the holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., when both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton focused on the civil rights leader.
In an interview on ABC, Obama twice questioned Bill Clinton's veracity.
"I have to say just broadly, you know, the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling. You know, he continues to make statements that aren't supported by the facts, whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq, or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas.
"You know, this has become a habit. And one of the things that I think we're going to have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's not making statements that are factually accurate."
The former president recently has accused Obama of exaggerating his anti-war record and handing out undeserved praise to Republicans. Clinton said he personally witnessed Obama's union forces intimidating Nevada caucus voters and said an Obama radio ad suggested how Democrats could keep votes from his wife.
In a King Day interview that aired on NBC's "Today" Show on Monday, Bill Clinton agreed that King would be excited about Obama's candidacy.
"A great speaker, a smart man, someone who loves our country," the former president said of the Illinois senator.
The former president said King "would get a kick out of the fact that it appears the nominee of the Democratic Party would either be an African-American senator who's profoundly eloquent, or a woman senator who got her Methodist youth minister to take her to see Dr. King when she was a young high school student, who shared his lifelong commitment and who idolized him."
Clinton said he and his daughter, Chelsea, witnessed voter intimidation in Nevada, prior to the caucuses that his wife won on Saturday.
He said a representation of the Culinary Workers Union, which endorsed Obama, was "following along behind us going up to everybody ... saying, 'If you're not gonna vote for our guy we're gonna give you a schedule tomorrow so you can't be there.' So, is this the new politics? I haven't seen anything like that in America in 35 years."
The Las Vegas Sun said it checked out potential intimidation and concluded it depended on who was talking.
The Sun's column, by Michael Mishak, said, "After the Sun worked the story for two hours, this much is clear: What exactly happened this afternoon (Jan. 16) at Paris Las Vegas depends on whom you talk to. To hear Clinton's campaign and her supporters tell it, the union intimidated a member into caucusing for Obama, demanding that she sign a pledge card — or face exile from the caucus.
"To hear the alleged victim tell it, it was much more of a misunderstanding."
The union denied engaging in any intimidation.
Bill Clinton has criticized an Obama radio spot, saying, "There's a radio ad up in the northern part of Nevada telling Republicans that they ought to just register as Democrats for a day so they can beat Hillary and go out and be Republicans next week and vote in the primary. Doesn't sound like the new politics to me."
Obama's ad did say Nevada independents and Republicans could switch their registration, but it did not mention Hillary Clinton.
The former president also criticized Obama for his comments about Republicans.
He contended that Obama "said that since 1992, the Republicans have had all the good ideas. ... I can't imagine any Democrat seeking the presidency would say they were the party of new ideas for the last 15 years."
Obama did praise Republicans, but criticized them in the same comment.
He said, "I think it's fair to say the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years, in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom. Now, you've heard it all before. You look at the economic policies when they're being debated among the presidential candidates and it's all tax cuts. Well, you know, we've done that, we tried it. That's not really going to solve our energy problems, for example. So, some of it's the times."
Earlier this month, Bill Clinton had harsh words regarding Obama's stance against the Iraq war.
He said Obama "got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, enumerating the years, and never got asked one time, not once, 'Well, how could you say that when you said in 2004 you didn't know how you would have voted on the resolution, you said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war, and you took that speech you're now running on off your Web site in 2004, and there's no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since."
When Obama was the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic convention, he focused on the conduct of the conflict.
"When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going," said Obama. "... And to never, ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace and earn the respect of the world."
When Obama spoke to the Chicago Tribune in July 2004, he did comment on his position and that of Bush, but clearly qualified his remark.
"There's not that much difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who's in a position to execute."
Both Hillary Clinton and Obama have voted against legislation that paid for the war but lacked a timetable for troop withdrawal. Obama has supported withdrawal of combat troops in 16 months.
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