“Must we give credit to Billy Jeff, big A?” My friends, we must.

Clinton’s 50-minute speech, which started about an hour behind schedule, was derailed briefly by several hecklers in the audience who shouted that the 2001 terrorist attacks were a fraud. Rather than ignoring them, Clinton seemed to relish a direct confrontation.

“A fraud? No, it wasn’t a fraud,” Clinton said, as the crowd cheered him on. “I’ll be glad to talk to you if you shut up and let me talk.”

When another heckler shouted that the attacks were an “inside job,” Clinton took even greater umbrage.

“An inside job? How dare you. How dare you. It was not an inside job,” Clinton said. “You guys have got to be careful, you’re going to give Minnesota a bad reputation.”

I like to imagine him delivering that with the same fiery resolve as his famous “Miss Lewinsky” line. (Which, er, was a lie.) Question: Besides Newt, has any prominent politician on either side dismissed these cretins so emphatically? Rudy must have tangled with them at some point but the one incident I’ve seen captured on video showed him, sadly, taking the path of least resistance. We know for sure that neither the top nor the bottom of the last Democratic ticket has the stones to tell them off to their face. Is this just a case of (gulp) Clinton having a little more courage than the rest of them? Or can Hillary, the “centrist” with a 25-point lead, afford to kiss off the left’s Truther faction in a way that Edwards and co. simply can’t?

Update: Here’s the clip. Money.