“There seems to be an abiding anger in him,” one of his senior aides told Todd Purdum. Good lord, does there ever. Not to begrudge the man a little righteous outrage at being the target of a hit piece, but the detail here about him refusing to let go of Mayhill Fowler’s hand is the creepy final act to a campaign performance that passed “bizarre” a long time ago. He’s like Orson Welles here tearing apart the bedroom at the end of Citizen Kane in frustration that no one’s left to admire his greatness.

Which isn’t to suggest that what he has to say is untrue.

Tightly gripping this reporter’s hand and refusing to let go, Clinton heatedly denounced the writer, who is currently married to former Clinton White House Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers.

“[He’s] sleazy,” he said referring to Purdum. “He’s a really dishonest reporter. And one of our guys talked to him . . . And I haven’t read [the article]. There’s just five or six blatant lies in there. But he’s a real slimy guy,” the former President said.

When I reminded him that Purdum was married to his former press spokesperson Myers, Clinton was undeterred.

“That’s all right– he’s still a scumbag,” Clinton said…

“You know he didn’t use a single name, cite a single source in all those things he said.. It’s just slimy. It’s part of the national media’s attempt to nail Hillary for Obama. It’s the most biased press coverage in history. It’s another way of helping Obama. They had all these people standing up in this church cheering, calling Hillary a white racist, and he didn’t do anything about it. The first day he said ‘Ah, ah, ah well.’ Because that’s what they do– he gets other people to slime her. So then they saw the movie they thought this is a great ad for John McCain–maybe I better quit the church. It’s all politics. It’s all about the bias of the media for Obama. Don’t think anything about it.”

“But I’m telling ya, all it’s doing is driving her supporters further and further away– because they know exactly what it is– this has been the most rigged coverage in modern history– and the guy ought to be ashamed of himself. But he has no shame. It isn’t the first dishonest piece he’s written about me or her.”

I don’t think Pfleger went off on Hillary at Obama’s behest but some of his other cronies surely have. The audio’s coming, supposedly; I’ll update when it’s available. Exit question: Man, Mayhill Fowler sure has a knack for being in the right place at the right time, huh?