Rep. James Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat who just days ago admonished former president Bill Clinton to "chill a little" with his attacks against Barack Obama, says the "rough and tumble" of the 2008 primaries isn't what bothers him. It's giving the enemy fodder for the general election that worries him.

In a telephone chat late this afternoon, Clyburn told The Sleuth that he spoke to Clinton again last night. He didn't have to tell the campaigner-in-chief to chill out again, but the congressman said he reminded the former president how George H.W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in 1988 by seizing on an issue that was raised in the Democratic presidential primary that year -- Willie Horton.

The notorious Horton came up, Clyburn said, after Clinton complained about South Carolina Democratic bigwig Dick Harpootlian comparing the ex-prez to Lee Atwater, the GOP operative who made Willie Horton a household name. (Horton, for any readers who don't remember, was a convicted murderer who committed violent crime while on a Dukakis-endorsed weekend furlough from a Massachusetts prison.)

Clyburn said Clinton was "not very happy with that" comparison, but he assured Clyburn he wouldn't be retaliating. "It will be behind us," Clyburn said Clinton told him.

Clyburn, unquestionably the most influential black politician in South Carolina, got upset with Clinton for his "fairy tale" comment about Obama's record on the Iraq war, which many in the African American community saw as a belittling to Obama's entire candidacy.

"I don't mind rough-and-tumble politics," Clyburn told us. "The reason for primaries is to get tough for the general. But we've got to be very, very careful that our opponents won't pick up some of this stuff."

Clyburn also said he disagrees with Bill Clinton's assessment that Obama will win the black vote in South Carolina while his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, will win the majority of votes cast by women in the state. In fact, while he isn't about to say whom he personally plans to vote for on Saturday, Clyburn said he hasn't found one black leader yet in South Carolina who is declared for Obama.

Two of those leaders are in the family. His maternal cousin, Leon Howard, who is chairman of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus, and paternal cousin, Bill Clyburn, a member of the black caucus, are both supporting John Edwards. Clyburn said he knows of three black state senators supporting Clinton. But none that he has found are supporting Obama.

Clyburn said he doesn't really see Obama as the "black candidate" polls are making him out to be. If anything, Clyburn argued, Obama is the white candidate.

He pointed to outcome in Nevada, New Hampshire and Iowa, where he said "if you count up all the votes ... you're going to see that Obama has gotten nine or ten times more white votes than black votes."

Clyburn predicted the Democratic primary on Saturday will be "a lot tighter" than the polls suggest, some of which have Obama leading Clinton by as much as 17 percentage points.

So is this a hint that Clyburn won't be voting for Obama? He'll only admit that he's not undecided. "I'm an undeclared voter," Clyburn said. "I have not even told me wife who I'm supporting."

By Mary Ann Akers  |  January 24, 2008; 6:36 PM ET
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