Bill Clinton confronts reporter over racial remarks

WASHINGTON — Wagging his finger again, former President Clinton chided a reporter Tuesday for what he deemed a misinterpretation of his remarks during a radio interview in which he said the Obama campaign "played the race card on me."

Clinton confronted the issue of race again Monday when asked by an interviewer for a Philadelphia radio station about past remarks on the South Carolina Democratic primary. At the time, he likened Sen. Barack Obama's victory to that of the Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1998; Clinton's comparison was denounced widely by black officials who believed he was marginalizing Obama's victory.

Susan Phillips, the interviewer Monday, asked Clinton whether that comparison had been a mistake, prompting Clinton to reply: "No, I think that they played the race card on me. We now know, from memos from the campaign and everything, that they planned to do it along."

He was caught later, when he apparently thought he was off the microphone, saying, "I don't think I should take any" — he then used an expletive — "from anybody on that, do you?"

Asked to explain the radio remarks Tuesday, he challenged the reporter's summary. "No, no, no," Clinton said in Pittsburgh, wagging his finger. "That's not what I said. You always follow me around and play these little games, and I'm not going to play your games today. ... Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was."

Run-off necessary in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. — Neither of the front-runners vying to fill northern Mississippi's vacant congressional seat won a simple majority of votes Tuesday, setting up a May 13 run-off.

Democrat Travis Childers and Republican Greg Davis will compete in the run-off. They were among six candidates seeking to fill a seat vacated after Gov. Haley Barbour appointed Republican Roger Wicker to the Senate in December after Trent Lott resigned.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Childers had 31,138 votes, or 49.4 percent, while Davis had 31,066 votes, or 46.3 percent.

Also

One of President Nixon's daughters, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, apparently supports Barack Obama in this year's presidential election. Eisenhower has contributed the maximum amount allowed during the primary season to Obama's campaign: $2,300.

Seattle Times news services