There's a lot of time left in campaign '08 for a list of worst moments, but it may be hard to beat Senator Hillary Clinton's decision to engage Senator Barack Obama in a fierce battle over who's a better friend of Hollywood producer David Geffen.
Geffen, who put on "Cats'' and founded DreamWorks ("Saving Private Ryan'') with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, raised millions for pal Bill Clinton. Clinton took to hanging out at Geffen's Beverly Hills estate, which is filled with Jackson Pollocks and was once owned by legendary film mogul Jack Warner.
Geffen's sin was to hold a fund-raiser for Obama a few days before supermarket owner Ron Burkle was to throw one for Clinton, forcing the California billionaires to take sides. Geffen then colorfully described a bad case of Clinton fatigue to Maureen Dowd of the New York Times.
Like New York Post columnist Dick Morris, Geffen saw the Clintons up close and bought the whole package, lending the ensuing disillusionment the pathos of a marriage gone bad.
Geffen said he knew no one "more ambitious than Hillary Clinton,'' who is "too incredibly polarizing'' to bring the country together. He also said no one believed that in the last six years, "all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person,'' a fact that Republicans are lying in wait to use should Hillary become the nominee. And, by the way, he added, they both lie, and easily.
By contrast, Geffen finds new friend Obama "inspirational'' and so do his pals, who gave the candidate $1.3 million on Tuesday night.
Read the whole column here.