Lovely Items from Today's Rush & Milloy NY Daily News Column

Bill Clinton is still the man:

"Clinton repels park snark

Bill Clinton fought back when he ran into a verbal mugging in Central Park.

The former President is said to have been strolling through the park with his Secret Service team recently when a man pushing a stroller taunted, 'You were an embarrassment to the office of commander-in-chief.'

Lakshmi Kumar, writing in Citizen Culture magazine, says she saw Clinton stop and deftly tell his heckler, 'Oh, really? I think I did a helluva job.... I'll admit I misled people about my personal life. And I have even apologized for it, but I never misled the people about policy and I certainly never misled the people about going to war.'

Clinton is said to have spent 45 minutes taking questions from a mostly adoring crowd, then told his detractor: 'I hope your children turn out to be as perfect as you are, sir.'

The group applauded and Bill walked to a nearby SUV, where, Kumar says, Sen. Hillary Clinton looked impatient. "

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We have come far from the days when a dude lying about a blow job from a zaftig chick could bring down a presidency...

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And then, there was this item:

"A 'Passion' for defamation

There's nothing like ecumenical spirit for the holidays.

Jewish viewers are still agog over Catholic League President William Donohue's comments on MSNBC's 'Scarborough Country' the other night.

Asked by guest host Pat Buchanan what he thought of the success of Mel Gibson's controversial 'The Passion of the Christ,' Donahue contended that 'Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, okay? And I'm not afraid to say it. That's why they hate this movie. It's about Jesus Christ.'

Rabbinical firebrand Shmuley Boteach, who was also on the show, shot back: 'That is a bunch of crap. Stop the anti-Semitic garbage.'

Donohue snapped, 'Who's making the movies? The Irishmen?'

The defender of Catholic orthodoxy didn't stop there. While Donohue said he likes 'families' and 'nativity scenes,' 'Hollywood likes anal sex.'"

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So, to summarize: Hollywood is run by Jews who like anal sex and hate Jesus Christ. How is this disgusting, anti-Semite the president of any religious advocacy group? If you have the time and are a intellectual masochist, you should check out the group's site at www.catholicleague.org, where you can read pieces that (i) attempt to trivialize sexual abuse by priests (main argument? Protestants and Jews are as bad or worse!) and (ii) vigorous defenses of Pope Pius XII, who was officially neutral on the German's atrocities during the Holocaust, while providing some help for persecuted Jews through private channels.