The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> STILL THE ONE br> Ex-Prez Bill Clinton had people scratching their heads in Boston the other night when he spoke before the 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, one of the most prestigious gatherings of researchers specializing in AIDS. /p>

The speech had been long planned, but Clinton used the address to sidestep one controversy while creating a new one. At one point, in discussing the Bush Administration's decision to target $15 billion in funds to contain and defeat AIDS in Africa, Clinton said he was "very grateful for that."

"It was like he had asked Bush to do it, or had proposed the plan, that's how it sounded to us," says an attendee, who works at NIH. "He led right into what his foundation was doing elsewhere, and how this money was going to help him achieve his own goals. He did give Bush his props, but made sure everyone realized that Bush couldn't have done this if he hadn't taken the lead. It was classic Clinton."

Clinton's insistence on taking credit for budgeting the $15 billion he really had nothing to do with comes on the heals of an embarrassing -- for him -- moment at a New York fundraiser ten days ago, when Buddhist AIDS activist and actor Richard Gere lambasted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's husband for doing nothing in the fight against AIDS in his eight years in the White House.

p> A-CAROLING WE WON'T GO br> Ex-Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun can't be happy about the slotting of speakers at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting in Washington, D.C. next week. As it stands, the so-called six pack of Sens. John Kerry

topics:
Bill Clinton, Africa