Clinton Defector Escalates Tirade Against Senator

Hot on the heels of a personal assault on President and Senator Clinton by their former chief fundraiser, David Geffen — which sparked a feud with Mrs. Clinton's Democratic rival, Senator Obama — the Clintons' former confidant, Dick Morris, is showing that he intends to keep up a constant barrage of criticism and bad memories of the former first couple in an effort to ensure that Mrs. Clinton does not return to the White House.

"She believes that she is the last good person on Earth, and she believes that it is acceptable to do anything to achieve political power, that no means are beneath her," Mr. Morris told an audience at the Women's National Republican Club on 51st Street in Manhattan.

The crowd of more than 100 hissed and growled when Mr. Clinton's former chief political strategist said Mrs. Clinton could win, and cooed and guffawed when he ridiculed her. "Unless we really work at bringing people's attention to who this woman is and what she's about, I believe she's going to win," he said.

In order to win, Mr. Morris said, Mrs. Clinton would rely not only on the support of single women and minority voters, but on a ruthless political strategy. "Hillary is a cold enemy. She never kills in hot blood, just cold blood. She has a long list of people who've offended her. She absolutely wrote the book on what she calls the politics of personal destruction," he said.

"You're getting someone who basically exploited her husband's political fortune and continues to exploit his fund-raising capacity," he said.

Mr. Morris, who managed Mr. Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign before he himself became involved in a scandal involving a prostitute, put the blame for the shortcomings of the Clinton presidency squarely on the former first lady. "Every one of the scandals we had in [the Clinton] administration is due to her. Every one of these scandals goes directly to her. Even the sex scandals go to her."

Mr. Morris suggested that he knows why Mrs. Clinton is reluctant to apologize for voting in the Senate to give President Bush consent to wage war. "She won't say she's sorry because she never does, because of her personal uptight need to be perfect and never to admit a mistake," he said.

He joked about the way he had fallen out of favor with Mrs. Clinton. "Some say that I don't get Christmas cards from her any more," Mr. Morris said. "But I do. The problem is there's a white powder on the outside, and I don't open them."

Mr. Morris said he hoped Mayor Giuliani is elected president in 2008. "He saved New York, and I would like him to save the United States of America," he said. A Clinton campaign spokesman declined to comment.