America's First Black President Turns Down 'Dancing With the Stars'

I'm sure his potential dance partner was relieved to know this sexual predator wouldn't be rubbing up against her.

The competition on "Dancing with the Stars" this season includes Chaz Bono, David Arquette, Kristin Cavallari -- and almost Bill Clinton.

The former President revealed to Rachael Ray on Thursday that the ABC show actually reached out to him about putting on his dancing shoes (and those sparkly costumes).

Although Clinton, 65, said he found the offer "interesting," unfortunately he couldn't work it into his busy schedule.

"I told them I didn't have the time to train for it," said Clinton. "You know you actually go out there and you train, you really work at it. So I had to pass. But I think it's a hoot.

It appears more than a decade out of office hasn't diminished Clinton's ability to smoothly lie through his teeth.

But that doesn't mean he won't be dancing at all. Clinton added that wife, Hillary, recently suggested they consider making it a hobby together.

"Just last night, Hillary said to me 'You know, when I'm not Secretary of State anymore, we should go take dancing lessons.' So we'll start with the tango."

Sure she did. Maybe this time there will be music playing.

Remember this sham back during the impeachment proceedings?

'Hiring Clinton Was in Some Ways the Dumbest Thing I Ever Did'

What's the old expression, you lay down with dogs and wake up with fleas? Well, get into business with Bill Clinton and you might expect yourself to become tabloid fodder. You can't say you weren't warned.

Billionaire Ron Burkle says hiring former President Bill Clinton as a consultant at his investment firm Yucaipa Cos. was "the dumbest thing I ever did" after media scrutinity of their friendship damaged his reputation and made him a frequent boldfaced name in gossip columns.

Burkle sounds off on his soured relationship with Clinton in a candid interview with Michael Gross for his new book, "Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles," coming in November from Broadway Books. It profiles owners of 16 estates, including Burkle and his palatial LA home Greenacres. Gross writes that Clinton stayed there about 80 times and flew on Burkle's private planes, but their relationship became raw meat for vulturous media once Clinton was hired as an adviser to Yucaipa in 2002.

"We were friends the whole time he was in the White House," Burkle told Gross. "He spent a lot of nights in LA and, frankly I never read about it. I went to Camp David and I went to the White House. Nobody was really paying attention. So I frankly, didn't give a lot of thought to what the downside was. Maybe I should have."

Nobody was paying attention? Well, Clinton did have the media running interference for him while in office.

Vanity Fair ran a scathing profile of Clinton in 2008, which mentioned that Burkle's jets were nicknamed "Ron Air" and "Air [Bleep] One." Burkle told Gross, "I didn't create Clinton's reputation for issues with women, but I became part of it." A year after Clinton left Yucaipa, reporters were still picking over their relationship, and Burkle told Gross that "hiring Clinton was in some ways the dumbest thing I ever did."

Kinda makes you wish you wore a blue dress, huh?

'When He Was Here What Did He Do For Us? Nothing'

America's First Black President just isn't getting the love from his people, They might want to put a little ice on that to ease the pain.

HARLEM residents aren't crying over former President Bill Clinton's offices moving out of their neighborhood.

The William J. Clinton Foundation, which moved onto W. 125th St. nearly 10 years ago, plans to move most of its offices to Water St. in the financial district.

Clinton will keep an office in the building, but many residents don't care what his plans are - either because they never saw him or don't think his presence helped the neighborhood.

"It don't faze me; I never saw him," said lifelong Harlem resident and Clinton supporter Susan Chaplain.

"When he was here what did he do for us? Nothing," she said as she stood on Lenox Ave., not far from Clinton's offices. "He never did nothing while he was here. What difference does it make?"

Sharon Johnson, 59, also wasn't concerned with Clinton's plans. "He don't come out here so it don't matter one way or another," she said. "He never even comes out to say 'hi.'"

James Carrington, 62, is one of many sidewalk vendors selling artwork on W. 125th St. near Clinton's building.

"It doesn't matter to me," said Carrington, who added he's spotted Clinton only once and that his presence hasn't made any impact on Carrington's business.

An Era is Over: First Black President Leaves Harlem

Oh, those were such heady days. America's first black president triumphantly settling into post-presidential among his people. He and he alone would help rejuvenate a long-neglected piece of upper Manhattan. Adoring masses would flock there, businesses would boom.

Well, those days are over. Bill Clinton is leaving them behind, off to more posh, yet cheaper digs downtown, among those evil rich, setting up shop in the Financial District.

Where have you gone, Billy Jeff Blythe?

When Bill Clinton officially began his post-presidency in Harlem in 2001, he was greeted with open arms — thousands of them. At a plaza near his new office, at 55 West 125th Street, a crowd of 2,000 residents and civic leaders gathered on a hot July afternoon to celebrate the arrival of a neighbor whose presence, two blocks from the landmark Apollo Theater, seemed to put a presidential stamp of approval on the neighborhood’s revival.

In his speech there in 2001, Mr. Clinton said, “Harlem always struck me as a place that was human and alive, where there was a rhythm to life and a song in the heart, where no matter how bad it was, people held up their heads and went on, and where, when things got good, people were grateful and cared about their neighbors.”

Nearly 10 years later, Mr. Clinton is leaving Harlem. Or, at least part of him is.

The William J. Clinton Foundation is moving most of its offices from Harlem to 77 Water Street in the financial district, in Lower Manhattan. But Mr. Clinton will keep a toehold in Harlem: his office as a former president will remain on the top floor of 55 West 125th Street.

The nonprofit foundation will occupy space on the 18th floor of 77 Water Street. The move will give the foundation more space — 25,227 square feet downtown versus 18,000 square feet uptown — and will help it cut costs. The foundation’s rent will be cheaper than the $40 a square foot it pays in the Harlem building, though it is unclear what the exact new rent will be, since the deal is not yet official, said a person familiar with both office locations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the details.

Knowing Slick, there's some financial chicanery involved. Be assured a nickel isn't coming out of his pocket.

As to the Harlem residents, those buoyant days of 2001 are long forgotten.

It remained unclear how Mr. Clinton would divide his time between the two offices. On 125th Street near his office, Harlem residents interviewed on Wednesday said Mr. Clinton had been a positive force in the neighborhood, although not a regularly visible one. Abuk Auk, 35, who works at a hair salon near 55 West 125th Street, said she saw Mr. Clinton walking into the building once years ago.

“We were so happy,” Ms. Auk said of Mr. Clinton’s arrival in Harlem in 2001. “We thought it was going to change everything for us.” She pointed across 125th Street at a row of shuttered storefronts and added: “You see those shops that are closed? It’s too bad he couldn’t do more to help small business here.”

Obviously his former senator wife didn't do much for business either.

Holding Out for a Zero

SWF seeks frisky ex-POTUS.

Rumor has it that Monica Lewinsky is still smitten with Bill Clinton's craggily, sleep-deprived mojo after all these years.

The mind reels.

The scandal almost destroyed his career and left his presidency permanently tainted.

But 15 years on, Bill Clinton’s former intern Monica Lewinsky has not got married or had children because she is reportedly still in love with him and 'always will be'.

Miss Lewinsky, 37, has run a successful business, hosted a reality television show and moved overseas - but has never found love, according to friends.

‘Monica still hasn’t got over Bill and would take him back in a second,’ a friend said.

‘She told me: “There will never be another man in my life that could make me as happy as he did",' the friend told the National Enquirer magazine.

‘Monica still carries a torch for him. She’s dated some guys, off and on, since the whole White House mess. But she’s never been able to get Bill out of her heart’.

Miss Lewinsky was aged 22 in 1995 when she began working in the White House and had an affair with President Clinton, which he famously denied at first.

She now lives in Los Angeles, California, and does not have regular employment, reported the National Enquirer.

Cross-posted.

Hugo Chavez Fantasy: Sean Penn, Oliver Stone or Noam Chomsky as US Ambassador

If none of the above crackpots make the cut, he'll settle for Bill Clinton.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought to end a diplomatic stand-off with the United States on Tuesday by suggesting it name Bill Clinton, actor Sean Penn or director Oliver Stone as its envoy to Caracas.

In the latest flare-up between the ideological foes, Washington withdrew the visa of Venezuela's ambassador last week in retaliation for Chavez's rejection of President Barack Obama's nominated ambassador to Caracas.

U.S. diplomat Larry Palmer had criticized Venezuela's government, saying morale in its military was low and there were clear ties between members of the Chavez administration and leftist rebels in neighboring Colombia.

In a televised speech late on Tuesday, Venezuela's firebrand president said he had come up with a solution.

"I hope they name Oliver Stone. I'll suggest a candidate ... Sean Penn, or (linguist and philosopher Noam) Chomsky. We have a lot of friends there. Bill Clinton!" Chavez said.

Stone visited Caracas in May for the local premiere of his documentary "South of the Border," which profiles Latin America's leftist leaders. He told reporters he admired Chavez and his record since coming to power in 1999.

Penn, who has been involved in humanitarian efforts following Haiti's earthquake, won best actor Oscars for his roles in the Clint Eastwood-directed drama "Mystic River" and as slain gay activist Harvey Milk in the movie "Milk."

Chavez also recounted how he met U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton briefly on the sidelines of Dilma Rousseff's inauguration ceremony on Saturday in Brazil.

"I said to Senora Clinton 'How is your husband?'" he said. "But I made a mistake because I speak very bad English, and I said 'How is your wife?' She laughed, then I said husband."

What a card that Hugo is, slipping in a little lesbian humor. No word if Huma Abedin was present.

Black Chicago Mayoral Candidates Tell First Black President to Mind His Own Business

I just love a good Democrat food fight over racial politics.

Chicago Mayoral hopeful former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.) added her voice to a warning issued by mayoral rival Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.): Don't come to Chicago to campaign for Rahm Emanuel or risk his relationship with African Americans.

On Tuesday, Davis got this ball rolling when he issued a statement telling Clinton to stay away from the mayoral election. Emanuel is the front-runner and Davis and Braun--both African American--need a big black vote if they have any chance of coming in second. The Feb. 22 contest is non-partisan and if no one gets 50 percent, a run-off between the top two finishers will be held April 5. Davis told me in an interview he also wanted President Obama--who has been helpful to Emanuel's campaign--to stay out of the mayoral contest. My column on this is here.

Here's what is new: Though Clinton appointed Braun as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa after she lost her Senate re-election bid, a statement from her campaign issued Wednesday morning was strongly worded:

Said Braun, "Bill Clinton is an outsider parachuting in to support another outsider. Rahm's residency status continues to be challenged in court. It's not yet clear that he will be on the ballot. At the same time former president Clinton risks his legacy and the great respect that he has enjoyed among African Americans by coming to Chicago to endorse Rahm Emanuel who is running for mayor against two black candidates.

Bill Clinton: The Modern 'Big Jim Slade'

This may be the best analogy to come out of the bizarro Bill Clinton press conference Friday.

Sometimes in life, no matter how much of a man you may think you are, you just can't get the job done.

And that's when, as fans everywhere of the cult classic "Kentucky Fried Movie" know, it is time to call in Big Jim Slade.

So it was yesterday that President Obama in his moment of public frustration and impotent despair looked around while Democrats fled from him and Republicans snickered at him.

Who at that moment should come crashing through the tacky partition wall but Big Jim Slade himself -- also known as "Bubba," "Elvis" and the former Democratic president that everybody including some Republicans seem to be pining for these days.
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Big Jim Slade's character in the movie was not actually based on Bill Clinton. Clinton was just the obscure attorney general of Arkansas back in 1977 when "Kentucky Fried Movie" came out as a surprise smashing success.

But Bill Clinton could have taught Big Jim Slade a thing or two. He has the appetite of 100 men and so long as you are not easily shocked, he never disappoints.

There is no setting or situation where he will not step in and take over completely. Almost always, he does it better and with masterful attention to detail.

He always does it with more passion and gusto than anybody else has the energy to. He will outlast anyone in any feat.

In the short time it took Clinton to wrest back control of the White House yesterday from his skinny successor, he had people swooning and panting for his return.

Now I wouldn't go quite that far. But what does it say when the POTUS is being comapred to some limp-dicked sap from an old comedy flick?

Courtesy of stevegg, we've got the video clip for those of you who don't recall the movie.

After The Snark: Fallout From Obama's Abdication To Clinton

I, like a lot of other people, was incredulous yesterday at the sight of the current holder of the presidency walking to a podium with a past holder of the office and then with a hearty pat on the back and a handshake announced he was off to a party with his wife, leaving the former president to face a press corps and answer questions about what is arguably the number one issue on everyone's mind.


This was more then somebody stepping up to bolster his position on a piece of pending legislation, it was a complete handoff of responsibility and authority. Never before in American politics have we ever seen a more open display of a man overwhelmed by the office. Now that the shock of watching him walk off has subsided, I am left to wonder what all of our enemies are thinking today.

In the eyes of the world we cannot but appear to be a wounded animal, limping away looking for the security of a hidden burrow. To be witness to the spectacle of who is supposed to be the leader of a nation just turning over power like that, with all of the trappings of the office on display like the podium and seal in the background, any foreigner who doesn't speak English or only witnessed this event with no sound probably would have come to the conclusion that the current president was resigning and turning the office over to a predecessor.

Now is the time to get scared. If Obama cannot hold up to the blathering of his left wing former supporters, who are never happy anyway, how can we expect him to face down the more serious enemies we face? I am once again experiencing the shame of being an American that I felt during the Carter years. I don't know, people, but the next two years are going to be fraught with peril and threats from internal as well as external parties. The sharks are smelling more then blood in the water now, they are picking up the vibrations of severely wounded prey and soon they will quit circling and move in for the kill.

Obama Leaves White House for a Party, Puts Clinton Back in Charge

As someone said on Twitter, "finally, we have a black president again." In one of the more surreal White House press conferences I've ever seen, it was a flashback to the 90s as Bill Clinton meandered on ad nauseum after the current occupant of the White House decided he didn't want to keep his wife waiting.

Bill Clinton often says he loved being president -- and Friday enjoyed a bit of an encore. And stretched it out.

After a private meeting with his predecessor, President Obama surprised the White House press corps by escorting Clinton into the White House briefing room. After making a brief statement about their joint support of the bipartisan tax deal, Obama turned the podium over to Clinton.

In an extraordinary tableau, Obama stood off to the side, wearing the kind of admiring smile usually assumed by political spouses as Clinton took the lead in providing an impassioned defense of the current president's programs. After a few minutes, Obama excused himself, pleading a date with his wife at one of the White House Christmas parties.

The former president talked on. And on. And on.

After awhile, it was as if we were back in the 90s all over again. The only ting missing was a zombie Helen Thomas asking some inane question about the Jews.

Americans nationwide peeking up at television screens and unaware what was transpiring must have been baffled to see Clinton taking questions about all sorts of policy.

Somewhere Hillary was gnashing her teeth, enraged Bill was back into the White House before she could be. Clinton also went on to praise Charles Krauthammer. Liberal heads must be exploding.

Some video via RCP.

Pay Off Hillary's Debt, Win Trip to NY to Meet Bill

It's come to this: Shaking down supporters and paying them off by winning a trip to meet Slick. You know he's hoping for some cute young lady to win.

There is nothing I enjoy more than good conversation with good people. Everyday, my life and work are enriched by the people I meet, and that's why I'm sending you this special invitation.

Hillary's campaign is so close to paying off the last of her debt, but she's not there yet. Will you consider helping her in this last phase by making a contribution to her campaign? If you enter by Thursday, December 16, you and a friend will have the chance to fly to New York to spend a day with me.

Last year, we flew one of Hillary's biggest supporters to New York to spend the day with me. It was such a good time that I'd like to do it again.

Click here to make a contribution and you will not only help pay down Hillary's campaign debt, but also be automatically entered to win a free trip for two to meet me in New York.

Suckers probably have to pay for their own meals.

Last I checked these two were worth over $100 million. Has it ever occurred to them to pay off their own debt?

Red-Faced Democrat

If Bill Clinton's goal was to sabotage the Democrats things couldn't have worked out any better.

'They're Banking On You Not Thinking'

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Bill Clinton Lost the Nuclear Codes After Lewinsky Scandal Broke: 'That's a Big Deal - a Gargantuan Deal'

Let's face it: When you're number one focus in life is chasing women and getting blowjobs, who has time to keep track of nuclear codes? It's not as if his administration was lax about our national security. Oh, wait...

Former President Bill Clinton lost the biscuit - a card with the codes needed to launch a nuclear attack - and couldn't find it for months, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has revealed.

"At one point during the Clinton administration," Gen. Hugh Shelton recalled, "the codes were actually missing for months. That's a big deal - a gargantuan deal," he told ABC World News.

Bubba's scary blunder is described in Shelton's just-published memoir, "Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior."

Shelton claims the story is new, but another military man told a similar account in his book seven years ago that included a possible excuse for Clinton's knuckleheadedness.

Ret. Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Patterson claims Clinton was asked to present the biscuit so it could be updated with a new one but couldn't find it.

It was the morning after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.

"He thought he just placed them upstairs," Patterson recalled.

Expect the requisite trashing of Shelton today.

Bill Clinton: Kerry Didn't Mean to Call You Ignorant Dolts, You Idiots

After the bumbling John Kerry called voters ignorant and uninformed the other day, Bill Clinton rode to his rescue and called people uninformed. This really seems to be a unique strategy the Democrats have.

“I wish (voters) had the kind of access to information that I do,” he said. “You can’t put 20 stories about this (election) on the front page every day, right? We have to do a better job publicizing ourselves.”

Clinton said Kerry and other Democrats shouldn’t blame the voters for the heat they’re putting on the party over the country’s economic ills.

“We took eight years to get in this hole. The voters gave us those eight years,” he said. “I’m just asking them to give us half the time to get out of the hole as it took to dig it in the first place.”

Translation: You idiots voted for Bush and caused this mess.

Clinton dazzled a capacity crowd at the Park Plaza’s Pairings restaurant yesterday at a fund-raising rally for businessman and philanthropist Grossman, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who faces a fierce fight against GOP rival Karyn Polito.

The crowd featured such local party luminaries as outgoing U.S. Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Grossman’s backers plunked down $100 for crudites, cocktails and a chance to shake Clinton’s hand across a red velvet rope in the cramped eatery.

Clinton told the crowd, “We need serious people who talk about serious things in a way ordinary people can understand. The only thing that matters is what are we going to do and who’s best to do it.”

See, all you ordinary people are just too stupid to understand the larger issues so we need sleazy Democrats to talk to us like children so we see how stupid we've been.

Thanks for the advice, Slick.

'It's Not Often You See That ... When the Husband is More Attractive Than the Wife'

The always charming Bill Clinton:

Tony Blair would be well advised to stay out of the country this week when a new BBC film is broadcast – his wife ­Cherie is likely to be outraged by ­disparaging remarks about her appearance and scenes showing her husband ­lusting after other women.

Producers of The Special Relationship, the latest drama to feature actor Michael Sheen as Blair, say that it was only the fear of legal action from Cherie which stopped them from portraying her in an even more unflattering light.

In one scene in the production, which focuses on the relationship between Blair and Bill Clinton, the former American President says of the Blairs: 'It's not often you see that . . . when the husband is more attractive than the wife.'

Judging by her appearance here I'd say she's Clinton kind of gal.

Now It Can Be Told: 'George W. Bush Was Very Smart'

Gee, he wasn't really dopey chimp whose puppet strings were pulled by the evil Darth Cheney? You mean a guy who flew fighter jets and ran businesses isn't really the dolt portrayed by the media elites?

Whodathunkit?

FORMER British Prime Minister Tony Blair said US President George W. Bush was "very smart," but his predecessor Bill Clinton was the smartest politician he ever met.

Speaking on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, Mr Blair was asked to talk about his relationships with Mr Clinton and Mr Bush.

Ms Amanpour read a section of Blair’s new memoir entitled A Journey in which the former prime minister wrote: "George W. Bush was very smart. He had an immense simplicity in how he saw the world. Right or wrong, it led to decisive leadership."

In response, Mr Blair said: “Yes, it did. And I think, you know, it's easy to mock that simplicity. And it's easy to ignore the strength that sometimes comes with that.”

But when it came to Mr Clinton, he was even more effusive in his praise.

Asked if Mr Clinton was one of the smartest political minds he had ever come across, Mr Blair replied: “Oh, he's phenomenally smart. I mean, I think the smartest politician I ever came across, yes, I would say, Bill Clinton, yes.”

No doubt the reaction of the left will entail ridiculing Blair's intelligence for his assessment of Bush.

Barack Who? Bill Clinton Stumps for 'Independent' Democrat

From the sound of things here you would think Bill Clinton is still president and Barack Obama didn't even exist. Such is life today for endangered Democrats facing slaughter at the polls in November.

Bill Clinton strongly endorsed "independent" Staten Island Democrat Rep. Mike McMahon's re-election bid yesterday -- even saying it was OK for the incumbent to buck President Obama by voting against health-care reform.

"The one thing you got to say about this guy is he has been truly independent; he is not partisan," Clinton said while stumping for McMahon at Wagner College.

"He has not voted for the president on every issue. On health care, for example, we New Yorkers have a special problem. We have a lot of immigrants here who are undocumented, and our hospitals claim real problems under this health-care bill," Clinton added.

Well, it's nice to see a Democrat finally acknowledging the fact we're overrun with illegal, er, "undocumented" immigrants.

The former president said McMahon "wants to fix it the right way" while Republicans want to put the insurance companies in charge of health care.

"When I was president, I loved congressman like Mike, people who didn't always vote for me but were always thinking and listened to the evidence and looked for solutions," Clinton said.

Clinton's backing of McMahon during a rally attended by 1,600 was a boost for the incumbent, who caught flak from Democratic activists for voting nay on the health-care overhaul.

McMahon is expected to face a tough general election against a Republican challenger in the conservative-leaning district, which voted for Republican John McCain over Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

McMahon, while appearing alongside Clinton, did not utter the name "Obama" at all during his speech.

Barack Who?

As to Clinton's revisionist history, are we really to believe he liked Democrats who voted against him? Please.

They don't call him Slick for nothing.

McMahon's Republican challengers may criticize him for supporting President Obama's economic stimulus package, Clinton said, but the bill "gave money to state and local governments so they wouldn't have to lay off a million teachers and health care workers or turn around and raise taxes on you to keep them working, which would have been a disaster in this economy."

Clinton cautioned against a repeat of the years after he left the White House, when Republicans turned his budget surplus into the biggest deficit in the nation's history.

"We can't let them do it again," Clinton railed.

"We need individuals who think and do what's right for you," he added. "You've got to have people who think, not ideologues. Republicans are utterly impervious to evidence."

What evidence, like the 9.6% unemployment?

Finally: Billy Blythe, The Opera

Frankly, The Clenis or The Great Stainmaker would have been a preferable name for what's sure to be a whitewashed account of the 42nd POTUS.

He IS awfully high-drama.

Former President Bill Clinton will be the subject of a new opera penned by an Arkansas songwriter and poet that is slated to begin performances this fall.

"Billy Blythe" - titled after the 42nd President's birth name, William Jefferson Blythe - takes a look at his difficult childhood.

But it's Clinton's inner diva that will underscore the piece.

"Clinton's life is very operatic, over the top, the perfect operatic vision," musician Bonnie Montgomery told U.S. News & World Report.

Montgomery said she got her inspiration from Clinton's autobiography.

"He paints this myth - it's storytelling, beautiful and imaginative writing," she said.

I wonder who gets to play the chubby intern in the blue dress?

Heh: Russian Pols Claim Spy Arrests are Right-Wing Plot to Embarrass Obama

As if the "right-wingers" in this country could conspire to meet privately for lunch, let alone clandestinely operate a spy trap for over a decade knowing that years later they could use the arrests to make an inept president look even weaker than he already is.

And here we thought such delusions were only left to liberal Democrats.

So it was that the most rabid anti-American Kremlin stooges on state TV were muzzled and state TV portrayed President Medvedev’s trip to the United States last week as a sign that Russia is once again, if not exactly an equal partner, a great power whose opinion matters. Backed by generally high oil prices, the third largest international reserves in the world, and an economy that appears to be coming out of the global recession faster than Western rivals, the Kremlin is once again feeling confident.

Yet the spy row has left it in a bind. President Medvedev has invested too much political capital and too much propaganda in better relations with the United States to suddenly perform a U-turn now. The only way is forward. Russian politicians are therefore already punting a convenient conspiracy theory. The spies are not spies and the “plot” was announced just after President Medvedev’s trip to the US by American Right-wingers intent on embarrassing President Obama and killing of better relations between the two countries.

It is a theory that allows the Russians to publicly save face: it is not our new friends that have stabbed us in the back but the enemies of our new friends. Yet the real victim of the dispute may not be Mr Obama but Mr Medvedev or, more accurately, the policy vector he represents. He is the one who has publicly gambled on embracing the West, while Vladimir Putin, the prime minister and former president, has kept notably quiet on the subject and is known for his tough anti-Western rhetoric.

It shouldn't be long until some in our own media run with this theory. I figure the crack staff at MSNBC is feverishly pursuing this insane line of logic.

Putie, meanwhile, claims Russia is the real victim.

Russia is the real victim of the spy scandal, Moscow angrily said yesterday -- while the Obama administration acted embarrassed at carrying off the biggest counterespionage coup in years.

Kremlin officials acknowledged that at least 10 of the 11 suspects caught in the US spy dragnet were Russian citizens. But in a bizarre role reversal, they said this showed America was acting irresponsibly.

"Back at your home, the police went out of control," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a visiting Bill Clinton in Moscow. "Throwing people in jail."

Clinton appeared to chuckle but made no comment.

Other Kremlin leaders demanded an explanation for reviving what the Foreign Ministry labeled "Cold War-era spy stories" and making "groundless" accusations.

In contrast, President Obama dodged the issue.

While talking to reporters about the economy, Obama was asked about the arrests. "Thank you," he replied. He declined comment when asked a second time.

Speaking of Clinton, it appears an ally of his wife was a target of one of the alleged spies.

A close political ally of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton believes he was the target of one of the ten alleged Russian spies arrested in the U.S.

Alan Patricof, the former finance chairman of Clinton’s Senate campaign, confirmed that the woman known as Cynthia Murphy had worked on his account at a New York finance firm.

According to the FBI complaint filed in New York on the arrests, which were the result of a ten-year investigation, Murphy had been told to get close to a New York-based financier described as a fundraiser “for a major political party” who is “a personal friend” of a Cabinet member.

Seems the one spy receiving much of the attention isn't exactly the brightest bulb.

Those who knew Chapman from the social and club scenes described her as "sweet," "flirtatious" and "friendly" -- sometimes too friendly.

At parties, she "would be very flirtatious," said one moneyman, who encountered her at a couple of Wall Street cocktail soirees. "She was very sexually aggressive [and] wore revealing clothing . . . I thought she was a call girl because she dressed that way," said the man, who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity.

She also had problems keeping her cover stories straight.

"She made up a different story every time," he said.

"The first time, she said she ran a real-estate Web site. Then the next time, she was working on an oil deal."

"[Then] she told me she was a derivatives trader. I asked her one thing any derivatives trader would know and she didn't know what I was talking about," he said. "She was just dumb, quite frankly."

That, of course, may well be an act by the woman whose real name is Kuschenko.

If it is proven she is a spy, Chapman is one of a new breed of young attractive female agents trained in the era of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, himself a former Soviet agent, for a new age of espionage to undermine the West.

Documents in Russia reveal that Chapman’s real surname is Kuschenko. She was born in Ukraine and raised in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, southern Russia. As a teenager she studied at the Economics Department of the University of People’s Friendship in Moscow – an institution with long-standing links to the old feared KGB.

But this could all be a decoy by Russian intelligence to mask her real identity. She is widely travelled, fun-loving and a fashionably dressed Russian entrepreneur who sends her photographs to friends about her glittering, cosmopolitan lifestyle in New York, London and Moscow.

Her CV also suggests she is involved in a dizzying array of businesses, including interests in London up to 2006. In the UK she is listed as the marketing manager of a company called Navigator and also worked in the City as an investment banker. In the US she runs an online real estate business.

It was also reported last night that it was in London that she acquired her English surname after she married an Englishman and moved with him to America. But it is unclear when she married. An online friend said: “Anna loves to exchange experiences with successful entrepreneurs around the world.”

Looking at her it's easy to see how she could lure the men in.