Anyone who thinks McAuliffe is joking needs their head examined.  It's hard to find a better example of the dark side of politics.

At a fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton in Hollywood two weeks ago, as Mr. McAuliffe told the story in an interview on Thursday, he joked in a crowded room that big contributors would be honored with limo rides with the new president while those who wrote checks to, say, Mr. Obama could give up their dreams of access.

“Clarence Avant’s daughter was there, he’s a friend of mine, and I looked at her and in front of 500 people I said, If you don’t contribute, you’re not going to get that ambassadorship to France,” he said, referring to the former chairman of Motown Records. “It’s a joke! I said it in front of 500 people.”

The Los Angeles Times quoted Mr. McAuliffe as saying at that event, “You are either with us or you’re against us,” a remark Mr. McAullife and other attendees said was jocular.

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February 23, 2007

Detour From High Road in Clinton-Obama Clash

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/us/politics/23feud.html

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — After weeks of watching in frustration as Senator Barack Obama presented himself as a fresh face gliding above partisan politics, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has drawn Mr. Obama onto a muddy political field, engaging him in a back-and-forth that recalls the kind of Washington bickering Mr. Obama has decried.

Mrs. Clinton’s effort to identify Mr. Obama with an attack made by one of his chief Hollywood supporters was widely viewed among Democrats as carrying some cost to Mrs. Clinton. The remarks at the heart of the dispute, by David Geffen, the Hollywood executive who was once a big fund-raiser for the Clintons, were a sharp reminder of Clinton family history that has led some Democrats to believe Mrs. Clinton cannot win a general election.