WASHINGTON – Nicely placed microphone, ABC. This is the stuff people love to hear.

“So anyway, I told them before you got here, I said I’m glad we won this race in New York,” Clinton told Ryan, when the two met backstage at a forum on the national debt held by the Pete Peterson Foundation. But he added, “I hope Democrats don’t use this as an excuse to do nothing.” – ABC News

The “Clintonistas” are in full damage control. Having been called a “Clintonista” since 2007, as well as a Clinton loyalist, the only analysis I can render is that while it’s understandable that William Jefferson Clinton would want to interact with Paul Ryan, this is duplicitous at best.  Ryan”s clearly a very smart (and calculating) politician, with the two brainiacs having a lot in common as economic masters. But Clinton’s words are unconscionable coming the day after a huge upset handed to Kathy Hochul because of Paul Ryan’s budget scheme that ends Medicare.

If you want to know why some progressives and liberals aren’t crazy about former Pres. Bill Clinton this gives you an idea. Coming after the win in NY-26, hearing Clinton say this has got to be music to Ryan’s ears.

Rep. Ryan went on to tell ABC News that “this is not the time to go wobbly,” because the Dem attack ads are coming regardless. It’s time for “leaders to be leaders.”

There is few things more infuriating for the progressives I’ve talked to than hearing people like former Pres. Bill Clinton and other Democratic elites talk about entitlement reform while the U.S. is nation building in Afghanistan, just finished nation building in Iraq, while we play kill the dictator in Libya, and give billions and billions of aid dollars to Pakistan.

People might listen to “entitlement reform talk” after the Defense budget was trimmed, troops brought home from far off bases where we no longer need to be, while the foreign policy experts come to grips that massive boots on the ground in far off land is so 20th century.

If turning Medicare into a voucher system that leaves a big hole in your wallet is “leadership,” well, we’re all screwed.

Rein in our foreign policy misadventurism and then come to us about “entitlement reform.” …and while you’re at it do something about the tax code, including adding a super wealthy bracket for the multiple mill-billionaire bunch.

After all that’s done then you can come to the next generation of blue collar, truckers and waitresses to tell them they’re going to have to suck it up for Pakistan, because Medicare is too expensive.

Taylor Marsh is a Washington based political analyst, writer and commentator on national politics, foreign policy, and women in power. A veteran national politics writer, Taylor’s been writing on the web since 1996. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her blog.