There's obviously something in the water in South Carolina that brings out the sleaziness in those seeking national office.

While introducing Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally at Columbia College on Sunday, Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson stopped short of directly mentioning Sen. Barack Obama's youthful drug use. But if he had a video of the candidate "doing blow," I have no doubt he would have put it in heavy rotation.

"To me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood -- and I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in the book -- when they have been involved," the billionaire intoned. His aside was a sly reference to Mr. Obama's 1995 memoir, "Dreams From My Father," which noted his use of marijuana, alcohol and cocaine as a confused youth.

Obviously, the black entrepreneur, who made his fortune peddling music videos that debased black America's image for fun and profit, must be one of those rascally Republicans that Clinton adviser Bill Shaheen warned us would begin subtly using Mr. Obama's youthful drug use as a campaign issue. Mr. Shaheen was fired for his sleaziness and Mrs. Clinton personally apologized to her opponent for her surrogate's unauthorized outburst.

When Mrs. Clinton took the stage after Bob Johnson's introduction, she did not rebuke the smutty video purveyor for engaging in the politics of personal destruction within earshot. Her eyes didn't mist over from the blunt force trauma of Bob Johnson's clumsy attack on her rival. She did not take the opportunity to speak truth to power before the crowd that day.

If anything, Mrs. Clinton smiled the way any plantation mistress would when internecine arguments break out in her presence while the estate is being surveyed. Bob Johnson would have to take responsibility for his own words with no prompting from her.

Later, Bob Johnson was forced to eat a little Jim Crow after his statements began making the rounds. He issued the following clarification: "My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else," Mr. Johnson said in an e-mail statement to the media. "Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect.

"When Hillary Clinton was in her 20s, she worked to provide protections for abused and battered children and helped ensure that children with disabilities could attend public school. That results-oriented leadership -- even as a young person -- is the reason I am supporting Hillary Clinton."

It's interesting that Mrs. Clinton has the wholehearted endorsement of a man who sat on President Bush's commission on privatizing Social Security, that quixotic Republican boondoggle that went down in flames at the beginning of the president's second term. Mr. Johnson also has called for the repeal of the estate tax. Trying to square Republican positions with support for Mrs. Clinton must make for some interesting conversation at Clinton campaign headquarters.

On journalist Roland Martin's Chicago-based radio program yesterday, Bill Clinton defended his wife's honor by trotting out a list of what he insisted were 80 documented examples of attacks from the Obama camp. The journalist played Bob Johnson's comments about Mr. Obama and asked for Mr. Clinton's reaction.

"When you listen to that tone and the inflection, he was not talking about community organizing," Mr. Martin said. "It seemed to be very clear what he was implying."

For once, the former president's legendary glibness failed him. All he could manage in the face of actual evidence was a lame insistence that Bob Johnson should be "taken at his word." Why? When Chico Marx quipped, "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" it was funny. When Mr. Clinton says it, it's pathetic.

Right about now, novelist Toni Morrison is probably regretting the premature anointing of Bill Clinton as America's "first black president." As the campaign for the Democratic nomination heats up, the 42nd president of the United States is acting more like an emperor who won't tolerate backtalk from the peasants than a fair-minded Democrat. Perhaps we should rechristen the former president "Bubba Napoleon" until he gets a grip.

If Bill Clinton is the "first black president," it may be time to think about impeaching him and getting a new one.