PoliticalDerby.com

Former President Bill Clinton is mad! No, another woman didn’t hold a garment back from the dry cleaners, he’s not that mad. He’s mad that someone took a picture of his daughter and is displaying it in their restaurant with other photos of famous people who have eaten there.

While Chelsea is not famous for anything she has done, aside from being the closest thing to proof of a physical relationship at one point between her parents, she is a well-known person because of her parents. Not only because of who they are, but because they have both used her in their political campaigns, both by having her on stage and in referring to her every chance they get.

While there’s nothing wrong with what the Clintons have done with Chelsea, there’s nothing private either. But, in typical Clinton style, they don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Bill Clinton, undoubtedly in conjunction with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, has sent a letter to Osso Buco, and Italian eatery in Greenwich Village, demanding they remove the picture of owner Nino Selimaj and the Clinton child or else he may take legal action.

In the letter, that you can read here, Mr. Clinton’s lawyer says, “As you know, Ms. Clinton, a private citizen, was not consulted prior to this picture being displayed, and thus, her permission was not given for you to do so.”

What?

As you can clearly see in the picture, it is posed for, not a candid snap of her stuffing her face. If she’s as intelligent as the Clintons would have us believe (intelligent enough to land a six-figure job without her family connections *cough, cough*) then there is no way humanly possible she could not have known the picture was being taken and it would most likely be displayed in the Osso Buca along with the countless other “celebrity” photos.

But, since Chelsea is a “private citizen” does that mean we don’t have to hear about her any more from her parents on the stump? Does that mean she will no longer grace a stage with them on campaign stops? Because the second she does, she stops being a private citizen and becomes just as much fair game as anyone else.

We think this is most likely an attempt to distract the public from the fact that the Clinton Camp threatened GQ into spiking a negative story about Hillary, since they have no legal standing whatsoever. But we won’t forget. As Mickey Kaus asked yesterday:

Could the piece have been as bad for the Clinton camp as the publicity they’re now getting? Are they still not quite operating in the internet age?

As an endnote, if the children of politicians are “off limits,” where is the outrage over every anti-war fascist calling for the Bush twins to be drafted (even though we have an all volunteer army), or the screams of how unfair it is when anyone comments on the perceived relationship between Rudy Giuliani and his children, or the invasion of privacy by some left-wing bloggers into the Facebook and MySpace profiles of politician’s children?

Man, the crickets are loud tonight.

We don’t disagree that Chelsea should be left alone, unless and until she sets foot on stage with her parents again, but we don’t like double standards. Leave them all alone, and stop using them a props.