Putz, the concern troll.

Putz critques Clinton's smackdown of Chris Wallace on Faux News Sunday (TP has the video of the entire interview here).

A better response for Clinton would seem to have been something like this: (Indulgent smile with slight look of boyish contrition, not carried to the lip-biting level) "Well, I admit we made some mistakes in the 1990s, and I'm sure President Bush has made some too. But the real question is where we go from here, and . . . "

He knows that, too, I suspect. So why did he respond the way he did?

Actually, Putz, that wouldn't have been a "better response," but I'm sure President Clinton appreciates your helpful concern.

Wallace asked Clinton a "have you stopped beating your wife" question, sandbagging him in a transparently dishonest way, outside of the scope of their agreed format.

WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be on Fox News Sunday, I got a lot of e-mail from viewers. And I’ve got to say, I was surprised. Most of them wanted me to ask you this question: Why didn’t you do more to put bin Laden and Al Qaida out of business when you were president?

Wallace wasn't "surprised" at anything -- that's just a silly lie. This is right out of the Faux News playbook: they use the Some People Are Saying ploy to tee up their right wing talking points and sandbag whatever Democrat they have in their crosshairs.

Clinton rightly took Wallace to task and corrected the record on several key issues, including the fact that the FBI and CIA refused to certify that bin Laden was responsible for the Cole, and that al Qaeda had nothing to do with Somalia.

But the biggest point Clinton made is that he asked Wallace if he had ever asked President Bush or Vice President the same questions, knowing full well he hadn't. Wallace, who's journalistic credibility was completely blown out of the water in that one moment, looked like he'd just been punched in the stomach

CLINTON: I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, Why didn’t you do anything about the Cole?

I want to know how many you asked, Why did you fire Dick Clarke?

I want to know how many people you asked…

WALLACE: We asked — we asked…

CLINTON: I don’t…

WALLACE: Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday, sir?

CLINTON: I don’t believe you asked them that.

WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of…

CLINTON: You didn’t ask that, did you? Tell the truth, Chris.

WALLACE: About the USS Cole?

CLINTON: Tell the truth, Chris.

WALLACE: With Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s plenty of stuff to ask.

CLINTON: Did you ever ask that?

The answer of course, is no. Wallace has never asked Bush or Cheney any of these questions, as Think Progress found. Clinton, no fool, saw the game Wallace was playing and called him out on it -- exposing him as a propagandist for all to see while revealing Faux News dishonest tactics in the process.

A thing of beauty.

The story Chris Wallace wanted to tell with that question, as anyone can plainly see, is that Clinton is the one to blame for 9/11, and he wouldn't have it.

Funny how Putz is suddenly so concerned about how presidents should answer questions, since he said nothing the other day when Bush completely lost it and said that Colin Powell's logic was "flawed" and that he was thinking "unacceptable" thoughts.