Posted Aug. 14, 2008 – Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-highest-ranking member of Congress and a member of the Black Caucus, said that former President Bill Clinton ought to look in the mirror if he wants to see who’s responsible for his falling out with Black America.

Speaking to ABC News last week, Clinton said that the South Carolina Democrat was once a friend of his, but that he had “was not Hillary’s supporter. Never. Not ever. Not for a day.”

When Clinton was told that Clyburn had said he lost clout in the Black community, Clinton responded, “That may be by the time he got through working on it, that was probably true,” FOX News reports.

During the primaries, Clyburn, who at the time had not thrown his support behind Sen. Barack Obama, warned President Clinton to be careful not to inject race into the election or it would cause him irreparable damage within the Black community. At one point, Clinton said that he was having the race card played on him. Clyburn called the comment “bizarre” and said, “Black people are incensed over all of this.” He also chided the Clintons, saying that it appeared that they were “committed to doing everything they possibly can to damage Obama to a point that he could never win.”

Clyburn blasted the former president’s comparison of Obama’s win in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson’s 1988 South Carolina caucus victories, when the civil rights leader was able to capture the Black vote but not many White votes.

“There’s a big difference in a caucus and a primary,” said Clyburn.

So has Clinton, perhaps the most beloved president among African Americans, actually lost standing in Black America?

Says Clyburn, “I don’t know that I’ve done any surveys to determine whether or not the president, former president has ever damaged himself or not. …My gut tells me that some things I ought to keep to myself.”