Carter Infuriates White House

"Tulane University presidential historian and Carter biographer Douglas Brinkley said the comments were unprecedented by the 39th president.

"'This is the most forceful denunciation President Carter has ever made about an American president,' Brinkley said. 'When you call somebody the worst president, that's volatile. Those are fighting words.'"

Here's an audio excerpt of the Carter interview.

Also on Saturday, the BBC reported, from a separate interview: "Former US President Jimmy Carter has criticised outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his 'blind' support of the war in Iraq.

"Mr Carter told the BBC Mr Blair's backing for US President George W Bush had been 'apparently subservient'.

"He said the UK's 'almost undeviating' support for 'the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq had been a major tragedy for the world'. "

Here's an audio excerpt of that interview.

James Gerstenzang writes in today's Los Angeles Times: "Perhaps not since Herbert Hoover took issue with the blame heaped on him for the Great Depression by Franklin D. Roosevelt have two presidents or their spokesmen feuded quite so publicly -- and angrily -- as former President Carter and President Bush. On Sunday, the White House fired a new salvo. . . .

"The exchange broke the unwritten code of the presidential fraternity -- that members treat each other gently."

And Gerstenzang notes that "the vehemence of the language was unusual . . . especially in contrast to the friendship that Bush's father has developed with former President Clinton, who tossed him out of office after one term in the bitter 1992 campaign."

Jim Rutenberg writes in the New York Times: "It is a relatively genteel club, with a membership that has dwindled to four in number: Those who know, firsthand, the pressures and challenges of being the leader of the free world.

"That shared knowledge has traditionally transcended politics to bring together such diverse political figures as President Bush and his predecessor, Bill Clinton; Mr. Clinton and the first President Bush; and Jimmy Carter and the late Gerald Ford."