Bill Clinton blasts author of critical article

Bill Clinton on Monday lambasted a Vanity Fair magazine journalist who wrote a lengthy article -- headlined “The Comeback Id” -- that questioned the former president’s judgment.

While campaigning in South Dakota for his wife, the ex-president denounced the magazine’s national editor, Todd S. Purdum. According to the online Huffington Post, Clinton called him “a real slimy guy” and said the article included “five or six blatant lies.” Later, a Clinton spokesman said that the former president was upset about “an outrageously unfair” article, but that his language “was inappropriate and he wishes he had not used it.”

Clinton’s temper has been controversial several times during the presidential campaign of his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.