Safire, Hillary hiss and make up

From ABC News' The Note, reporting on a roast of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.):

Bill Safire and Hillary Clinton showed that they could play nice.

Back in 1996, Safire wrote in his New York Times column: "Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady — a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation — is a congenital liar."

Mike McCurry, the White House spokesman at the time, responded to Safire's column by saying: "The President, if he were not the President, would have delivered a more forceful response to that on the bridge of Mr. Safire's nose."

At last night's event, Safire recycled his joke that what he meant to write was that Hillary Clinton was a "congenial lawyer."

When the former First Lady took the podium, she said that what her husband really thought was: "what pathetic prose."

The delivery of the attack on Safire's cherished talent, as well as the accompanying icy glare, were (if not Emmy-award winning) certainly worthy of a statuette nomination. The crowd clearly scored the exchange a KO for Clinton, as apparently did Safire, who we're told went straight up to her after the event with everything but a white flag and conceded something to the effect of, "that was a really quick and impressive quip."