Bill Clinton Rips The New York Times

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

"Really Upset"

Bill Clinton is said to be "really upset" with The New York Times over its coverage of his wife's presidential candidacy. The New York Post reports the former president ripped into The Times — which has traditionally been very supportive of the Clintons — during a fundraiser Tuesday night at the Trump World Tower in New York.

Radio host Curtis Sliwa said Mr. Clinton told the crowd Hillary Clinton was not getting a fair shake from The Times — because she refuses to apologize for her vote authorizing the Iraq war. Mr. Clinton also reportedly criticized The Times for not reporting that Barack Obama initially said he was not sure how he would have voted on the war resolution had he been in the Senate at the time. Obama today he opposed the war resolution in 2002.

Defending Cover

Time Magazine is defending its decision to put a faked photograph of Ronald Reagan on the cover of its current issue. The picture of Mr. Reagan was doctored to show a tear, under the headline "How the Right Went Wrong."

The magazine does not specifically acknowledge the image was faked. But Time issued a statement saying it regularly runs what it calls "conceptual covers." It said: "This week's cover image is clearly credited on the table of contents page, naming both the photographer of the Reagan photo and the illustrator of the tear."

Primary Scramble

While many states are rushing to move up their presidential primaries in order to maintain some relevance, Washington state is considering dumping its primary altogether.

A public hearing was held Thursday on a bill to cancel the primary and instead rely on caucuses. Supporters say it will save about $10 million. They contend Democrats have traditionally ignored the primary and Republicans have paid attention only occasionally.

But opponents of the idea point out that in 2000 1.3 million voters participated in the primary — compared to 60,000 at the caucuses.

Washington's 2004 primary was canceled because of a state budget crunch.

Critics Howling

And critics are howling like big bad wolves in West Yorkshire, England, where administrators at a school putting on a children's play have changed its title from "The Three Little Pigs" to "The Three Little Puppies," in order to avoid offending Muslims.

A school official said: "We feared that some Muslim children wouldn't sing along to the words about pigs." But many Muslims say this is political correctness gone too far. An official of the Muslim Council of Britain calls the move "bizarre." He says that while Muslims don't eat pork, nothing says they cannot read stories about pigs. And he says misguided moves like this make Muslims misfits in society.

—FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.