Washington Post 1993: "Mickey Kantor Comment About the People of Indiana"

As an historian, I find today's so-called scandal about D. A. Pennebaker's film "The War Room" interesting, to say the least. I have no interest in pursuing this in regards to the Obama or Clinton campaign that is going on right now. I am interested, however, in the whatever truth there is in regards to the actual film clip, and the response to it at the time of its release back in 1993.

In 1993, when the "War Room" was released, a review of the movie appeared in the Washington Post by Desson Howe.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

"War Room" is shot in the nonscripted, cinema-verite style by D. A. Pennebaker (whose follow-around films on President Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and Bob Dylan are documentary classics) and Chris Hegedus. Whether Carville and company are play-acting somewhat for the cameras becomes less important as the film progresses. One can only keep up an act for so long -- especially in the throes of a campaign. Carville's tearful farewell speech to his staff as they close up just before the election, Stephanopoulos's frank talk with a potential blackmailer and a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana (when it looks as though Clinton's ahead in Dan Quayle's state) attest to this.

It is the last line that I find interesting, "a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana(when it looks as though Clinton's ahead in Dan Quayle's state) attest to this." I have not been able to find any response to this statement indicating that the Washington Post reviewer mis-interpreted what he saw and heard in the film. Was this perception knocked down back in 1993, only to rear its head again in 2008?

Mickey Kantor, D. A. Pennebaker and the Clinton camp have been quick to denounce the current YouTube clip as a "total fabrication", but in viewing the original clip and listening to the isolated audio track posted at politico.com, it appears that the transcript is:

http://www.twango.com/...

Kantor: Look at Indiana, 42-40. It doesn't matter if we win, those people are shit(ing?)...oh, excuse me...(inaudible, possibly White House)...how would you like to be (whispers) a worthless white ni**er.

In listening to the clip about four dozen times now in a pair of high-quality Sony MDR-V700 headphones, the above transcript sounds correct. I can't say, though, that this sounds like a slur against the people of Indiana. To me it sounds like Kantor is inferring that "those people are shitting...in the White House" over the current poll numbers. And perhaps the last slur is directed at Dan Quayle? Is Kantor implying that Quayle was worthless, because he couldn't even help Bush by carrying his own home state?

So my unanswered questions are, if people heard this as a slur against the people of Indiana in 1993, when it obviously wasn't a fabrication in the original release of the film in the theatre, and we can still hear essentially the same audio now, where is the fabrication? The Washington Post in 1993 sought fit to print this in their review. Was there an outcry from Kantor, Pennebaker, and the Clinton camp at that time? Was there a retraction in the Washington Post stating that this interpretation was false?

How can this be a fabrication if it is the same thing that people heard in 1993?