Hillary Rodham Clinton adviser James Carville is refusing to apologize for comparing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to Judas.

Carville made the comparison to The New York Times after Richardson, once a member of former President Bill Clinton's Cabinet, endorsed Clinton rival Barack Obama last week for the Democratic presidential nomination.

As stated by Darrell Delamaide in Market Watch on 3/26/08, "Carville notoriously portrayed Richardson's endorsement of Obama as an act of disloyalty on a par with that of Judas, who on that same Holy Thursday millennia ago accepted 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus Christ to the Romans.

Then Carville told CNN on Monday that Richardson had committed an "egregious act" and he intended to make a sharp response to it. "I wanted to use a very strong metaphor to make my point," Carville told CNN. "I doubt if Governor Richardson and I will be particularly close in the future."

Delamaide reported, "loyalty, as we have seen before, is the ultimate value in the Clinton camp, as it is in the Bush-Cheney world.

Loyalty undoubtedly has its place in political relationships, but one should hope that the common good, rather than personal loyalties, would govern the choices made by our public officials. Richardson braved the wrath of the Clintons to follow his perception of the common good, setting an example perhaps for other Democratic super-delegates as the nominating process moves toward its climax."

Richardson told "Fox News Sunday" over the weekend that he wouldn't respond by getting "in the gutter like that." "That's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton," Richardson said on Fox. "They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency." Richardson served as ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary during the Clinton administration. [MORE]