Clinton spokesmen attack Obama campaign for 'gutter tactics'
Hillary Clinton's campaign called a Barack Obama adviser's comparison of Bill Clinton to Joseph McCarthy, and another Obama aide's off-color joke about "Monica's blue dress" examples of the "gutter tactics" that is not in line with the kind of campaign Obama says he is running.
On a conference call with reporters Monday, Clinton spokesmen Howard Wolfson and Phil Singer lashed out at Obama and his aides, while continuing to attack their opponent's credentials and simultaneously demurring when asked about questionable comparisons from figures close to Clinton.
"The Obama campaign is being fueled by insults and slander," Singer told reporters.
When Bill Clinton spoke to veterans in North Carolina over the weekend and said it "would be great" to have an election between "two people who loved this country" -- referring to Hillary Clinton and John McCain -- an adviser to Barack Obama likened the comments to McCarthyism.
The comparison of the former Democratic president to the Red Scare-stoking former Republican Congressman was too much for the Clinton camp, especially coming from an Obama campaign that has pledged to pursue a new form of politics.
"It's not the campaign that Sen. Obama says he's running," Wolfson said, accusing Obama of a concerted effort to go negative after losses in Ohio and Texas this month. Clinton's camp has argued she won those primaries -- ending an 12-straight losing streak -- because voters decided Obama had not yet passed the "Commander in Chief test."
"They clearly made a decision that they cannot address those concerns in a positive way, so rather than build Sen. Obama up they have chosen to tear Sen. Clinton down," he said.
As any close observer is aware, politics is often a dirty business, and the Clinton campaign has not been immune from its share of dust-ups. These include Geraldine Ferraro's intimation that Obama's success is based on his race to James Carville's juxtaposition of Bill Richardson's Obama endorsement and Judas's betrayal of Jesus Christ.
Wolfson said the campaign did not agree with Carville's assessment, but a reporter had to ask three times before getting a response as to whether Bill Clinton's former campaign manager should apologize for the crack.
"If I had said it, I would apologize," Wolfson said, repeating his denunciation of Obama adviser Gen. Tony McPeak for "calling Bill Clinton Joe McCarthy."
The former president was speaking at a VFW hall in North Carolina last Friday when he said: "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics." Clinton's campaign quickly tried to shot down the accusation that Clinton was questioning Obama's patriotism.
Before that clarification, McPeak, a former Clinton administration official, said he was disappointed in his onetime boss.
"It sounds more like McCarthy. I grew up, I was going to college when Joe
McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it," he said.
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