If any couple in the history of American politics is morally and logically disqualified from throwing mud based on indiscretions in the past, it is Bill and Hillary Clinton.
However, the desperation of possibly losing has caused them to throw away any pretense of running on ideas, principles, or a vision for the American people.
No, they want power, and they'll do anything to get it.
The slime oozes below the fold.
A widely-circulated story yesterday told of a whispering campaign by Clinton operatives trying to drag Barack Obama's candid admission that he used drugs as a teenagerinto the spotlight as an issue.
The Clinton campaign email did not spell out Obama's "shortcomings, inconsistencies or misstatements," but other Democratic activists have quietly received messages from Clinton allies pointing in the likely direction. Those messages provided a link to an Iowa Independent story by Douglas Burns headlined "The Politics Of Obama's Past Cocaine Use."
In light of a downward spiral by Clinton in places like New Hampshire, the Clinton campaign has engaged in a series of attacks best characterized as either petty and childish to strident, angry, hateful, and dishonest.
Not having success, the Clintons decided to return to an area they know well--the gutter.
DOVER, N.H. -- Billy Shaheen, the co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire, raised the issue of Sen. Barack Obama's past admissions of drug use in discussing the relative electability of the Democrats seeking the presidential nomination today.
"The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight ... and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use," said Shaheen, the husband of former N.H. governor Jeanne Shaheen, who is planning to run for the Senate next year. Billy Shaheen contrasted Obama's openness about his past drug use -- which Obama mentioned again at a recent campaign appearance in New Hampshire -- with the approach taken by George W. Bush in 1999 and 2000, when he ruled out questions about his behavior when he was "young and irresponsible."
Shaheen said Obama's candor on the subject would "open the door" to further questions. "It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" Shaheen said. "There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome.
Who is Billy Shaheen?
The Clinton campaign cannot say that Shaheen is a minor nobody; he's a major somebody, a former state party chair, the husband to Jeanne Shaheen, and an adviser who talks to Clinton's state director daily.
Billy, you are a dishonest worm and symbolic of everything that is wrong with both the Democratic party and the state of politics in this country.
Note the "did he sell drugs?" angle. Blatant racism--black men sell drugs.
And, of course, Hillary stood out to the right of Scalia and Bush by opposing retroactive sentence reductions in the cases of racially-biased crack cocaine sentencing.
This puts Ricky Ray Rector and Sister Souljah into the appropriate context.
You see, Barack Obama is bad for telling the truth. Billy and Hilly and the other Billy believe that NOT telling the truth is the best policy.
Obama should have been like Bill Clinton and said "I didn't inhale." Only in Clintonland is honesty a fault.
They prefer the Bush approach to the Obama approach.
Laughter is the only appropriate response to the Clintons' claims Hillary is running as an agent of change. Same old garbage, same old garbage cans.
And spare me the "the Republicans might use it" crap. No one is buying that.
This is what bad, dishonest, unethical people do when they're desperate.
And, if you don't think this was planned by Hillary herself, note that the buzz about 'electability' and Clinton operatives have been raising this whispering campaign angle for a few days.
This was no bad apple.
The story provides the explanation for why the Clintons pulled this stunt:
A CNN-WMUR poll today showed Obama in a statistical tie with Clinton in New Hampshire after the same poll found him down by more than 20 points in September.
If you want real change, if you want a return to decency and integrity in the office of President, it's time to get behind the one man who can stop the corrupt, unethical Clinton machine.
We can't afford another 8 years of Clinton sleaze and toxicity.
UPDATE: The Obama campaign responds.
"Hillary Clinton said attacking other Democrats is the 'fun part' of this campaign, and now she's moved from Barack Obama's kindergarten years to his teenage years in an increasingly desperate effort to slow her slide in the polls. Senator Clinton's campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago, and he's talked about the lessons he's learned from these mistakes with young people all across the country. He plans on winning this campaign by focusing on the issues that actually matter to the American people," said Plouffe.
This is Hillary's idea of fun, alright.
UPDATE II: Are they going to claim that this was just another rogue volunteer, like they did with the two operatives who were busted peddling the madrassa smear?
UPDATE III: Oh so predictably, the Clinton campaign pretends that it was just a rogue volunteer.
Senator Clinton is out every day talking about the issues that matter to the American people. These comments were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way.
Which is why Billy Shaheen wasn't fired and repudiated.