An Obama aide recently resigned for calling Hillary Clinton "a
monster." To many Democrats, being called "Ken Starr",
"Karl Rove" or "George Bush" is tantamount to being
called a monster. While this childish name-calling doesn't stoop to the
level of "dirty tricks", it does make the Democrat party look
like a schoolyard fistfight, while at the same time feeding the real Karl
Rove, now working for John McCain, some hefty grenades to lob back later
in the campaign.
Aides to Sen. Hillary Clinton accused Sen. Barack Obama of adopting
Republican talking points and acting like Ken Starr for launching a more
aggressive campaign following his losses in Texas, Ohio, and Rhode
Island on Tuesday.
Citing few specific instances in which Obama had averted to GOP form,
Howard Wolfson, Clinton's chief spokesperson, nevertheless denounced the
Illinois Senator's new rhetoric, such as pressing for Clinton to release
her tax returns and contrasting his dealings with indicted
Chicago-insider Tony Rezko to her investments in Whitewater.
"I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is not the
way to win the Democratic primary," he said, referencing the
Clinton-era special prosecutor who is despised by Democrats.
The accusations came a day after the Obama campaign pledged to go on
the offensive in their nomination fight. That strategic decision, in
turn, was spurred by attacks the Clinton campaign had launched against
Obama, questioning his ability to be commander in chief or a
"steward" of the economy. When asked why it was okay for the
Clinton campaign to adopt this style of campaigning but not for Obama,
Anne Lewis, a high-ranking aide to the New York Senator, responded:
"The voters are going to decide what is fair. We thought it was
striking that one day after a hard fought campaign... what we have
heard is a series of personal attacks against Sen. Hillary Clinton,
and again, some of them echoed Republican charges against Sen. Clinton
that have been raised over the years and failed."
The Obama campaign responded swiftly to the accusation, calling it
"absurd" that the "Clinton campaign believes that they
should be held to an entirely different standard."
Wrote spokesperson Bill Burton in an email to reporters:
"We don't believe that expecting candidates for the presidency to
disclose their tax returns somehow constitutes Ken Starr-tactics, but
the kind of transparency and accountability that Americans are looking
for and that's been missing in Washington for far too long. And if
Senator Clinton doesn't think that the Republicans will ask these very
same questions, then she's not as ready to go toe-to-toe with John
McCain as she claims."
(SOURCE: Sam Stein, "Clinton
Aides Compare Obama To Ken Starr", The
Huffington Post Mar. 6, 2008)
