Obama, Clinton Camps Trade Barbs

The Clinton for President campaign threw the US political media a bone this week when it decided to pick a fight with a rival campaign. David Geffen, one seriously rich person (Dreamworks, Geffen Records), is raising funds for Senator Barrack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic anti-Hillary for now. Maureen Dowd, of the has-been New York Times, quoted Mr. Geffen, a reformed Clintonista, in a recent column that gave the Clinton campaign its first self-inflicted wound of the race.

According to Ms. Dowd (who did a hatchet piece on Mr. Obama this week), Mr. Geffen said, “Everyone in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it’s troubling.” Further, she says he said of Mrs. Clinton's vote in favor of the war in Iraq-Nam in 2002 “It’s not a very big thing to say ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t.” Also, “I don’t think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person,” suggesting the White House shenanigans with interns could return. Worst of all from the pro-Hillary perspective, Mr. Geffen said that Slick Hilly is “the easiest to beat” among the Democrats, and the salivating from the far right at the prospect of her winning the nomination is a sign that they agree.

Howard Wolfson, who is the Clinton spokesman on this matter, said, “While Senator Obama was denouncing slash-and-burn politics yesterday, his campaign’s finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Senator Clinton and her husband. If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money.”

Fact check time. Mr. Geffen is not part of the Obama campaign, merely a volunteer fundraiser. The finance chair is Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker. So, is this an honest mistake or a lie designed to throw mud? Either way, the Clinton crew comes away looking bad. Worse, the Obama crowd nailed the other side with its response. First, Senator Obama said “It’s not clear to me why I would be apologizing for someone else’s remarks. My sense is that Mr. Geffen may have differences with the Clintons [they fell out over Bill Clinton’s pardon for financier Marc Rich], but that doesn’t really have anything to do with our campaign.” And then, his chief spokesman Robert Gibbs said:

We aren’t going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina state Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because ‘he’s black.’