(Crossposted on Open Left)
Jeff Merkley is running his latest attack video where he takes out-of-context quotes from Steven Novick's blogging past and uses them against him.

Quoting someone's published work to criticize them is totally fair. Quoting someone's published work from two-years ago--before the presidential primary--out-of-context to make them appear to say what they were not saying is dirty, but may be fair--this is politics.

I am not really concerned with fairness; I am very concerned about the precedent being set, and the actual message of the attack, which are:

I know this primary has mostly been about identity politics, but for those of us who are trying to base their vote in who is going to be more progressive, we need to latch on to every peice policy of policy promise we can.  On that note, the Washington Times is reporting that Obama conformed that he supports the decriminalization of marijuana.

As Matt Stoller over at Open Left because has repeatedy noted, the war on drugs is one of the 5 untouchable symptoms.

Subject: End the War on Drugs

Factoid: There are 1 million people put in jail for doing what Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George Bush have done.

Marijuana is America's largest cash crop, and it is responsible for around 225,000 arrests a year ... Simply put, why do some people go to jail for marijuana and cocaine, and others run for President?