This is breaking news, picked up so far by a few papers and Politico's Ben Smith. In a conaference call this morning top Clinton aide Howard Wolfson compared Barack Obama to Kenneth Starr, prosecutor and Republican attack dog during the impeachment hearings in the late 90's. Here's the full quote
"When Senator Obama was confronted with questions over whether he was ready to be Commander-in-Chief and steward of the economy, he chose not to address those questions, but to attack Senator Clinton," Wolfson said. "I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president."
Wow. So I guess it's ok to make Republican-style attacks unless they're aimed at the Clintons. And honestly, the things Barack is talking about aren't all that reminiscent of Kenneth Starr's prosecution. Obama has demanded that Hillary release her tax returns from 2006 (a pretty reasonable suggestion--Barack has already done it) and also some documents from the Clinton library and Bill's White House.
It's perfectly fair to call a duck a duck--Hillary's campaign has thus far been extremely secretive, and Democratic voters have every right to know what they're getting into if HRC does win the nomination. You can bet John McCain will be calling for greater transparency, but that's not the most important thing here. When the party nominates a candidate for the presidency, that's a pretty big deal (understatement of the century). Especially if Hillary's going to claim that she's "vetted" and has already dealt with the Republican attack machine and made it through to where she is today, we need to see that information. She's running largely on Bill's record, and if we don't know what role she played in his White House, how can we assess her experience and qualifications?
Obama spokesman Bill Burton quickly responded to Wolfson's outrageous comments (same link as above):
It is absurd that after weeks of badgering the media to ‘vet’ Senator Obama, the Clinton campaign believes that they should be held to an entirely different standard. 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.
The Clinton campaign may have "won" March 4, but apparently not by a large enough margin to feel comfortable. I broke down the delegate math in this piece, and we know that she'll have a hard (if not impossible) time coming back in terms of pledged delegates. They are becoming increasingly desperate in the Clinton camp, and it's showing.
I see the kitchen sink on the horizon...