BREAKING-Bill Shaheen stepped down as co-chair of Hillary's campaign.

[jenmito]

Just heard on CNN.

[book_worm]

1. tell-tale sign of a campaign in trouble.

[jenmito]

3. I wonder if it was Bill Clinton who made him do it...

since word is he was going to step in and handle the campaign.

[Arugula Latte]

2. Uh-oh. Trouble in Inevitability World. nt

[jenmito]

5. Yup. Last-minute clean-up attempt.

[aquart]

9. And if it hadn't happened, you'd say.....

Let me guess: nothing nice.

It's not the Clinton campaign I feel the reek of desperation from.

[jenmito]

12. You're right about what I would say, but

I don't think there's ANY desperation from Obama's campaign. I don't like Hillary's campaign's tactics. Period.

[BuyingThyme]

4. Good.

[qanda]

6. Who, what and why

I'm so far removed from stuff right now. I guess I'll use google.

[jenmito]

10. He put out the word that REPUBS. may smear Obama for his past drug use and possible

drug selling (which had NO basis in fact).

[qanda]

13. Thanks

I had heard something about that but didn't know who was involved. I need to get off my disenchanted bandwagon and start paying attention again.

[jenmito]

14. No problem!

What are you disenchanted about?

[BuyingThyme]

7. Clinton Apologizes to Obama For Shaheen's Drug Comment

Clinton Apologizes to Obama For Shaheen's Drug Comment

CONCORD, N.H. -- Despite a face-to-face apology from Sen. Hillary Clinton on an airport tarmac, the Barack Obama campaign today did its best to turn to its advantage remarks by a top Clinton supporter who said yesterday that Sen. Obama's admissions of past drug use would "open the door" to Republican attacks if he is the Democratic nominee.

At a press conference here, Ned Helms, a co-chairman of Obama's New Hampshire campaign, lamented the comments by Clinton state co-chair Billy Shaheen. In an interview yesterday with the Post, Shaheen said he worried that Republicans would have a field day picking apart Obama's past, notably his admissions of cocaine and marijuana use in his late teens. "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," Shaheen said.

The Clinton campaign disassociated itself from the comments last night, saying they were "not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way." Shaheen, the husband of former governor and 2008 Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen, said in a statement, "I deeply regret the comments I made today and they were not authorized by the campaign in any way." This morning, Clinton approached Obama on the tarmac of Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington to personally apologize for the remarks. "She made it clear that this kind of negative personal statement has no part in this campaign," said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer.

But Helms told reporters here that the remarks fit a larger pattern of negative attacks and insinuations from the Clinton camp, including an incident last week in which a Clinton volunteer county coordinator in Iowa forwarded an incendiary e-mail falsely asserting that Obama is a Muslim (the Clinton campaign asked the volunteer to step down). With each incident, Helms said, it has became harder to believe that the individuals were acting without any direction from above.

...


http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/12/13/clinton_apologizes_to_obama_fo_1.html

[qanda]

11. Sorry, posted in wrong spot

[jgraz]

8. Bad news for Hillary, good news for democracy

[Truth2Tell]

26. Why is that?

I'd love for this guy to stay on and keep doing stupid shit.

Fortunately he's not the only jackass on Team Clinton.

[Diane R]

15. The fall guy. Major damage control underway.

[jenmito]

16. AFTER the smear got out. I saw a focus group asked if they thought it was fair game or dirty

tactics and it was unanimous-dirty tactics.

[blm]

17. It's a shame he went along with this tactic and had to ruin HIS reputation over it

especially as it will tarnish his wife's future, too.

All for a campaign tactic devised by others.

[jenmito]

19. AND, the end result backfired on Hillary's campaign.

Everyone (that I've seen asked on tv) saw it as dirty tactics.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

18. the top CO-CHAIR. hubby to a governor. Big honcho on all campaign issues.

this is major news.

[jenmito]

20. Not to mention nobody believes he did this without the Clintons' knowledge.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

21. no kidding. Iowa/ New Hampshire

those are the two biggies, like it or not. and to lose the top dog in NH with so little time has to hurt.

[jenmito]

22. I agree...

I bet they think this will put an end to the scandal. But there are still questions about how the Clintons' couldn't have known about this.

[aikoaiko]

23. Probably necessary, but what he said was not a smear and will likely be validated as prescient.

:shrug:

Republicans will may hay from his admission of drug use -- some already are.

[blm]

24. Really? They want to talk about IranContra cocaine dumped by the tons in black communities

by Poppy bush in the 80s and 90s and their support for that illegal operation and its coverup?

Bring it on.

[jenmito]

25. Really? So Obama will be proven to have been a drug dealer?

Because Shaheen, NOBODY else, raised that "possibility." The Repubs. can't slam Obama for using drugs when he was a teen since Bush was an alcoholic 'til he was FORTY not to mention a cocaine user according to "some."

[aikoaiko]

27. I mean prescient about them asking him difficult questions if he is the nominee.

[jenmito]

28. WHAT difficult questions? He put it out there himself years ago. And if any of them

bring up things in his past, chances are he'd have MORE than enough true dirt on them to hit them back-and harder. This is just the Clinton camp smearing Obama under the guise of "Repubs. might ask..."