Blue Crab Boulevard

The Aroma Of Sheer Panic

I'm way behind the curve on this one, but I think it needs to be addressed. The co-chair of Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign has issued a rather astonishing warning. Billy Shaheen has warned that Barack Obama's self-admitted dalliance with some drugs will be a target for Republican 'dirty tricks.' The rank, fetid aroma of sheer panic is being emitted by Camp Clinton.

DOVER, N.H. — Billy Shaheen, the co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire, raised the issue of Sen. Barack Obama's past admissions of drug use in discussing the relative electability of the Democrats seeking the presidential nomination today.

In an interview, Shaheen said, he remains perplexed about why, at this fraught point in history, voters and the media are not giving more attention to experienced Democratic candidates such as Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Biden and are instead elevating into the first tier alongside Clinton a pair of candidates with less experience in Washington, Barack Obama and John Edwards. Shaheen also expressed his personal misgivings about whether Obama or Edwards would be electable if they became the party's nominee.

Among his concerns about Obama as the nominee, he said in an interview here today, is that his background is so relatively unknown and that the Republicans would do their best to unearth negative aspects of it, or concoct mistruths about it. Shaheen, a lawyer and influential state power broker, mentioned as an example Obama's use of cocaine and marijuana as a young man, which Obama has been open about in his memoir and on the trail.

"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," said Shaheen, the husband of former N.H. governor Jeanne Shaheen, who is planning to run for the Senate next year. Billy Shaheen contrasted Obama's openness about his past drug use — which Obama mentioned again at a recent campaign appearance in New Hampshire — with the approach taken by George W. Bush in 1999 and 2000, when he ruled out questions about his behavior when he was "young and irresponsible."

Shaheen said Obama's candor on the subject would "open the door" to further questions. "It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" Shaheen said. "There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome."

Shaheen's remarks were some of the most direct to date by Clinton campaign officials in addressing the issue of Obama's past drug use as a potential problem in the general election. This week, the Clinton campaign has been focusing on the broader issue of Obama's electability, arguing that Democrats would be better off nominating a tested candidate like Clinton. The Obama campaign declined to comment on Shaheen's electability remarks.

This from the campaign of the spouse of Bill "I didn't inhale" Clinton? I think the wheels have actually come off and Clinton's campaign is careening down the ditch throwing up mud rooster tails. I don't even recall any of the right leaning blogs I read mentioning this as an issue - but Hillary and company can't wait to bring it up when their polls slip. Since Clinton's camp raised it, they better be ready for some digging into her past activities. It will come, it will be ugly and the Clinton machine has reached a new low.

Politics | Gaius Wednesday, 12 December , 2007

By Anthony (Los Angeles), Wednesday, 12 December , 2007 @ 11:20 pm

It’s actually going to be entertaining to watch Her Inevitableness crash and burn.
By Maggie, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 8:31 am

Would this be considered Telegraphing or Projection …?

Why is it the Clinton Political (Crime) Machine always reminds me of the kid in class that had the straw and would fire spitballs, and then sit there stoically when the teacher looked around at the faces for the source of the violation? He even sometimes dared to point at someone in deflecting suspicion from himself.
By feeblemind, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 8:56 am

Funny how drug use was not a problem for HRC when Der Schlickmeister was running for pres. This was a thinly disguised smear. If not in a panic mode they sure look uneasy. Mwalimu the Pessimist could still be right though…
By Mwalimu Daudi, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 10:16 am

The problem is that even if Hilly the Hun fails to get the nomination - which I seriously doubt - we would still be stuck with Obama as nominee. Or Edwards. Or Richardson, Or even Gravel. A Hillary-less general campaign would not a case of jumping out of the fire back into the frying pan.

On the other hand…one of the fun things about being a pessimist is that it is always possible to be pleasantly surprised, but never bitterly disappointed. And pleasant surprises have been in abundance recently. The Congressional GOP has been showing some fire in the belly (finally!), and Bush has recovered his long-lost veto pen. Republicans recently won two special elections, including one in Ohio where they suffered a debacle last year. There was the near-miss in which a Republican came within a hair of defeating Democrat Nicki Tsongas in another recent special election. How about Louisana, where the GOP was supposed to be dead and buried? The Democrat-controlled Congress “enjoys” the worst approval ratings in history, and Democrats have formed their customary circular firing squad as the wacko notion of people-hate-Congress-because-US-troops-remain-in-Iraq fizzles. Even the rats of Code Pink are leaving the sinking Democrat ship - and doing damage as they jump.

Still…this is the GOP we are talking about. Which means that pessimists can still find employment.

Here is an excellent article by Jonah Goldberg about the Democrats’ State of Denial.
By feeblemind, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 11:51 am

Mwalimu, you have the attitude of the typical farmer (including me). Better to be pleasantly surprised than bitterly disappointed.
By feeblemind, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 12:03 pm

BTW, Gateway Pundit quotes abook by Klein that says HRC used Pot at Wellesey. That would make me question the wisdom of throwing drug charges at the opposition.
By martian, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 1:47 pm

Feeblemind, you don’t understand - ANYTHING is okay as long as the person doing it has the last name of Clinton. You just can’t let anyone ELSE get away with it!
By Al in St. Lou, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 2:51 pm

There are moonbats decrying this terrible REPUBLICAN smear of Obama writing in comments sections already! I gotta tell ya that Hillary is a magician.
By Mwalimu Daudi, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 3:08 pm

feeblemind, here is why being a pessimist is smart policy when talking about the GOP.

The Democrat-controlled Congress cannot balance the budget, cannot fund the troops in time of war, cannot clean out the sleazebags like Stevens, Reid, and Murtha, cannot end earmarks, cannot pass a decent version of SCHIP, cannot fix the AMT, and cannot do a host of last-minute duties. But the can find time for this idiocy.

What the Democrat-controlled Congress is trying to do in issuing subpoenas for Karl Rove and Josh Bolten is unconstitutional. But thanks to Specter and Grassley, Democrats have political cover for their illegal actions. Thus ends my unbroken string of pleasant surprises.

The GOP is not called the Stupid Party for nothing!
By Mwalimu Daudi, Thursday, 13 December , 2007 @ 3:10 pm

My link was eaten by my HTML errors - here it is.