Recall this? Hillary Campaign Acknowledges County Chair Backing Hillary Passed Obama Muslim Smear

[Emit]

Volunteers get a little overzealous at times. We should all keep this in mind when we are receiving and making phone calls and home visits on behalf of our beloved candidates. We could be hurting, rather than helping, our cause.

Hillary Campaign Acknowledges That County Chair Backing Hillary Passed Along Obama Muslim Smear Email
By Greg Sargent - December 5, 2007, 1:31PM

A day after the Hillary campaign hit the Obama camp for bullying voters in nasty phone calls, the Hillary crew has just acknowledged that an Iowa county chair volunteering for the campaign passed along the now-notorious email that smears Obama as a Muslim by repeating the false claim that he attended a madrassa as a child.

The Hillary campaign confirms that they are asking the county chair to step down from the campaign.

The charge was made by a Daily Kos diarist who identified himself as planning to "caucus" for Chris Dodd, suggesting that this happened in Iowa. In his diary he reported receiving the email:

Over the past week or so, I have received two of the most hateful hit pieces on Obama parroting right wing talking points. One was forwarded to me from a Clinton county chair. The other was from a person who claimed to be a former Obama supporter, but a little work with Google revealed she had been posting pro-Clinton comments for several months on websites covering the campaign.

They both repeat the Obama/Osama crap, andand the "madrassa" charges. And there is the conclusion that Obama is a mole whose intention is to make a Muslim revolution in the US.

In the comments section to the post, Hillary Internet guru Peter Daou passes along a statement from a top official at the Hillary campaign acknowledging that the email had in fact been sent by the Clinton county chair:

Since seeing your post...we investigated this and below is a response from Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle:

"There is no place in our campaign, or any campaign, for this kind of politics. A volunteer county coordinator made the mistake of forwarding an outrageous and offensive chain e-mail. This was wholly unauthorized and we were totally unaware of it. Let me be clear: No one should be engaging in this. We are asking this volunteer county coordinator to step down and are making it clear to every person involved in our campaign that this will not be tolerated."

~snip~

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/hillary_campaign_acknowledges_that_hillary_backer_passed_along_obama_madrassa_email.php



On the other hand, the following looks like a hit by someone further up the chain:

Bill Shaheen: Obama’s drug history could hurt in November
By Associated Press
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - Added 44d 1h ago

CONCORD, N.H. - A top adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign said Wednesday that Democrats should give more thought to Sen. Barack Obama’s admissions of illegal drug use before they pick a presidential candidate.

Bill Shaheen, a national co-chairman of Clinton’s front-runner campaign, raised the issue during an interview with The Washington Post, posted on washingtonpost.com. Clinton’s campaign did not have an immediate comment.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1050398



But, I'm sure this is all just politics as usual.