The Trail

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

ATTACKS AND APOLOGIES

A Blue Dress Stars In the Latest Firestorm

After a weekend of squabbling between the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton over a comment by Bill Clinton, they were at it again Monday, this time over what Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Clinton team, called the "most personal attack yet" by Obama's campaign.

Gordon Fischer, the former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party and Obama's Iowa co-chairman last fall, said over the weekend on his blog that Bill Clinton shouldn't be forgiven for, as he saw it, implying that Obama doesn't love his country as much as Hillary Clinton and John McCain do. Fischer went on to write that the former president's remark was a "stain on his legacy, much worse, much deeper than the one on Monica's blue dress."

Singer told reporters that the Obama campaign is being "fueled by insult and slander."

Fischer apologized and pulled down the posting, calling his comment "tasteless and gratuitous." Tommy Vietor, an Obama spokesman, said that the senator from Illinois thinks Fischer's comments "have no place in our political dialogue, and he strongly rejects them."

Apologies have become an almost daily routine among surrogates for the Democratic candidates, including former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro and former Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, after their attention-grabbing remarks.

With weeks until the next primary in the tightest race for the Democratic nomination in recent history, expect the name-calling, and the apologies, to continue.

-- Krissah Williams

'HILLARY: THE MOVIE' CASE

High Court Steps Aside

The Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from a conservative group that was challenging the way it could promote "Hillary: The Movie," a film that criticizes Clinton.

The court said it does not have jurisdiction, at least at this time, to hear the case brought by Citizens United. That group wants to eliminate a provision of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act that requires groups funding campaign-related ads to disclose their donors.

A panel of three federal judges had turned down the group's request for a preliminary injunction, which would have allowed them to bypass campaign rules that bar corporations and unions from paying for ads naming candidates in advance of elections. Citizens United argued that "Hillary: The Movie" did not directly tell voters how to cast presidential votes.

The judges said it was unlikely that the group could prevail with such an argument. " 'The Movie' is susceptible of no other interpretation than to inform the electorate that Senator Clinton is unfit for office, that the United States would be a dangerous place in a President Hillary Clinton world, and that viewers should vote against her," the panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled.

Citizens United tried to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, but the government told the court that it should not review a ruling on an injunction. The court apparently agreed. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the two-sentence order said, would have affirmed the lower court's judgment.

The government noted in its brief that the group could go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

-- Robert Barnes

DRUNKEN DRIVING

Clinton Aide Guilty

NASHUA, N.H. -- A senior Clinton adviser agreed to plead guilty to drunken driving after the arresting officer was activated by the military and ordered to Iraq, making a trial on a more serious charge impossible, police said.

Under the plea, Sidney Blumenthal, a former journalist and White House adviser to President Bill Clinton, will lose his right to drive for 16 months.

Now an unpaid adviser to Hillary Clinton's campaign, Blumenthal, 59, was arrested Jan. 7, the day before the New Hampshire primary and charged with aggravated drunken driving. Police said Blumenthal was traveling 70 mph in a 30-mph zone.

The case had been set for trial last week, but Blumenthal agreed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of driving while intoxicated with enhanced penalties, Nashua police Capt. Peter Segal said.

In addition to the suspended license, he will pay a $750 fine plus a 20 percent penalty fee assessed by the court when he is sentenced April 18, Segal said.

Blumenthal also will be required to undergo an alcohol intervention program.

-- Associated Press

STAYING IN IRAQ

McCain Convinced

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- John McCain told a friendly crowd of veterans Monday that he remains committed to staying in Iraq after observing during a trip last week how U.S. troops were faring.

"I don't care what anybody says, I've seen it on the ground," said the GOP candidate.

-- Juliet Eilperin