Howard Wolfson Must Go (Or Hillary’s Test Of Character)
| As I wrote previously, when the Clinton campaign was asked to release their tax returns, Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s chief spokesperson, came out and instead of answering why they refuse to release them until after she has secured the nomination, decided to ridiculously say that Obama has been imitating Ken Starr in his campaign tactics. | |
Former Sen. Tom Daschle on Friday suggested that top Clinton advisor Howard Wolfson should resign for comparing Barack Obama’s tactics to those of Ken Starr.So lets cut back to when the Hillary’s people were clamoring for justice, calling for Samantha Power’s head:
“It’s comments like [Wolfson’s] that make me question whether we do have the same standards,” said the former Senate Majority Leader. “I don’t think that you can make a statement like that and consider yourself within the bounds of civility. I mean, this shouldn’t be tolerated. It’s not acceptable, and it’s unfortunate.”
Daschle, an Obama supporter and mentor, said he believed it was correct for campaign advisor Samantha Power to step down after calling Hillary Clinton a “monster.” He called Power’s comment regretful and said “the campaign had little choice but to do what was done.”
And while Daschle would not directly call for a similar fate for Wolfson, he suggested that would be an appropriate move.
“Well, only one person can make that decision [for Wolfson’s resignation] and that’s Hillary Clinton,” he said. “I’m just prepared to say today that the standard by which we judge civility and the degree of acceptable behavior appears to be different in the two camps. In our case, when somebody says the wrong thing, they’re gone. It appears that in their case, normal life goes on.”
In the past, Clinton surrogates have been dismissed from the campaign for bringing up Obama’s youthful drug use. On occasion, however, it has taken several days for the campaign to acknowledge wrongdoing. In a conference call with reporters earlier on Friday, Wolfson denied that his situation and Power’s were in any way comparable.
“I did not say that Senator Obama was like Ken Starr,” he said, “and I think there is a difference between engaging in the kind of ad homimen personal attack on someone’s character that Samantha Power did, and talking about the kind of campaign that team Obama has been running since Ohio and Texas.”
Asked about Clinton’s criticism that Obama had not passed the commander-in-chief threshold, Daschle fought back.
“Well,” he said, “Barack Obama has more public office experience than Hillary does, that is elected public office experience. And it’s not just a question of experience, it’s a question of judgment, and every single time Barack has been called upon to show good judgment, it’s not only his experience but his character and his courage that has caused him to make decisions that others only wish they’d made years later, including Hillary Clinton.”
“Personal attacks are not the way to convince voters that you’re capable of being president of the United States,” New York Rep. Nita Lowey, a key Hillary surrogate, said. “We’re calling on Senator Obama to make it very clear that Samantha Power should not be part of this campaign.”Well I’m glad you think so, I couldn’t agree more. This is a test of character indeed. Obama showed he has the right character…now do you?
“It’s really a very important test for Obama,” Lowey said, adding that whether or not he fired Power was a “test of character.”
Doubtful.
