Clinton Camp Targets Obama's Drug Use

MyWay ^ | Dec.12, 2007 | PHILIP ELLIOTT

[COUNTrecount]

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - 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.

Obama's campaign said the Clinton people were getting desperate. Clinton's campaign tried to distance itself from the remarks.

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.

Shaheen, an attorney and veteran organizer, said much of Obama's background is unknown and could be a problem in November 2008 if he is the Democratic nominee. He said the Republicans would work hard to discover new aspects of Obama's admittedly spotty youth.

"It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" said Shaheen, whose wife Jeanne is the state's former governor and is running for the U.S. Senate next year.

"There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome," Shaheen said.

Clinton's campaign said it had nothing to do with his comments.

"Senator Clinton is out every day talking about the issues that matter to the American people. These comments were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way," spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said in response to Shaheen's remarks:

"Hillary Clinton said attacking other Democrats is the fun part of this campaign, and now she's moved from Barack Obama's kindergarten years to his teenage years in an increasingly desperate effort to slow her slide in the polls. Senator Clinton's campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago, and he's talked about the lessons he's learned from these mistakes with young people all across the country. He plans on winning this campaign by focusing on the issues that actually matter to the American people."

Obama wrote about his teenage drug in his memoir, "Dreams from My Father." His rivals have largely remained silent on the subject.

"Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final fatal role of the young would-be black man," Obama wrote. Mostly he smoked marijuana and drank alcohol, he wrote, but occasionally he would snort cocaine when he could afford it.

Speaking to Manchester high school students earlier this month, Obama said he was hardly a model student and had experimented with drugs and alcohol.

"You know, I made some bad decisions that I've actually written about. You know, got into drinking. I experimented with drugs," he said. "There was a whole stretch of time that I didn't really apply myself a lot. It wasn't until I got out of high school and went to college that I started realizing, 'Man, I wasted a lot of time.'"

New polling shows Clinton and Obama basically tied in New Hampshire. A CNN-WMUR-TV poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire shows Clinton at 31 percent support, Obama at 30. The same poll had Obama trailing by 20 points in September.

Clinton's campaign has distributed its first flier that criticizes Obama's health care plan for leaving 15 million people without insurance. TV ads following the same theme also have been prepared.

"This is not the time to go back to the same old politics of, 'now I'm going to smack you over the head with a baseball bat and call into question your character,'" Obama co-chairman Ned Helms told reporters in a conference call earlier on Wednesday, decrying what he said was Clinton's negative campaign.

"I think it will backfire on them. I think they had instinctively good judgment to say Hillary Clinton would not take personal attacks. But once polls showed them losing out on the positive argument to Barack Obama, they have chosen to go negative."

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I seem to recall the phrase “nose like a vacuum cleaner,” and not in connection with Obama.

Right. And those were during the Arkansas governorship days.

10-30-96 Investors Business Daily - Roger Clinton Drug Arrest

What did he snort and when did he snort it? Americans well might wonder what to make of the stories that Bill Clinton's drug use went far beyond just puffing on a joint or two.

The stories are easy to disregard - except insofar as they provide the missing motive for an unquestionable scandal: the president's terrible record in fighting drugs. Two years ago, Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C., said: ''If any credible evidence surfaces concerning drug use by President Clinton while he was governor of Arkansas, it would be a national scandal.''

A lot of testimony has bubbled up. But is it credible? Sally Perdue, a former Miss Arkansas and Little Rock talk show host who said she had an affair with then-Gov. Clinton in 1983, told the London Sunday Telegraph that he once came over to her house with a bag full of cocaine. ''He had all the equipment laid out, like a real pro.''

Gennifer Flowers says she saw Clinton smoke marijuana and carry joints with him when he first began visiting her in 1977. Clinton was Arkansas' attorney general from 1977 through 1979. His first term as governor ran from 1979 through 1981. He was governor again from 1983 through 1992.

Two Arkansas state troopers have sworn under oath that they have seen Clinton ''under the influence'' of drugs when he was governor.

Sharlene Wilson is a bartender who is serving time on drug crimes and has cooperated with drug investigators. She told a federal grand jury she saw Clinton and his younger brother ''snort'' cocaine together in 1979. Jack McCoy, a Democratic state representative and Clinton supporter told the Sunday Telegraph that he could ''remember going into the governor's conference room once and it reeked of marijuana.'' Historian Roger Morris, in his book ''Partners in Power,'' quotes several law enforcement officials who say they had seen and knew of Clinton's drug use.

On a videotape made in 1983-84 by local narcotics officers, Roger Clinton said during a cocaine buy: ''Got to get some for my brother. He's got a nose like a vacuum cleaner.''

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Yeah....and the tons of coke shipped through Mena airport under the toons watch.

Keep on talking, Hillary. We have long memories around here!

VIDEO: MENA CONNECTION: Clinton, Cocaine & Coverup

[yorkie]

If I were Obama, I would rather be called an “X druggie”, than be laying in a park somewhere........ (sucicide, you know.)

[yorkie]

If I were Obama, I would rather be called an “X druggie”, than be laying in a park somewhere........ (sucicide, you know.)

[pandoraou812]

Shaking my head. I just don’t understand why the Clintons are so sure they can do as they like ...The trail of dead people who knew them is strange enough. Why so many questions aren’t asked of these two is disgusting...

[Phantom Lord]

Shaking my head. I just don’t understand why the Clintons are so sure they can do as they like

Why shouldn't they do as they please? When have they ever been held to account or made to pay in any way for that which they have done?

[Phantom Lord]

So, a top campaign advisor to the Clinton Campaign makes comments about Osama Obama's drug use and the Clinton campaign says with a straight face they had nothing to do with it.

I bet Hillary had no idea about these comments until she read them in the paper too!

[LibFreeOrDie]

"There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome," Shaheen said.

Sure, the Dems dig up all the dirt, then blame the Republicans for "the politics of personal destruction."

I'm rooting for Obama on this one. May he unleash the hounds of hell on the Clintons, and remind everyone of Bubba's own addictions.

[coloradan]

He said the Republicans would work hard to discover new aspects of Obama's admittedly spotty youth.

It's just so typically Clintonian that the campaign staff would say "the Republicans will try to discover this" when the Clinton machine already has and is publicising it.

The Clintons are creepy.

[ridesthemiles]

Between Bill and Hitlery, they are walking pharmaceutical experiments.

I will always believe that they both have used everything wafted anywhere in the same zip code they were in.

This comment from a “presidential “ candidate who “invested” $1000 in “cattle futures” and reaped $100,000 for her efforts in a matter of days? Who does she think she is kidding? She must be on something now to believe that ALL of us cannot remember her behavior in the past.
Wouldn’t surprise me to learn that she could braid her armpit hair when she was attending college.

[Revolting cat!]

Obama and Silky Pony have been playing too nice with the Beast! I don’t get it.

[MHT]

Back in 1992, Clinton got away with drug use by claiming he had not inhaled. Obama must have inhaled. Is inhaling the litmus test of illegal drug use? Leave it to the Clinton’s to spin, spin, spin.

[pandoraou812]

Thats the point..Why are on earth are we letting them do as they please? Two scummers & the rest of us sit & wait ? Makes no sense to me at all. I talk to the ladies at my daughter’s bus stop who are complete sheeple...They don’t care about the drugs, sex, bodies, scandals etc..they just want to see a woman win. Its sickening to say the least. I just can’t stand talking to these woman anymore. I ask them would you have stayed with your husband if he was screwing anyone in sight? They say well she is Hillary after all....ewwww

[Defiant]

I think Obama’s comeback ought to be that he quit using drugs at a younger age than Hillary started using them.

[yorkie]

I bet Hillary had no idea about these comments until she read them in the paper too!

LOL! You forgot the "/s". ;-)

[Marysecretary]

I don’t think it’s the republicans who are bringing this up at this time. The clinton crime family is the pot calling the kettle black. Oh, he IS black... well, since clinton is our first black president, I guess he can talk. the clinton crime family will do anything to win, even forget what crimes they committed against the American people. But WE aren’t forgetting.

[Marysecretary]

they’re evil...

[Caipirabob]

Sheesh, Hillary Clinton has taken every drug there is. Come ON now.

It's not the same for a woman. She didn't actually pay for any of it... ; )

[ryan71]

“There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It’s hard to overcome,” Shaheen said.

These frigging people have no shame. They flatly use a dirty trick then blame it on the Republicans.

As far as dirty tricks go, none of the Republican candidates can even THINK of going toe to toe with Hillary’s bunch.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You're right. Not GOP.
The Clintons are looking for an Obama blue dress...