Breaking my own plea for unity

By Libby

It would be a lot easier to keep my vow to focus on McCain instead of the Democrats' bickering if the Clinton campaign could please stop doing this sort of thing. Yesterday, nearly everybody was up in arms about Hillary reigniting the Wright controversy just as it was beginning to die. I held back, willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

Neither was I willing to throw myself on the fainting couch just because Hillary spoke with Scaife. I mean it's a odd picture, but it makes sense to talk to a major newspaper in an upcoming primary state of importance. What is she supposed to do, boycott them just because they trashed her for years during Bill's presidency? I was willing to wait and see if it was just an unguarded moment and chalk it up to the fatigue of a prolonged contest.

But this morning, it appears she really is deliberately reigniting the Wright thing, apparently to take the heat off her misstatements on Bosnia. She repeated the remarks at a press conference and then there's this latest rumor. If it's true that "the Clinton campaign is distributing an article in the American Spectator (!) about Obama foreign policy adviser Merrill McPeak" and suggesting that Obama is an anti-Semite then the meeting with Scaife takes on a different color in my mind and it's not rosy.

Interestingly, I just posted yesterday on an endorsement Obama received from Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, who has led the synagogue across the street from Obama's home for 27 years. He knows Obama well and had this to say.

Obama is no anti-Semite. He is not anti-Israel. He is one of our own, the one figure on the political scene who remembers our past, and has a real vision for repairing our present.

I realize that politics can get ugly and candidates will do what ever they deem necessary to win, but again, this is just the nomination and I would think someone with a "lifetime of experience" in the game could come up a strategy that keeps the long range goal in mind. As far as I can see, this sort of politicking helps McCain, not the Democrats and I don't see that McCain is returning the favor. Smelling blood, he has no compunction about exploiting our divisions and jumped on Hillary. I guess he's not that grateful for Hillary's kind remarks about him.

Steve Benen has a good dispassionate summation, so I'll let him speak for me. All I have to add is I'm really tired of dirty politics and I want it to please, please stop.