Thursday

The Clinton campaign continues to lash out at Obama and the news media

The Clinton campaign continues to lash out at Sen. Barack Obama and the news media.

A bitter fight between the two Democratic front-runners has taken on a new dimension because of the involvement of Bill Clinton. While his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, campaigns elsewhere, the former president has been making daily appearances in South Carolina.

Questions about the candidates' honesty and consistency have been paramount since Monday's testy presidential debate. Now the Democratic Party is fearing a backlashes from its members and voter.

Dick Harpootlian, a former chairman of the Democratic Party in South Carolina, accused the Clintons of using the "politics of deception," and he compared the former president to the late Lee Atwater, a Republican operative from South Carolina who was known for his tough tactics.

In Washington, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who endorsed Sen. Barack Obama last week, castigated the former president Bill Clinton for what he called his "glib cheap shots" at Obama. He thought both sides should settle down but placing the blame mainly on Clinton.

A few prominent Democrats, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), have spoken to the former president about the force of his Obama critiques. They also voiced their concern that a Clinton victory could come at a cost -- particularly a loss of black voters.

Sen. Barack Obama had begun his campaign free of any racial undertone but as Former Gov. Jim Hodges said Clinton's campaign seemed determined to win "at all costs." Obama responded with his own radio spot with, "Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected."

(quotations from the Washington Post and the Time)

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