Clinton Aide Sees Problem for ObamaA top adviser to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that Senator Barack Obama’s
admission of illegal drug use as a young man could threaten his
electability and be seized on by Republicans if he won the Democratic
presidential nomination. A co-chairman of Mrs. Clinton’s national and New Hampshire
campaigns, William Shaheen, raised the question in an interview with
The Washington Post. He said voters should study Mr. Obama’s background
as they chose a candidate, warning that Republicans would scour for new
details about a period of Mr. Obama’s life more than 20 years ago when
he admitted using marijuana and cocaine. According to The Post’s
Web site, Mr. Shaheen said, “It’ll be: ‘When was the last time? Did you
ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?’ There are so
many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It’s hard to overcome.”The
remarks represented the most direct criticism by a top official in the
Clinton
campaign. A Clinton spokesman, Phil Singer, said, “These
comments were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way.”Mr. Singer would not say whether the campaign distanced itself from the remarks or if Mr. Shaheen would be reprimanded.
In a statement later, Mr. Shaheen said, “I deeply regret the comments I
made today, and they were not authorized by the campaign in any way.” He and his wife, Jeanne Shaheen, a former New Hampshire governor who is running for the Senate, are close friends with Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton.
Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, called Mr. Shaheen’s
comment a “desperate effort to slow her slide in the polls.” He said,
“Senator Clinton’s campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has
been candid about in a book he wrote years ago.”