2008 and Counting: Gen. Clark says Obama started it all

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a 2004 presidential candidate who is now a supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), said Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), is to blame for the recent volley of barbs between the candidates.

“I was at the debate in Philadelphia,” Clark said in a Wednesday conference call with reporters organized by the Clinton campaign. “That’s where it really started, and I think it started with Barack advertising that he was going to go on the offensive and start attacking.”

{mosads}Clark said that October night in Philadelphia was when “the tone of the campaign started to change.”

“I think it is clear who started the attacks and why,” Clark said.

The four-star general was in Iowa campaigning for Clinton as the campaign rolled out a new ad featuring Clark speaking directly to the camera.

In the ad, Clark says: “I see that Hillary’s opponents have started attacking her. That’s politics. What this country needs is leadership.”

“I’ve known Hillary Clinton for 24 years,” Clark says. “I know she has what it takes to end the war in Iraq, avert war with Iran, and restore our country’s standing in the world.”

Clark also said on the phone that it was a mistake for him to not compete in the Iowa caucuses during his bid in 2004. He withdrew from the race in February 2004.

—  Sam Youngman

Nevada unions keeping their powder dry

While several state and national unions have already taken to the snowy grounds and early-state airwaves for their endorsed candidates, at least three local unions in the early-caucus state of Nevada are still waiting to back a candidate.

The most coveted, Nevada’s chapter of the Culinary Workers Union, said Wednesday it is waiting to announce an endorsement in January.

The other two could go at any time, although unions representing Nevada teachers and service employees say they are not sure they will endorse at all.

The Nevada State Education Association’s executive board is scheduled to meet on Dec. 15, but a source there cautioned that the meeting could have little to do with an endorsement that really could be announced at any time, if at all.

Hillary Haycock, a spokeswoman for the Nevada chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said the union has narrowed its options to one of the top three Democratic candidates — Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.).

Haycock wouldn’t speculate on when an endorsement might be announced, but she did say the union hoped to offer one by early December.

One Nevada Democratic strategist said the unions are wise to wait and continue being courted by the campaigns.

“This is the first caucus in the state, and they want to make sure they have an impact in the outcome,” the strategist said.

The strategist went on to say that the 11-day window between the New Hampshire primary and the Nevada caucuses is ample time for unions to get involved and make a real difference.

“I think the people that have waited have won a certain victory because there’s such a long period between New Hampshire and Nevada,” the strategist said.

— Sam Youngman

All aboard Air Carolina

The South Carolina Republican Party is offering reporters who have just finished covering the New Hampshire primary a non-stop flight to Myrtle Beach, S.C., the day after the icy Jan. 8 contest.
Reporters will be charged the cost of the flight, and party officials insist it is not a party fundraiser but instead a way to ensure that the media is able to cover the South Carolina GOP and Fox News Channel debate in Myrtle Beach on Jan. 10.

—  Sam Youngman

Nelson will not appeal decision in case against DNC

After losing a lawsuit filed against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for stripping Florida’s delegates from the national convention, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said Wednesday that he would not pursue further legal action against the DNC.

“I disagree, but the judge’s decision stands,” Nelson said during a conference call with reporters. “I respect the decision. It is time to move on.”

Florida’s Democratic primary is scheduled for Jan. 29, three days after the South Carolina primary, and will still go on as planned, despite no representation at the convention and a pledge from

Democratic candidates not to campaign in the state.

Nelson said he hopes the ban on Florida’s delegates will be lifted. He also said he believes his state will have influence on the presidential nominating contest’s outcome since Florida will still vote one week before Super Tuesday.

Nelson said he thinks contending Democratic candidates will break the pledge not to compete in Florida after the South Carolina primary concludes. He argued the pledges not to campaign in Florida were intended to ensure that candidates remained in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, but said that once those contests are decided, candidates will flood into Florida.

— Andy Barr

Clinton fires coordinator  who spread Obama smear

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign manager on Wednesday announced the firing of a volunteer coordinator who forwarded a chain e-mail linking rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to radical Islam.

The embarrassing development comes soon after Clinton said she would take a more aggressive stance against Obama, who has pulled even with her in Iowa polls.

“A volunteer county coordinator made the mistake of forwarding an outrageous and offensive chain e-mail,” wrote Patti Solis Doyle, the campaign manager, in a statement posted on Daily Kos, a liberal political blog. “This was wholly unauthorized and we were totally unaware of it. Let me be clear: No one should be engaging in this. We are asking this volunteer county coordinator to step down and are making it clear to every person involved in our campaign that this will not be tolerated.”

A self-described Iowa supporter of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) raised the issue on the blog by claiming to have received the e-mail from a Clinton county chairman.

The e-mail rehashed the discredited rumor that Obama attended a radical Islamic school as a boy in Indonesia.

— Alexander Bolton