In the course of a hotly contested primary season, it's natural for the rhetoric to become increasingly heated and the attacks more direct. And apparently when a campaign is losing ground every day to their opponent, some think that trotting out a Republican line of attack will stop the bleeding. Such was the case earlier today when the co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire said of Barack Obama:

The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight ... and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use," said Shaheen, the husband of former N.H. governor Jeanne Shaheen, who is planning to run for the Senate next year. Billy Shaheen contrasted Obama's openness about his past drug use -- which Obama mentioned again at a recent campaign appearance in New Hampshire -- with the approach taken by George W. Bush in 1999 and 2000, when he ruled out questions about his behavior when he was "young and irresponsible." Shaheen said Obama's candor on the subject would "open the door" to further questions. "It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" Shaheen said. "There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome."



It's hard to say which is the most offensive part about this "concern" from Shaheen. Perhaps that he ignores that it was Obama himself who opened the door when he wrote his autobiography, and that he has used that chapter in his life to convince young people that drugs are a waste of time:

You know, I made some bad decisions.... You know, got into drinking and experimenting with drugs. There was a whole stretch of time where I didn’t apply myself. 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...I realized if I had spent a little more time reading, and studying that I could actually have some influence in the world.

Or perhaps it's that Shaheen talks about Republican dirty tricks as he himself is engaging in them. Or maybe it's the implication that Obama should follow George Bush's lead and be secretive and dishonest. Does a Clinton co-chair really want to stay that course?

The Clinton campaign issued a statement saying:

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.

So, the comments were not authorized or condoned, but then again, they weren't condemned, were they? And will Billy Shaheen, who is no political innocent, pay any price for his comments? Or was this a directed hit from a floundering campaign?