Clinton-Obama: The Morning After

newyorktimes
The Clinton-Obama tempest drew a lot of media coverage in the last 24 hours, whipping around the Internet and on television like a brushfire. And Howard Wolfson, a top adviser to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, continued to fan it with his “we’re-not-gonna-take-it” strategy against criticism of the Clintons, insisting again that Senator Barack Obama should denounce David Geffen’s remarks.

On MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Chris Matthews asked whether any shot against former President Bill Clinton — “the fact that he was impeached, his personal behavior” — would be met with a Clinton campaign charge of “dirty campaigning?” Yes, Mr. Wolfson replied, “bringing up personal behavior — I think that’s below the belt.”

Personal attacks, Mr. Wolfson said, are “unacceptable political discourse.”

Mr. Wolfson even suggested that the Obama campaign might have put Mr. Geffen up to making those remarks in an interview with The Times’s Maureen Dowd, another charge that Mr. Obama denied last night in Iowa. He said Mr. Geffen was entitled to his own opinions and wasn’t speaking for the Illinois Democrat’s campaign.

Pressed by Mr. Matthews as to why the Clinton campaign kept referring to Mr. Geffen as an Obama “finance chair” — which he is not — Mr. Wolfson basically shrugged and said you decide what to call someone who is the host of a million-dollar fund-raising event.

Every campaign has nicknames for their top donors; think of the Bush Rangers and Pioneers. But the Clintons, through two presidential races, two Senate races and now another presidential primary cycle, usually don’t refer to their big fundraisers and bundlers as official campaign finance chairs.

And the campaign seems to be taking on an added risk: Drawing repeated attention to Mr. Geffen’s comments gives Mrs. Clinton’s adversaries more opportunities to revisit the Lincoln bedroom stays by her husband’s top donors.

As for strategy, if this early tempest was a test-the-muscles of the Obama camp, we’re not going to call a winner on this round, (it’s not our place) even if the Clinton campaign is busily touting a Slate piece declaring Mrs. Clinton to have trumped Mr. Obama. And if this flap served to distract from the forum in Carson City, Nev., where Mrs. Clinton’s Iraq vote was questioned again, several of the other Democratic hopefuls signaled their intent to keep that issue alive.

“People know that the Clintons know how to fight back,” Mr. Wolfson told Mr. Matthews.

Yep. We’re in for a long campaign season. It’s only February 2007.

Soldier could avoid the death penalty after pleading guilty

wbir.com AP
A second Fort Campbell soldier pleaded guilty to the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager.

Sergeant Paul Cortez told a military judge at the Army post he held down the girl and acted as lookout while three other soldiers attacked her.

In the plea agreement, Cortez said he conspired with Private First Class Jesse Spielman, Specialist James Barker and Steven Green, who has since been discharged, to rape of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi.

Colonel Stephen Henley will decide whether to accept the agreement.

Barker pleaded guilty in November and was sentenced to 90 years in prison.

Spielman and Bryan Howard await court-martial. Green is charged in federal court in Kentucky because he was discharged before the Army became aware of his suspected involvement.

All of the defendants are or were members of the 101st Airborne Division, which is based at Fort Campbell on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line near Clarksville.

IAEA: Iran Failed to Suspend Sensitive Nuclear Work by UN Deadline

voanews
The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency says Iran failed to suspend uranium enrichment as demanded by the U.N. Security Council.

The International Atomic Energy Agency issued the finding in a report to the Security Council Thursday, clearing the way for the council to possibly impose further sanctions on Iran.

On December 23, the council set a 60-day deadline for Iran to end the enrichment work, and banned Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear and missile technology.

Top Iranian officials say Tehran is ready to negotiate to resolve the nuclear standoff, but will not give up its right to pursue nuclear technology.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says world powers have a common goal of getting Iran to resume talks about its controversial nuclear program and to halt its enrichment activity.

Speaking after talks with her European and Russian counterparts in Berlin, Rice said all parties are determined to use "available channels and the U.N. Security Council to try to achieve that goal."

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday the country's atomic program is important for Iran's "development and honor."

The United States and other major powers suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for nuclear power, or, at more highly enriched levels, to build nuclear weapons.