MSNBC has suspended Schuster. Frankly, I've been hoping they'd dump him from his appearances on Olbermann and Morning Joe, but it could be that all the uproar is being raised to hide the fact that he hit a nerve-- that Hillary's campaign has been every bit as sleazy as the remark he made.
It's totally legitimate for Hillary to recruit her daughter to help her in her pursuit of the brass ring. Hillary's not pimping Chelsea. But Hillary, through her surrogates, including Bill, has been using strategies against Obama that are every bit as unpleasant and unbecoming a person of integrity as the accusation Schuster made.
It's not too late for Hillary to cure this. She must publicly decry what has already been done on her behalf and promise to stop any further incidents from happening.
One could argue that she needs to show that she can use these dirty tactics, because her opponents will use them. But I reject that idea. The American people are disgusted with that kind of politics. We can be sure that we will see this kind of nastiness, but we'll see it coming from third party swiftboat organizations, not the actual campaigns. The Clinton camp appears to be failing to play the ugly part of the game intelligently. They're failing to keep the nasty, swiftboater type stuff at arms' length. That's both sloppy and stupid-- a sign that could indicate bad judgment on Hillary's part, but more likely, it means that Hillary has not been able to control her handlers and surrogates.
It's become clear that Hillary has a real challenge, proving that she can keep Bill under wraps, under control. And her recent glaring offenses, as cited by Rich, suggest that she has a problem with more than Bill. There, are, after all, some heavy ego heavy hitters who inhaled the scent of power, and they may just be unwilling to stay under Hillary's control. If what we're seeing already is a sample of her failure to control loose canons, Hillary's promise as a leader-- something she's never done before, could be severely impaired.
Frank Rich commented on the potential battle for the Michigan and Florida delegates;
Last month, two eminent African-American historians who have served in government, Mary Frances Berry (in the Carter and Clinton years) and Roger Wilkins (in the Johnson administration), wrote Howard Dean, the Democrats' chairman, to warn him of the perils of that credentials fight. Last week, Mr. Dean became sufficiently alarmed to propose brokering an "arrangement" if a clear-cut victory by one candidate hasn't rendered the issue moot by the spring. But does anyone seriously believe that Howard Dean can deter a Clinton combine so ruthless that it risked shredding three decades of mutual affection with black America to win a primary?
A race-tinged brawl at the convention, some nine weeks before Election Day, will not be a Hallmark moment. As Mr. Wilkins reiterated to me last week, it will be a flashback to the Democratic civil war of 1968, a suicide for the party no matter which victor ends up holding the rancid spoils.
Frank Rich puts the Clinton sleaze factor into a bigger picture. Perhaps, for this election, or at least, for this primary, it will not be the economy, it will be the Integrity, Stupid.
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