By Brigitte L. Nacos
Robert Novak, the conservative Washington Post columnist and
friend of the Bush administration, who published the name of undercover CIA
agent Valerie Plame Wilson to help the White House punish her husband Joe
Wilson for not going along with false evidence concerning Saddam Hussein’s
efforts to acquire nuclear material, is again in the news. The topic is
familiar: dirty tricks. Last week, Novak
“reported” under the headline Hillary vs. Obama the following,
“Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in
Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal
opponent for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has
decided not to use it. The nature of the alleged scandal was not disclosed.”
Note Novak’s choice of words: Clinton has “agents” working in her
campaign--not aides. Of course, “agent” sounds more genuine when you push the notion
of a covert operation against the enemy. But contrary to the Plame case, when
he blew the cover of a CIA agent, this time around Novak did not out Clinton's “agents.” It seems that Novak and/or like-minded people cooked up this convenient "information" designed to
swift-boat the two most viable Democratic candidates into fighting over—well--nothing.
The Obama campaign took Novak’s bait and, as Chris
Cillizza writes, “started the melee with a statement from campaign manager
David Plouffe demanding that Clinton reveal the information they possessed on the Illinois Senator.” How in heaven
could the Obama campaign go for Novak’s ruse clearly designed to pit the two
Democrats against each other? By buying and reacting angrily to Novak’s fishy
story about dirty linen still under lock in Hillary’s campaign chest, the Obama
camp forced Clinton’s
aides to deny the charge and prolong the shelf life of Novak’s dirty trick.
Obama and Clinton and Edwards and one or the other
Democratic candidate should take a time out and think about the likely
consequences of the wounds they inflict on each other. There is a need to
debate their differences and similarities, but there is no need whatsoever to
do it in ways that provide Republicans now and during the general debate with
lethal ammunition. There is little doubt that the same swift boat tactics that
drowned John Kerry during the 2004 campaign will be deployed this time around
as well. No need for Democrats to react to false swift boat allegations by the
Novaks of this world.
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