Clinton's African-American Hired Gun Attacks Obama

Bill Shaheen was Clinton's New Hamphire campaign co-chair. A few weeks before the primary he told the Washington Post that Republicans would have a field day with Barack Obama over his admitted drug use 20 years ago if he were to become the Democratic nominee. Of course it started an uproar that led to Shaheen being fired:

"That was totally a surprise," Clinton said about Shaheen's remarks. "It was not authorized. I certainly don't condone it. We asked him to step down. He's not part of our campaign."

Today Bob Johnson, Hillary's Hired African-American hitman went after Senator Obama with the same argument:

Bob Johnson on Obama's past

The BET founder appears to push the line:

As an African-American, I'm frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Bill and Hillary Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing, [but] he said it in his book.

Then reels it back in, or at least tries, in a statement from the Clinton campaign:

My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect.

And Obama campaign pushes the grievance theme, with a press release (after the jump) that begins:

Former State Representative “I.S.” Leevy Johnson of Columbia, one of the first three African-Americans elected to the South Carolina General Assembly after Reconstruction, today said it was “offensive” for Senator Clinton to stand silently while one of her surrogates launched a divisive and personal attack against Senator Obama.

SC Leader Calls Clinton’s Failure to Condemn Her Supporter’s Personal Attack “Offensive”

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former State Representative “I.S.” Leevy Johnson of Columbia, one of the first three African-Americans elected to the South Carolina General Assembly after Reconstruction, today said it was “offensive” for Senator Clinton to stand silently while one of her surrogates launched a divisive and personal attack against Senator Obama:

“It’s offensive that Senator Clinton literally stood by and said nothing as another one of her campaign’s top supporters launched a personal, divisive attack on Barack Obama,” said Johnson. “For someone who decries the politics of personal destruction, she should’ve immediately denounced these attacks on the spot.”

As he was introducing Senator Clinton at a town hall meeting at Columbia College this afternoon, BET founder Bob Johnson said: “As an African-American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won’t say what he was doing that he said it in his book,” he said.

Last month, Billy Shaheen, the co-chair of Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign, was asked to step down from the campaign for suggesting that Senator Obama’s drug use as a teenager would be used against him in the campaign.