Inside Politics

Angry words

“Gordon Fischer, the former director of the Iowa Democratic Party and a senior adviser for Sen. Barack Obama’s efforts in the Hawkeye State, is still very much involved in making sure Obama gets delegates as the caucus process continues,” ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper writes at http://blogs.abcnews .com.

“He’s also quite fired up about former President Bill Clinton’s comments in front of a North Carolina VFW Hall, which the Obama campaign took to be an impugning of Obama’s patriotism,” Mr. Tapper said.

“In his blog, Fischer writes: ‘B. Clinton questions Obama’s patriotism. In response (sic), an Obama aide compared B. Clinton to Joe McCarthy. This is patently unfair. To McCarthy.”

“ ’Bill Clinton cannot possibly seriously believe Obama is not a patriot, and cannot possibly be said to be helping — instead he is hurting — his own party. B. Clinton should never be forgiven. Period. This is a stain on his legacy, much worse, much deeper, than the one on Monica’s blue dress.’ ”

The Obama campaign rejected Mr. Fischer’s remarks. He later apologized “for a tasteless and gratuitous comment I made here about President Clinton.”

Myth dispelled

“Five years on, few Iraq myths are as persistent as the notion that the Bush administration invented a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Yet a new Pentagon report suggests that Iraq’s links to worldwide terror networks, including al Qaeda, were far more extensive than previously understood,” the Wall Street Journal says in an editorial.

“Naturally, it’s getting little or no attention. Press accounts have been misleading or outright distortions, while the Bush administration seems indifferent. Even John McCain has let the study’s revelations float by. But that doesn’t make the facts any less notable or true,” the newspaper said.

“The redacted version of ‘Saddam and Terrorism’ is the most definitive public assessment to date from the Harmony program, the trove of ‘exploitable’ documents, audio and video records and computer files captured in Iraq. On the basis of about 600,000 items, the report lays out Saddam’s willingness to use terrorism against American and other international targets, as well as his larger state sponsorship of terror, which included harboring, training and equipping jihadis throughout the Middle East.”

Passport probe

President Bush believes the unauthorized snooping into the passport files of presidential candidates should be fully investigated, reports Jon Ward of The Washington Times.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice briefed Mr. Bush on the issue over the holiday weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat, said White House press secretary Dana Perino.

The Washington Times first reported Thursday on security breaches involving the passport records of Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat. The furor expanded Friday to incidents involving the passport records of Sens. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat.

“Obviously, this is an important [issue], and there is an investigation under way,” Mrs. Perino said. “The president agrees that it needs to be investigated.”

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