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Clinton Aide Rips Obama On Drugs

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By JEFF ZELENY, The New York Times

Published: December 13, 2007

DES MOINES, Iowa - A top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said Wednesday that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's admission of illegal drug use as a young man could threaten his electability and be seized on by Republicans if he won the Democratic presidential nomination.

A co-chairman of Clinton's national and New Hampshire campaigns, William Shaheen, raised the question in an interview with The Washington Post.

He said voters should study Obama's background as they choose a candidate, warning that Republicans would scour for new details about a period of Obama's life more than 20 years ago when he admitted using marijuana and cocaine.

According to The Post's Web site, Shaheen said, "It'll be: 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?' There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome."

The remarks represented the most direct criticism by a top official in the Clinton campaign, which is struggling in Iowa and New Hampshire against Obama.

A Clinton spokeswoman, Phil Singer, said, "These comments were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way."

Singer would not say whether the campaign distanced itself from the remarks or if Shaheen would be reprimanded.

Shaheen did not return calls. He and his wife, Jeanne Shaheen, a former New Hampshire governor who is running for the Senate, are close friends with Sen. Clinton and former President Clinton.

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, said Shaheen's comment was a "desperate effort to slow her slide in the polls." In a statement, he said, "Sen. Clinton's campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago."

New polling shows Clinton and Obama basically tied in New Hampshire. A CNN-WMUR-TV poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire shows Clinton at 31 percent support, Obama at 30. The same poll had Obama trailing by 20 points in September.

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