"Clinton Campaign Volunteer Out Over False Obama Rumors"

The Trail (WaPo's political blog):

Hillary Clinton's campaign asked one of its volunteer county coordinators in Iowa to step down after the person forwarded an e-mail falsely stating that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Obama is a Christian and attends Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, but chain e-mails have been circulating throughout his campaign that falsely describe him as a Muslim.

"There is no place in our campaign or any campaign for this kind of politics," said Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle in a statement that was posted on the liberal blog Daily Kos this morning.

"A volunteer county coordinator made the mistake of forwarding an outrageous and offensive chain e-mail. This was wholly unauthorized and we were totally unaware of it. Let me be clear: No one should be engaging in this. We are asking this volunteer county coordinator to step down and are making it clear to every person involved in our campaign that this will not be tolerated."

The coordinator was not named in Solis Doyle's statement. The Clinton campaign's statement, which noted the claim has been "investigated" was in response to a posting on Daily Kos from a person who identified himself as a Dodd supporter.

"Over the past week or so, I have received two of the most hateful hit pieces on Obama parroting right wing talking points," the person posted on Daily Kos yesterday afternoon.

"One was forwarded to me from a Clinton county chair. The other was from a person who claimed to be a former Obama supporter, but a little work with Google revealed she had been posting pro-Clinton comments for several months on websites covering the campaign. They both repeat the Obama/Osama crap, and the "madrassa" charges. And there is the conclusion that Obama is a mole whose intention is to make a Muslim revolution in the US. I have replied with factual citations and a suggestion that those people are doing their candidate no good by spreading the hate."

A conservative magazine reported earlier this year Obama attended a madrassa, a kind of Islamic school, a charge that was untrue. CNN actually met with officials at the school who said it was not. Obama himself has publicly denouced the false charge that he is a "Muslim plant."

Liberal bloggers have also seized on letter to the editor that appeared Nov. 28 in Oskaloosa Herald, an Iowa paper. It was written by another person who identified herself as a Clinton supporter, although the person doess not appear to have any formal role in the campaign. Tammy Sparks of Oskaloosa quotes direclty from of the e-mails that people are receiving about Obama that are littered with falsehoods alleging that he is Muslim and hiding it. Sparks concludes "even if your thoughts are not on Hillary Clinton to be the next president of the United States, PLEASE don't let your thoughts stop on Barack Obama!"

Barack Obama