Hill and Barack: Game On

NY Times poltical blog, The Caucus:

While Hillary Clinton is celebrating her 60th birthday tonight, another milestone is taking place off stage: Her campaign is publicly turning its guns on Barack Obama.

The campaign sent out an e-mail tonight, using some of the strongest language it has used in public against Mr. Obama, who has been raising a ruckus over her vote to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.

“Stagnant in the polls and struggling to revive his once-buoyant campaign, Senator Obama has abandoned the politics of hope and embarked on a journey in search of a campaign issue to use against Senator Clinton,” the e-mail said.

“Nevermind that he made the very argument he is now criticizing back in November 2006,” it adds. “Nevermind that he he co-sponsored a bill designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a global terrorist group back in April.”

The language is more biting than Mrs. Clinton’s description in July of Mr. Obama as “irresponsible and frankly naïve” for saying he would meet with the leaders of rogue nations during his first year in office.

Mrs. Clinton generally refrains from criticizing her opponents and prefers the appearance of staying above the fray. This e-mail came after a statement from the Obama campaign early today, but it suggests that the mounting criticism of her Iran vote has been getting under her skin and that even as she is basking in the glow of her birthday celebration, she will fight back.

The Obama campaign returned fire tonight: “All of the political explanations and contortions in the world aren’t going to change the fact that, once again, Senator Clinton supported giving President Bush both the benefit of the doubt and a blank check on a critical foreign policy issue. Barack Obama just has a fundamentally different view,” said Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama.

Full text, here.