Hillary Clinton and the puzzle of the scurrilous e-mail

Written by: volney simmons on Mar 2, 2008 10:57 PM EST

Several blog posters have commented on Hillary Clinton's vague answers relating to the character-assassination e-mail campaign against Barack Obama as reported tonight on 60 Minutes.

Just to refresh, here's what she said:

"You don't believe that Senator Obama's a Muslim?" Kroft asked Sen. Clinton.

"Of course not. I mean, that, you know, there is no basis for that. I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that," she replied.

"You said you'd take Senator Obama at his word that he's not...a Muslim. You don't believe that he's...," Kroft said.

"No. No, there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know," she said.

"It's just scurrilous...?" Kroft inquired.

"Look, I have been the target of so many ridiculous rumors, that I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets, you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all the time," Clinton said.

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Now, here's what's so odd about this:

Two Clinton campaign workers in Iowa sent the Obama e-mail to friends and were forced to resign. These people did not originate the e-mail, all they did was pass it on to a small number of people in an informal manner and the Iowa campaign asked for, and got, their heads on a plate:

http://tinyurl.com/2uz29a

So it wasn't a matter for equivocation just a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago, the Clinton campaign understood it was beyond the pale to tolerate the spread of the e-mail in question. And yet tonight Hillary said NOTHING along the lines of, "We deplore this e-mail and have terminated campaign workers we found to be passing it on," instead resorting to the vague, "as far as I know" sort of winking and nudging.

This is a strange omission that would have made her look good. One wonders what changed?

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