The rival Democratic presidential campaigns of senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama accused each other of nasty politics on Wednesday over a Hollywood donor who once backed former president Bill Clinton but now supports Obama.
Amid the Democrats' accusations in tit-for-tat news releases, Senator Clinton tried to remain above the fray.
"I'm just going to stay focused on my campaign and I'm going to run a positive campaign about the issues that affect the people in our country," she said in an interview.
Her campaign sent out a testy news release after DreamWorks movie studio founder David Geffen, a fan of Obama, told the New York Times that Senator Clinton was ambitious and polarizing.
"Clinton camp to Obama: Cut ties and return cash after top boosters vicious attacks," read the headline of the news release.
Geffen hosted a US$1.3 million fundraiser for Obama on Tuesday.
The Clinton campaign argued that Obama had pledged to bring a more civil tone to the campaign but that Geffen's words amounted to "slash and burn" politics.
Geffen was once a top donor to Bill Clinton, but he said in the interview that Clinton is "a reckless guy" and he does not think Senator Clinton can bring the US together during a time of war, no matter how smart or ambitious she is.
The senator was asked about Geffen's comments as she appeared in front of a Democratic candidates' forum in Nevada.
"I believe Bill Clinton was a good president and I'm very proud of the record of his two terms," she said to raucous applause from the partisan audience.
Her communications director, Howard Wolfson, said there is no room in the campaign for "personal insults."
"If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money," Wolfson said.
The Obama campaign declined to denounce Geffen or give back any money and issued its own statement in response, criticizing Hillary Clinton.
"We aren't going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters," Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
"It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising them US$18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom" in the White House.
Then Gibbs added another criticism of Hillary Clinton.
"It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina state Senator Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because `he's black,'" Gibbs' statement said.
Ford drew widespread criticism for his comment and later apologized. The Clinton campaign said it disagreed with Ford, but the senator has embraced his support.
Gibbs' statement brought yet another response from the Clinton camp.
"How can Senator Obama denounce the politics of slash and burn yesterday while his own campaign is espousing the politics of trash today?" Wolfson asked in a news release.
Geffen issued a two-sentence statement in which he corrected Wolfson's characterization of him as Obama's finance director. Geffen has no official role with the campaign, other than hosting one of its fundraisers. Geffen added that he was accurately quoted in the Times and said the comments "reflect solely my personal beliefs regarding the Clintons."
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