Conservative columnist Robert Novak initiated a scuffle between the Clinton and Obama campaigns over the weekend by reporting that “agents” of Hillary Clinton claimed to possess “scandalous” information about Barack Obama. Obama promptly accused the Clinton campaign of trying to “Swift-boat” him and demanded that the front-runner come clean.

Clinton’s communications director suggested in response that Obama’s inexperience allowed him to be “distracted” by a Republican trap. Who was actually responsible — and for what — remains a mystery. As in the Valerie Plame outing, only Novak knows the answer, and he isn’t telling us.


Politico:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) took the rare step of issuing a statement in his own name on Saturday to call attention to a report by columnist Robert D. Novak that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign is sitting on “scandalous” information about Obama.

The information was not described and there is no proof it exists.

Obama accused Clinton of “swift boat politics” and vowed he will not be intimidated.

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