PSoTD

Stupid, stupid, stupid campaign move.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton last night ripped into 2008 White House contender John Edwards - her first direct assault on any of her potential Democratic presidential rivals.

Clinton's surprising broadside came just hours after Edwards, in Harlem, delivered a sharp condemnation - clearly aimed at Clinton, although he didn't mention her by name - against those who fail to "speak out" against the war in Iraq.

"Silence is betrayal, and I believe it is a betrayal not to speak out against the escalation of the war in Iraq," Edwards told a crowd at Manhattan's Riverside Church, where Martin Luther King had declared his opposition to the Vietnam War.

"If you're in Congress and you know that this war is going in the wrong direction . . . it is no longer OK to study your options and keep your own private counsel," he said.

"Silence is betrayal. Speak out and stop this escalation now."

Edwards' hit on the front-runner for the Democratic nomination was not lost on the Clinton camp, which sees criticism from the Iraq war opponents as one of the major threats to her expected campaign for the presidential nomination.

"In 2004, John Edwards used to constantly brag about running a positive campaign. Today, he has unfortunately chosen to open his campaign with political attacks on Democrats who are fighting the Bush administration's Iraq policy," said Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson.

Edwards gave good advice. Quit keeping your private counsel and oppose the escalation of the war - if that's what you believe. He didn't say Clinton's name. He didn't say Lieberman's name. He basically said it's no value to be quiet. And Hillary takes offense to that - and says that Edwards is attacking Democrats that are fighting the Bush Administration's Iraq policy? Is this panic, already, in her campaign? She's not the issue. Edwards isn't the issue. The Bush policy is the issue.

Wolfson's statement is just so craven. And yet, so feeble and pathetic. It just adds to my doubts about her candidacy.