Some Republicans Voting For Clinton in Primaries to Boost McCain's Chances

From The Frontrunner March 17, 2008

The Boston Globe (3/17, Helman, 404K) reports that many "GOP loyalists" in Ohio, Texas, and Mississippi voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in those states' primaries, noting that Sen. John McCain's presumed lock on the Republican nomination frees GOP voters to participate in "Democratic primaries specifically to vote for Clinton, a tactic that some voters and local Republican activists think will help their party in November. With every delegate important in the tight Democratic race, this trend could help shape the outcome if it continues in the remaining Democratic primaries open to all voters. Spurred by conservative talk radio, GOP voters who say they would never back Clinton in a general election are voting for her now for strategic reasons: Some want to prolong her bitter nomination battle with Barack Obama, others believe she would be easier to beat than Obama in the fall, or they simply want to register objections to Obama."

Obama Attacks Clinton For Not Releasing Records
The AP (3/17, Raum) reports, "Strategists for the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton exchanged calculated barbs Sunday over accountability and ethics and who is engaging in personal attacks." Obama communications director Robert Gibbs "called on Clinton to release full post-White House tax returns; disclose all congressional 'earmarks,' or pet projects she had inserted into spending bills; and release all documents on the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Library, including a list of donors." Gibbs asked, "What is lurking in those documents?," while "senior Obama strategist David Axelrod" added, "There are gaps that need to be filled." Meanwhile, "senior Clinton strategist Mark Penn" retorted, "This is a tried and true technique of the Obama campaign that has repeatedly shifted negative when they find the momentum working against them." Penn "suggested the Obama campaign was trying to 'deflect public opinion from their losses in Ohio and Texas' and faced with Clinton strength in Pennsylvania."

The Chicago Tribune (3/17, McCormick, George, 607K) reports that Obama strategist David Axelrod on Sunday "told reporters" that Clinton "is a 'veteran of non-disclosure.' He suggested she is not yet fully vetted, a charged the former first lady often makes about Obama. 'The nominee will come under close scrutiny from the Republican Party,' Axelrod said. 'We need to know them before and not after this nominating fight is over.' The Clinton campaign, meanwhile, suggested that the Illinois Democrat's new, more aggressive strategy amounts to attacking Clinton's character and ethics. 'This is a tried and true technique of the Obama campaign, which has repeatedly shifted negative when they find the momentum working against them,' said Mark Penn, Clinton's top strategist."

The New York Sun (3/17, Berman) reports that Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs said "that Mrs. Clinton's delay in releasing the documents raised even more suspicions. 'What is Senator Clinton hiding and what is lurking in those documents that she does not believe voters have a right to know?' he said. ... While largely deflecting questions about the documents the Obama campaign is demanding," Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson "in turn suggested that Mr. Obama had been less than forthcoming about several issues and called on him to release tax returns and funding requests from earlier in his career. 'This works both ways,' Mr. Wolfson said. 'If we're going to talk about disclosure, let's talk about it.'"

In her Chicago Sun-Times (3/17) column, Lynn Sweet relates that Obama's camp yesterday tabbed Clinton "a 'veteran of non-disclosure' and, opening a new front, challenged her to release information about her income taxes, Bill Clinton's foundation and library donors, earmark requests and first lady records. ... As I wrote in my Sunday column, Obama's team is finally free to launch an ethics offensive against Clinton because after declining for more than a year, he granted extensive interviews with the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune on Friday to discuss his relationship with fund-raiser Tony Rezko, who is on trial in Chicago on federal corruption charges. The Obama team is trying to dilute Clinton's claim that because she and former President Bill Clinton have been investigated through the years -- from Whitewater to impeachment to campaign finance scandals -- she is 'fully vetted.'"

KPRC-TV Houston (3/16, 11:17 p.m.) also reported on this impasse over disclosure.

Candidates Urged To Offer "Flood Of Disclosure" On Earmarks, Other Records.

Roll Call (3/17) editorializes, "We hope that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has started a trend in disclosing all his earmark requests since he began his Senate career. The public deserves a flood of disclosure that, so far, is barely a trickle. And we're not talking just about earmark requests - which" Sen. Hillary Clinton "is not releasing - but tax returns for all three presidential candidates, Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) medical records, the donor list for Bill Clinton's presidential library and archives on Sen. Clinton's activities in the Clinton White House. ... Is all this an invasion of somebody's privacy? Sorry, presidential candidates aren't private citizens. The rule has to be: Get It All Out."