I'M SICK OF IT, HILLARY

Yet another Clinton surrogate launches a below-the-belt attack on Barack Obama's youthful drug use -- with the clear intent of painting him as a scary hopped-up black male criminal -- and I'm fed up. The Clinton people have been called on this, yet they just won't stop:

Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, who is campaigning today in South Carolina with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, just made a suggestion that raised the specter of Barack Obama's past drug use....

He [said]: "And to me, as an African-American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood --­ and I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in the book –­ when they have been involved." ...

I don't give a damn that the latest surrogate is black -- it's an attempt to get whites to think Obama is dangerous (for doing things a lot us, myself included, have done).

Oh, and the Clintonites have the unmitigated gall to deny what's obvious to anyone who's paying the slightest attention:

When Clinton spokesman Jay Carson was asked about Johnson's comments, he denied they referred to Obama's admitted drug use. "That's not what he was talking about," he said.

Carson speculated that Johnson may have been referring to Obama's time spent as a community organizer.

Which echoes Johnson's own denial:

My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect....

Oh, give me a break.

I hate this. I cannot bear the thought of a White House occupied for the next four years by someone who, on policy, is a Bush clone -- yet my only choices might be just such a person and Hillary Clinton. And right at this moment, that choice makes me want to stay home on Election Day.

In case you've missed a few, dnA has a handy list of the other racist and drug-related swipes at Obama from the Clinton camp in this post. It's pushed me over the edge.

I've spoken up for Hillary Clinton because the modern Republican Party is the biggest menace in our politics, and the GOP's jihad against the Clintons is the core of the character-assassination strategy that's directed at all Democrats and all progressives. And I've been wary of Barack Obama because I've worried that his message of reconciliation might be the wrong approach to dealing with these Republican attack dogs.

But right now I want him to defeat Hillary Clinton decisively. I want there to be consequences for the most racially ugly campaign since Willie Horton and the Jesse Helms "Hands" ad.