Dem Party Race War Heats Up

The insults and accusations are flying between the Clinton and Obama camps and it's getting ugly. Obama is playing the Clinton comments about Martin Luther King Jr. for all it's worth - enough to send Bill Clinton scrambling to grovel at the feet of Al Sharpton. The Clinton people are resorting to snide comments about Obama's past drug use, such as this gem from BET founder Bob Johnson:

(CNN) – BET founder and prominent Hillary Clinton supporter Bob Johnson said Sunday he is 'insulted' with the Obama campaign's latest criticisms of Clinton, and appeared to take aim at the Illinois senator for his admitted drug use as a young man.

"As an African American, I'm frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Bill and Hillary Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing but he said it in his book," Johnson said while campaigning with Clinton in Columbia South Carolina.

In a statement released by Obama's campaign Sunday afternoon, former South Carolina State Rep. "I.S." Leevy Johnson, an Obama supporter, said he was offended Clinton did not condemn Johnson's comments.

“It’s offensive that Senator Clinton literally stood by and said nothing as another one of her campaign’s top supporters launched a personal, divisive attack on Barack Obama,” he said. “For someone who decries the politics of personal destruction, she should’ve immediately denounced these attacks on the spot.”

Clinton's campaign says Johnson was not referring to Obama's past drug use, but rather his career as an organizer and state legislator. Meanwhile, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, another African-American supporter of Clinton, said of the comments, "Sometimes people say things that aren't sanctioned … I can't speak for Bob."

Later Sunday, Johnson maintained the comments were not in reference to Obama's drug use: "My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else," he said in an issued statement. "Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect."

Liar. Of course he was referring to drug use. If he had meant to comment on Obama's community organizing, there wouldn't have been any reason for him to hide his remarks. We all know Clinton was a bad liar, but I didn't know his big supporters are too.

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoying all of this.

UPDATE: John Edwards piles on.

UPDATE 2: There's definitely a racial divide:

RASMUSSEN: Clinton leads Obama among white voters 41% to 27%...

Obama leads Clinton among African-American voters 66% to 16%...

UPDATE 3: Bob Johnson apologizes and admits he was referring to Obama's past drug use.