Another Clinton surrogate has maligned Senator Barack Obama.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/bet-chief-raps-obama-in-sc/

BET Founder Slams Obama in South Carolina
By Katharine Q. Seelye ; January 13, 2008

Here's an excerpt of that article:

"COLUMBIA, S.C. — 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 also compared Mr. Obama to Sidney Poitier, the black actor, in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."

At a rally here for Mrs. Clinton at Columbia College, Mr. Johnson was defending recent comments that Mrs. Clinton made regarding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She did not mean to take any credit away from him, Mr. Johnson said, when she said that it took President Johnson to sign the civil rights legislation he fought for.
Dr. King had led a "moral crusade," Mr. Johnson said, but such crusades have to be "written into law."

"That is the way the legislative process works in this nation and that takes political leadership," he said. "That's all Hillary was saying."

He then added: "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."
Moments later, he added: "That kind of campaign behavior does not resonate with me, for a guy who says, 'I want to be a reasonable, likable, Sidney Poitier 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.' And I'm thinking, I'm thinking to myself, this ain't a movie, Sidney. This is real life." ...

Update: 5 p.m. Mr. Johnson just released this statement, through the Clinton campaign:

"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.

"When Hillary Clinton was in her twenties she worked to provide protections for abused and battered children and helped ensure that children with disabilities could attend public school.
That results oriented leadership — even as a young person — is the reason I am supporting Hillary Clinton." "

-snip-

Judging from the numerous comments posted by readers of this article, lots of people are beyond angry with Hillary Clinton. She is losing a large number of African Americans votes as well as votes from non-African Americans because of the not at all subtle race baiting tactics used by her campaign.

If Hillary Clinton had known what a low opinion most African Americans have regarding Bob Johnson and BET {Black Entertainment Television}, she may not have never asked him to help her back pedal her now infamous MLK/LBJ comments.

Here's two examples of those comments criticizing Bob Johnson and the Clinton campaign:

"I find Mr. Johnson's comments demeaning and insulting. His barely veiled allusion that Senator Obama was doing something inappropriate (ie drug dealing), rather than the community organizing which Senator Obama did in fact engage in, is the same filthy tactic that has already been used by the Clinton campaign in NH with Mr. Shaheen's comments. Is the Clinton campaign going to "distance itself" from these comments as well? As an African American woman, what really enfuriates me is that this is an African American man denigrating another African American man. Simply disgusting!"
— Posted by Teach53

**

"The founder of the disgrace to Black culture that is BET needs to shut up and fix his channel. He holds no weight. Is this the best that HRC could get? Shame.

And what does Barack's drug use years ago have anything to do with the nonsense that is coming out of the HRC camp?? What about his "kind of campaign behavior"

Wow, his stupidity runs deep. I think he just made things worse…after all, Clyburn came to his own conclusions without the help of the Obama campaign. Is he stupid?

I love how Hillary is singlehandedly dividing the Democratic party (read: the outrage in NH), the Black community, Unions…I mean, the woman is on a roll…Keep doing that you're doing. We'll all be thrown back into the 1990's in no time. "
— Posted by Uzoma

-snip-

Here's an explanation of Uzoma's reference to "Clyborn":

Clyburn keeps heat on Clintons
by Mike Dorning

"In case the presidential candidates didn't get the message from comments published in the New York Times yesterday, Rep. Jim Clyburn, the most powerful African-American in the congressional leadership, issued a written statement underscoring his unhappiness over recent comments from Sen. Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton that appeared to dismiss, respectively, the importance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s contributions to the passage of civil rights legislation and Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy.

Clyburn is a powerful political figure in South Carolina and especially among African-Americans, who make up about half of the electorate in the Democratic primary there"...

http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/01/clyburn.html