Endless

So Hillary Clinton's longtime associate, Mark Penn, is forced to step down as Chief Strategist of her campaign, due to his Colombia free trade lobbying, which is at least superficially a black eye, but is he really gone?:

"After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign,'' Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

Penn will continue as a pollster and adviser for Clinton, Williams said. Campaign communications head Howard Wolfson and Geoff Garin will take over coordinating Clinton's "strategic message team'' she said.

It's getting so that cataloging the Hillary Clinton campaign's prevarications is all too reminiscent of doing the same for the George Bush administration. I mean, if this is her daily damage control on the trail, what's it going to be like if she manages to steal into the White House?

I mean, now she's even "moving the goalposts" about Obama being waaaaaay ahead of her on criticizing the Iraq War:

Clinton on Saturday told Oregonians, "when Sen. Obama came to the Senate he and I have voted exactly the same except for one vote. And that happens to be the facts. We both voted against early deadlines. I actually starting criticizing the war in Iraq before he did."

It's an odd way to measure opposition to the war -- comparing who gave the first criticism of the war in Iraq starting in January 2005, ignoring Obama's opposition to the war throughout 2003 and 2004. (And Clinton's vote for it.)

Turns out this isn't even close to truth, even within her own mendacious construct:

Scrambling to support their boss's claim, Clinton campaign officials pointed to a paper statement Clinton issued on Jan. 26, 2005, explaining her vote to confirm Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State...

...But Obama offered criticisms of the war in Iraq eight days before that, directly to Rice, in his very first meeting as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 18.

Call her a fighter if you want. That doesn't mean she's a leader.

Once again, way back then, following Obama.