Sep 15, 2007 4:39 pm US/Eastern
Hillary Fires Back At Giuliani Over Attack Ad
Says N.Y. Times Ad Is 'Negative,' Sign Of Desperation
by Andrew Kirtzman
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Ever since Rudy Giuliani aborted his race for Senate against Hillary Clinton in 2000, the political world has been hungering for a re-match between the political titans.
On Friday, with both candidates running for president, we got a taste of what could be.
Suddenly, it's Rudy versus Hillary all over again.
Giuliani plunged head-first into a growing controversy over the activist group Moveon.org, and later released a web commercial demanding Clinton apologize for her comments. It also slams her for "turning her back" on the American troops for political reasons, by showing her 2002 explanation for her vote to authorize military action in Iraq.
"If left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. He has also given aid, comfort and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members. So it is with conviction that I support this resolution as being in the best interests in our nation..." the video shows Sen. Clinton saying in the Senate.
Moveon.org, which sent an e-mail on December 9, 2004 referring to the Democratic Party, stating "Now it's our Party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back," took out a front-page ad in the New York Times accusing General Petraeus of betraying America.
Sen. Clinton did not condemn the group for their ad. "Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of herself for that," Giuliani said.
The ad publicly mocked Gen. David Petraeus this week as "General Betray Us." On Friday, Giuliani tried to link Clinton to that comment by purchasing his own ad in the New York Times.
"These times call for statesmanship, not politicians spewing political venom," it reads.
But Clinton had nothing to do with the Moveon ad. Instead, Giuliani cites her comment this week during Petraeus' testimony. She said, "...this requires the willing suspension of disbelief."
Giuliani then swooped in: "I'm not sure what she was trying to say ... but she was saying that he wasn't telling the truth."
Later Friday, Clinton's campaign shot back, saying:
"It's hardly surprising that Mayor Giuliani is running the first negative ad of the '08 campaign, given his inability to justify his unqualified support for President Bush's failed Iraq strategy."
Giuliani's move comes as Fred Thompson is eroding the ex-mayor's lead in the race. This could be Giuliani's way of seizing the momentum again.
"He'd love nothing more than for her or members of her campaign to respond in an agitated way to what is clearly at best a very dubious linkage between what Moveon does and what Hillary Clinton says," said David Birdsell, professor at Baruch College.
With the war debate intensifying, some anti-war protestors descended upon Clinton's Manhattan office Friday. But fewer than two-dozen protestors showed up.
As the poor turnout over this rally shows, it hasn't been easy to tarnish Clinton over the war issue. But a lot of people are still very eager to try.
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