Obama and PAC Money

After the Washington Post's John Solomon made some news yesterday about Senator Obama's leadership PAC, and how it has been spreading money around to Democrats in key early primary states, the Clinton campaign suggested Obama has been violating campaign finance laws. This morning, the Los Angeles Times' Andrew Malcolm suggests there is a touch of hypocrisy involved when Obama cites as proof that he is not a status-quo politician that he has refused PAC money for his presidential campaign. Malcolm's post begins, tartly, "Before he ostentatiously stopped taking money from political action committees to run for president, Sen. Barack Obama quietly took money from political action committees."

While it's certainly in the Clinton campaign's interest to tarnish Obama's halo, they're probably not looking for an extended fight over campaign finance practices, since that would inevitably lead to a rehash of the fundraising scandals of the Clinton White House years. Then again, most Democratic primary view the Clinton years very positively. We'll see whether either campaign wants to ratchet up the story.