ANNOUNCEMENT

A joyous day.  I'm happy to announce the winner of our first Scott McClellan award for self-sacrificing patriotism. With pleasure, it goes to...

Rob Andrews.

Who?

All right, let me explain.  Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) just ran for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Frank Lautenberg, and lost.  Now, after the race is over, he informs us that Hillary Clinton, whom he supported, was engaged in nasty racial politics during her campaign:

A Democratic superdelegate from New Jersey said this week he is worried that unifying the party behind Barack Obama may be difficult because the Clinton camp "has engaged in some very divisive tactics and rhetoric it should not have."

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, who supported Hillary Clinton throughout the primary season, disclosed he received a phone call shortly before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary from a top member of Clinton's organization and that the caller explicitly discussed a strategy of winning over Jewish voters by exploiting tensions between Jews and African-Americans.

"There have been signals coming out of the Clinton campaign that have racial overtones that indeed disturb me," Andrews said at his campaign headquarters in Cherry Hill Tuesday night after he lost his bid for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.

"Frankly, I had a private conversation with a high-ranking person in the campaign ... that used a racial line of argument that I found very disconcerting. It was extremely disconcerting given the rank of this person. It was very disturbing."

So, let's see:  He supported Clinton during the primaries, but he heard Clinton staff members engaged in racial politics.  He withheld this information from the public until Clinton lost, and now tells us.  Why did he wait?  He explains:

He said he made his comments only after his primary loss to Sen. Frank Lautenberg because "I didn't want people to think I was trying to win over Obama supporters in the primary."

Wonderfully creative.

For withholding disturbing information about the Clinton campaign, and continuing to support her despite what he knew, and waiting until she lost to butter up Obama, we are pleased to give this first Scott McClellan award to Rob Andrews.  What would America do without him?

June 7, 2008.