CNN’s Political Ticker blog has a headline reading, “Clinton official says Obama’s past drug use could hurt him.” That Clinton official would be New Hampshire’s Bill Shaheen, husband of former Governor and current Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen (clearly not a political newbie).

Said Mr. Shaheen:

…he expects Republicans will “jump on” Obama’s remarks should he become the nominee.

“The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight … and one of the things they’re certainly going to jump on is his drug use,” Shaheen said. “It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?’”

(So he needs to do the Republicans’ partisan fighting for them? Bizarre.)

Sen. Obama disclosed that he tried cocaine in a 5th grade term paper his memoir many, many moons ago. That hasn’t stopped the apparently anti-Obama Washington Post from treating the rather old news as a this-just-in front page story nearly a year ago. And now, with Sen. Clinton’s numbers sliding everywhere we look, one of her surrogates is trotting it out yet again in as prime an example of concern trolling as ever there was.

The Obama camp has been straightforward about the incident and is calling the Clintons’ latest move “desperate.” Obama tried drugs, realized it was moronic and has been warning kids to stay away ever since.

Compare that to then-Gov. Bill Clinton saying he put pot in his mouth but didn’t inhale. How could he be in a room full of pot smoke and not inhale? (Isn’t ‘not breathing’ fatal…? Unless he’s some sort of record-breaking breath holder.) Compare also to our current president who has reportedly tried a number of illicit “recreational” drugs, but refuses to even talk about it for fear of somehow promoting drug use among children. (Huh?)

So the question remains, how does talking about his mistakes openly and honestly “hurt” his election chances? He’s not lying (as opposed to, “didn’t inhale”) and he’s frank about it (as opposed to, “no comment”)… Sounds like a breath of fresh air rather than more of the same.

Realizing how stupid the statements sounded, the Clinton camp immediately but only sorta distanced themselves from Mr. Shaheen’s comments with a generic “the comments were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way.” Notice though that they didn’t bother to condemn the use of conserv-o-partisan talking points.

Also notice that in these waning days of the campaign they’re not talking about actual issues that matter like the economy, health care, Iraq, etc.

UPDATE: According to Mark “unnecessarily self-abbreviated” Halperin, Sen. Clinton personally apologized to Sen. Obama for the baloney while the two were waiting together at Reagan National Airport. Someone from Team HRC must’ve also slapped Mr. Shaheen but good: he apologized too.

Leave that sort of malarkey to the partisan opponents, folks.

UPDATE 2: Billy Shaheen has resigned as co-chair of the Clinton campaign in New Hampshire. (h/t RaisingPaine and IcerbergSlim)