Wash Post bombshell: Hillary campaign meltdown

Two days after her victory on Tuesday, this will likely be all the news on Thursday. It's not the kind of thing she'll want to be talking about, how all her top staffers hate each other.

For the bruised and bitter staff around Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tuesday's death-defying victories in the Democratic presidential primaries in Ohio and Texas proved sweet indeed. They savored their wins yesterday, plotted their next steps and indulged in a moment of optimism. "She won't be stopped," one aide crowed.

And then Clinton's advisers turned to their other goal: denying Mark Penn credit.

With a flurry of phone calls and e-mail messages that began before polls closed, campaign officials made clear to friends, colleagues and reporters that they did not view the wins as validation for the candidate's chief strategist. "A lot of people would still like to see him go," a senior adviser said.

An interesting find buried in the article: It was Penn who gave Bill Clinton the "Jesse Jackson" line that started the never-ending string of racially-tinged bimbo eruptions from the campaign:

At 8:53 p.m. on Jan. 26, the day of the election, Penn sent an e-mail to the senior campaign staff comparing Obama's victory there to Jesse L. Jackson's two wins in the 1980s. Bill Clinton repeated that comparison to reporters shortly afterward, generating even more anger among African Americans who perceived it as a way of marginalizing Obama by portraying him as a black candidate who appeals only to black voters.

Another fascinating tidbit: DLC head Bruce Reed gave Hillary her "change your can Xerox" line.

In Austin on Feb. 21, Clinton had a solid debate performance, although her aides groaned as she accused Obama of offering "change you can Xerox." The line, advisers said, was offered during debate preparation by Bruce Reed, a Clinton White House official, but onstage it came across as forced and drew boos.

Nice to know that the Joe Lieberman wing of the Democratic party has the inside track on Hillary's talking points. No wonder it's sounding increasingly like Karl Rove is writing her anti-Obama talking points.