Clinton campaign staff perpetuating Obama/Muslim rumors?

Well sort of, it seems that the most blatant references to Obama being Muslim are not coming from right-wing outlets but from Hillary Clinton campaign staffers.

Here’s a report from AOL News on the matter:

WASHINGTON (AP) - A volunteer Iowa county coordinator for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign has resigned after forwarding a chain e-mail that suggests Barack Obama is a Muslim who wants to destroy the United States by being elected to its highest office.

Judy Rose, a Clinton coordinator and Democratic Party official in Jones County, Iowa, forwarded it without comment to eight people on Nov. 21. Rose referred requests for comment to one of the recipients, Grace Zimmerman, who serves with her on the Jones County Democratic Central Committee.

Zimmerman said Wednesday that Rose sent it to the members of the committee to “show people how dirty politics is” and did not agree with the content of the e-mail.

However, it ended up on the the Daily Kos which apparently then justified some heads rolling:

Zimmerman said the Clinton campaign never talked to Rose about why she sent it but simply demanded her resignation after another recipient decried the e-mail in a post on the liberal blog Daily Kos.

“There is no place in our campaign, or any campaign, for this kind of politics,” Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle said in a statement Wednesday. “A volunteer county coordinator made the mistake of forwarding an outrageous and offensive chain e-mail. This was wholly unauthorized and we were totally unaware of it.”

If there’s one thing low-level campaign staffers are usually good at, it’s embarrassing the candidate they’re supporting. Who knows if this woman was serious or not in sending on the chain letter but it sure does make for a good news item.