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Mother Jones has a story up detailing the political machinations Democrats in Washington undertook to sabotage the Senate primary campaign of Iraqi veteran Paul Hackett. It's an ugly story.

Most interesting, though, is the role Rep. Henry Waxman and his staff played in the destruction of Hackett: essentially killing off fundraising prospects for Hackett's campaign and touting current Rep. Sherrod Brown's candidacy.

Just as compelling is the role that Sens. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer played. Both heavily recruited Hackett, but then got nervous. It appears what made them sweat was the notion of having a real live Iraq war veteran on the Democrat ballot.

MoJo only hints at what we've reported, which is that Reid and Schumer and their minions inside the Democrat campaign establishment went out of their way to taint Hackett's credentials. They were instrumental in spreading rumors about Hackett's activities, and even after Hackett traveled to Washington and showed Reid photos upon which the rumors were based, Reid and his aides did nothing to tamp down the rumor mill in Ohio.

Hackett's exit was predicated not on bad poll numbers -- depending on who you talk to he was behind, but the numbers were highly volatile -- but a discomfort with having someone cut more from the cloth of Howard Dean than from men like Reid.

Howard Dean, by the way, was once again taken to the woodshed by Reid over the Democrat National Committee chairman's public statements admonishing his fellow party members for abandoning Hackett. Dean took the tonguelashing from Reid. But this is just the beginning of a long, drawn-out war.

topics:
Harry Reid, Iraq