Race still lingers in Democrats' presidential run

BY MARTIN C. EVANS | martin.evans@newsday.com

10:06 PM EST, January 17, 2008

LAS VEGAS - Three days after agreeing that race has no place in their battle for the Democratic nomination, the subject continued to echo Thursday between the camps of the Democratic presidential front-runners.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign called on Barack Obama to repudiate a surrogate's ad accusing Clinton of disrespecting "our people."

And Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson, a key Clinton supporter, apologized to Obama in a statement for comments he made at a Jan. 13 rally.

The exchanges occurred Thursday as a federal judge, in an apparent boost to Obama's chances in Saturday's Nevada caucuses, rejected a request by Clinton supporters to ban workplace caucus sites.

Those sites had been agreed on by Nevada's Democrats in March, as a way to allow hotel employees who could not get time off from work to participate in the nomination process.

Clinton supporters sought an injunction banning workplace caucusing two days after a union representing hotel employees endorsed Obama.

Meanwhile, in a Spanish-language radio ad airing this week in Nevada by Unite Here, another union with many minority workers, a voice says "Hillary Clinton does not respect our people. ... Hillary Clinton supporters want to prevent people from voting in their workplace on Saturday. This is unforgivable!"

Obama's campaign had denounced third-party attacks during his successful campaign before the Iowa caucuses.

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer accused Obama of looking the other way, saying he "shouldn't be saying one thing about independent groups in Iowa and another in Nevada."

Obama spokesman Jen Psaki accused the Clinton campaign of "chutzpah," saying it has run in misleading ads. She said Obama "discourages" outside groups from mounting attack ads.

Earlier Thursday, Johnson released a statement apologizing to Obama for "the uncalled for comments I made at a recent Clinton event."

"In my zeal to support Senator Clinton I made some very inappropriate remarks for which I am truly sorry," the statement continued. "I hope that you will accept this apology."

At a Jan. 13 rally with Clinton in Columbia, S.C., Johnson likened Obama to the Sidney Portier character in the film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and implied he was doing drugs years ago when the Clintons were involved in civil rights. Obama described his abuse of drugs and alcohol in his 1995 memoir "Dreams of My Father."

In the days that followed, the Clinton and Obama camps accused each other of race-baiting. They repudiated the racial dust-up during Tuesday's debate in Las Vegas.