Clinton-Obama Spat on Patriotism

The campaigns of the Democratic White House hopefuls braced for fierce confrontation on Sunday, after former president Bill Clinton appeared to question the patriotism of his wife Hillary's rival, Barack Obama.

In the latest sparring match between the increasingly bitter fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, an Obama aide hit back by likening ex-president Clinton to communist-hunting 1950s senator Joseph McCarthy.

Just weeks before a crucial primary clash in the state of Pennsylvania, which will go a long way to deciding who will face off Republican John McCain in the November election, former president Clinton sparked a new row.

"I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country," he told veterans in Charlotte, North Carolina. "And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

Clinton was apparently referring to his wife and McCain, leaving Obama out in the cold.

Obama advisor Merrill McPeak said: "I'm saddened to see a president employ these kind of tactics." "He of all people should know better because he was the target of exactly the same kind of tactic when he first ran 16 years ago," he told supporters in Medford, Oregon, with the senator at his side.

McPeak apparently referred to attacks Bill Clinton sustained in the 1992 campaign from then-president George Bush, who had raised questions about a trip Clinton took to Moscow in 1970 during the Vietnam war. His criticism was even blunter on Friday, when he said Bill's comments "sounds more like Mc-Carthy."

Hillary's campaign denounced his comments as "a pathetic misreading" of the president's remarks. "Comparing Bill Clinton to Joseph McCarthy is an outrage and ought to be retracted," Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said.

Hillary's campaign further railed on the Obama camp for an "unremitting assault on her credibility and character," accusing him of attacking her to detract from incendiary statements made by his pastor.

"They are throwing as many bombs as possible because they are intent on deflecting attention from their political problems" of recent weeks, Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said. An Obama spokesman dismissed the rival accusations as "reiterating tired lines of attack with no basis in reality."

Obama's campaign has regained momentum in recent days, with an endorsement from the country's only Hispanic governor, New Mexico's Bill Richardson.