CAUCUS NOTES

Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton attacked each other for attacking each other on Thursday, as the campaign for Saturday's Nevada caucuses came down to the wire.

Clinton is airing a radio ad that points out Obama's ties to the nuclear power industry in claiming she is the candidate most resolved to stop the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Obama supporters held a conference call with reporters Thursday morning to denounce it angrily.

Unite Here, the international parent union of Las Vegas' Culinary that has endorsed Obama, is airing radio ads in Spanish that blast Clinton as "shameless" and say she "does not respect our people." Clinton supporters held a conference call with reporters Thursday afternoon decrying the ad and calling on Obama to denounce it.

Obama's campaign did not create the ads, just as the Clinton campaign did not instigate the lawsuit the ad refers to and, when called on to condemn it, similarly demurred.

Obama's campaign is sending mailers to some voters attacking Clinton's vote to authorize the Iraq war. The campaign said it is drawing factual distinctions, not going negative -- which, of course, is what Clinton's campaign says when accused of going on the attack.

Clinton's radio ad quotes a Review-Journal columnist who described Obama as "hip-deep in financial ties to one of America's biggest Yucca Mountain promoters, nuclear giant Exelon." The ad continues, "So if you want Yucca Mountain shut down for good, there's only one choice."

State Sen. Steven Horsford, an Obama supporter, accused the Clinton campaign of "relying on falsehood to tear people down." Obama is the largest recipient of nuclear-industry donations, especially from Illinois-based Exelon, but has never supported Yucca Mountain and says that proves he doesn't let his donors dictate his principles.

Hilarie Grey, spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign, responded, "When Nevadans go to caucus on Saturday, it is important that they know the candidates' records on the issues that matter most."

The Spanish-language radio ads supporting Obama refer to a lawsuit, rejected by a federal judge Thursday, that sought to eliminate special precincts where Strip workers, who are mostly Culinary union members, are allowed to caucus instead of going to their home precincts.

"Hillary Clinton supporters went to court to prevent working people from voting this Saturday," the ad says. "That is an embarrassment. ... Hillary Clinton should not allow her friends to attack our people's right to vote this Saturday. This is unforgivable. There is no respect."

Clinton supporter Maria Echaveste, former White House deputy chief of staff, said, "Particularly by saying in Spanish that Hillary Clinton does not respect Latinos, it is so far from the truth it just makes my mouth drop. ... It is very sad to have these kinds of personal attacks."

Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor defended the ad as completely factual and denied it was racially divisive. "Our people," he said, referred to working people, not Hispanics. He pointed to former President Clinton's comments in support of the failed lawsuit, saying, "They want to disenfranchise us. That is the ultimate disrespect."

The Obama campaign said it had no knowledge of the ad, which Taylor said was true.

Obama also was criticized by John Edwards for allowing outside interests to campaign for him, when Obama had criticized Edwards in Iowa for the big money independent organizations were spending on Edwards' behalf.

Obama "loudly and repeatedly attacked independent ads by unions in Iowa as the product of special interests," Edwards' deputy campaign manager, Jonathan Prince, said. "But when a different outside group starts running ads on his behalf in Nevada, there's not a peep from him or his campaign."

Obama spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said Obama "discourages supporters from spending outside the campaign." But she said the pro-Edwards Iowa spending was different: "In that case, it was not the independent speech of individual union members, each contributing small amounts to amplify their voices. It was a special project of outside donors ... run by one of Edwards' top political lieutenants."

Obama's anti-Clinton Iraq mailer states, "Barack Obama had the judgment and courage to say NO to the war from the very start. ... Hillary Clinton voted for Bush's war in Iraq, but never bothered to read the intelligence report that cast doubt on whether Iraq had (weapons of mass destruction)."

The flier was not an attack, Gilson said. "There is an inherent difference between drawing contrast based on fact and using misleading rhetoric."

By MOLLY BALL/REVIEW-JOURNAL