I'm hoping for a response from the I'm hoping for a response from the Obama campaign as to Clinton's accusations that his Planned Parenthood robocall violates the law. But in the meantime, I want to respond to commenters who criticized me for reporting this as a "he said, she said." As I stated in a December post on the controversy, "I'm inclined to trust Planned Parenthood's recollection of these events. But the Clinton campaign's aggressive focus on the 'present' votes illustrates a growing dynamic in the race ... Clinton is attacking Obama from the left on domestic policy, even as he attacks her from the left on foreign policy." My feeling today: This is an unfortunate tactic from the Clinton folks that creates division on an issue -- reproductive rights -- around which, thankfully, the Democratic front-runners are united. UPDATE: The Clinton campaign said the Obama pro-choice robocall violates the law, first, by calling phone numbers on the Do Not Call list, and second, by waiting 38 seconds to signal the call is funded by the Obama campaign, an announcement that is supposed to take place within the first 30 seconds. But here's a key point in Obama's favor: The federal Do Not Call registry exempts political calls, which are protected under free speech. That's controversial, because some campaign experts believe unwanted calls have an adverse effect on voter participation. See this Campaigns & Elections article for more. The Obama campaign emailed me the following response to the whole episode, from New Hampshire campaign co-chair Ned Helms: "Every hour since Hillary Clinton lost in Iowa, her attacks have become more and more desperate. This call was in direct response to one of many 11th-hour false attacks Clinton has made at the end of the New Hampshire campaign. Our disclaimer absolutely complies with the federal law and our vendor has assured us that he scrubbed the list for people on the Do Not Call registry. However, if this call went to someone who should not have received it, we will make sure the vendor takes every step to make sure this doesn't happen again." UPDATE II: The blog BlueHampshire found that the 30-second idenitification law also does not apply to national primaries. --Dana Goldstein
