Ad-Hoc Liberal Dem Group Plans to Mobilize Against Hillary

    The Politico's Ben Smith is reporting that an ad-hoc liberal group plans to run a campaign against Hillary Clinton in the early states by running at her from the left.
    One has to wonder what's behind it -- particularly financially. But if it's kosher -- and the group ends up garnering significant funds -- it could obviously help Obama and Edwards. The key here is that a 3rd force can freely run negative ads that a contender can't -- chiefly because a contender will always be afraid of looking too divisive and because in a multi-candidate field, negative ads usually end up hurting both the sponsor of the ad and the target, benefiting a third candidate.
    The bottom line is that the Democratic race may begin to get a less civilized in the days ahead.